Odd feet

[Cetan + Molly]

My chiropractor visited this week and said she was really pleased with Cetans progress however she remarked that his front feet are different shapes and that he could need corrective shoeing to rectify the problem. One hoof is more flared then the other.

He's been unshod his whole life and I've only had him trimmed in the year I've owned him. Now that he's been backed and is starting to do more work I need to make a decision on whether to shoe or not.
I was hoping to go barefoot but I'm now wondering whether this problem means he will have to have shoes.
Anyone else have any experience of this? Can the problem be corrected or just managed?

[janetgeorge]

lathspell said:

I was hoping to go barefoot but I'm now wondering whether this problem means he will have to have shoes.
Anyone else have any experience of this? Can the problem be corrected or just managed?

Some horses are born with slightly different shaped feet - although it's usually the result of inexpert trimming (or no trimming!) in their first 6 - 12 months of life.

They don't look TOO bad - although either he's not standing square OR there's a slight deviation in the near fore. I would speak to your farrier about how he's trimming him (in a non-confrontational way - it could be that he's noticed a small problem and has left more foot on one side to help to straighten him up.)

I doubt he needs remedial shoeing - and I can't see any reason why he shouldn't still go barefoot - provided you take the time to condition his feet and that the hoof quality is up to it.

[mags]

Dan has odd feet and is currently going barefoot so no it shouldnt make a difference. Be careful though with any remedial work that is just the feet that are different and not the angles of pastern

[michs]

Hi Cetan,
I think he has nice feet, the difference in colour probably makes them look more different than they really are. I dont think whether you put shoes on or not would make any difference to the shape of them, only a good trim would do that.
Michelle

[gillmcg]

It's a fallacy that the feet 'should be a pair' - horse's are like us, one-sided. That said, they shouldn't be TOO far apart in shape as their function is the same. Have a word with whoever trims your horse about the flare - perhaps they just didn't attack the flare aggressively enough when they trimmed last time? Or it could be that they routinely miss addressing the flare. In my experience, most people who carry on and ride successfully barefoot have a specialist trimmer and have a conditioning programme to work at in between trims. Also, I'd have thought that this would make it more important to get a good trim, keep up an appropriate conditioning programme and keep him without shoes than to put shoes on. Once balanced properly and all the flare removed that can be it will stimulate the foot to grow the hoof it needs to correct itself. How does he feel when ridden?

[anon]

Whoever trims him needs to remove the flare - it's not a "shoes or no shoes" issue, but a trimming issue

[taklishim]

I cannot see the point in shoeing what look like pretty nice feet. The shoes will not correct his problems.
What he needs is trimming to balance the feet and deal with the flare. Once you have got that sorted then I think you will have a nice barefoot horse. All you need to do to start with is take it steady on roads and stoney tracks. Just do a little at a time to condition his feet and he will gradually be able to do more and more.
I thknk these are pretty good feet you could be very proud of with a little adjustment to the trimming.

[june]

Can't see how putting shoes on will help correct foot shape. It's the trim that does that. As soon as you put shoes on you interfere with the function of the foot and remove a lot of the expansion and contraction mechanism that makes for a healthy foot.