a. angle b. flare c. injury
The following pics are of a horse that was interfering with it's front feet. The owner originally thought that it was striking the front feet with the rear feet, but questions were asked it was determined that this was not the case, after all. When I first looked at the horse I had the owner to lead the horse toward me to see what the foot fall looked like and sure enough we all saw that the horse was actually the inside of it's fetlocks with the opposite front feet because of the way it is built and the way it was shod. The horse will always require special shoeing due to its confirmation which allows the front feet to interfere. However, special shoeing will allow the horse to travel comfortably and not injure its front legs when moving.
This first pics are of the right front foot. In pic a we see the
angle of the original shoeing before work was begun In pic b we see the
foot itself after the shoe was removed. This pic shows the flare on the
inside of the hoof, which was part of reason the horse interfered. The
removed shoe would not sit level on the picnic table beside where this
demonstration was being done. Those spectators got to observe the way the
horse moved before the process began, see the angle of the shoeing, feel
and look at the shoe once it was removed, and got to learn why this had
not worked for this horse. The last pic (pic c) show the injuries the horse
was receiving on the right leg from this shoeing. The white marks on the
inside fetlock are the scuffs from the horse hitting its front feet together.
a. angle
b. flare
c. injury
d. both feet corrected e. close up of right
f. close up of corrected left foot
hoof corrected.
In pic d we see both front feet. They have now been trimmed and
shod to the proper angle.
In pics e and f we see a close up of both front feet after they were
properly trimmed and shod.
Now for the results!!!
As you can see the horse is no longer striking its front feet together and there is a good clearance in the foot fall pattern.