Please remember!

The information presented on this blog represents "learning in progress" on my part, a horse owner, who was not satisfied with professional farriers and took matters in my own hands. As far as I am aware at the time of the post, the information presented is correct, but may change with me understanding more about hooves, in which case I will edit or remove the post. In order to follow my learning and understand everything about Molly's hoof, you need to start reading at the bottom.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

pigeon-toed - base narrow

Molly's front left hoof, as assessed from the plane that bifurcates the horse's knee indicates that she is pigeon-toed. If you believe t or not this only now becomes obvious where I think the feet become more and more balanced. But I am also scared that I may be doing something wrong, and this is why this sort of leg alignment surfaces. Several pieces of evidence suggest that this is her true leg alignement.

1) Molly no longer has a flare in the lateral quarter/toe
2) her whole hoof capsule is smooth, without ridge
3) she lands flat with such an alignment whereas when the lateral side would be higer, she hits her toe prematurely. 




































Actually, base narrow horses are rather common. Gene Ovnicek made a small movie on pigeon-toed (base narrow) horses:




where he points out that most older feral horses he studied in the wild develop pigeon-toed (base narrow) status as they become heavier and need to to support their massive body weight.

I realized that this bison of the Black Hills, South Dakota, roaming freely,  also positions his legs such that he can support his weight best UNDER the body. This suggest to me that base narrow status is rather the norm than the exception for heavy-bodied animals. 






































The problem comes in when people try and straighten those horses out that are base narrow. Or do not know how best to support their base narrow conformation with their hooves, when hooves in domesticated setting do not receive enough wear so that they can themselves conform to the horses conformation.

The thing that is important to realize with base narrow horses is that they tend to slightly overload their lateral sides of their hooves.

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