LF Lameness, Unspecified Origin

The horse is a lovely 3.5 yo Irish Draught Sport Horse.

lfscothp.jpg  lfsolecothmu.jpg  

LF sole views

Bars below midpoint of the frog, to apex of frog, should be smoothed out level with the sole (shown in red). This will remove a source of pain.

The bar’s high point (dark blue) is higher than the heel buttress (green) causing it to be weightbearing.  As the horse places weight on the foot he steps on the highest part, the bar, and this is causing pain. She should be weighting the heel buttress first and the bar should be passive. The bar should be lowered beneath the level of the heel buttress. The heel pain resulting from this distortion is visible in this view of the horse with the LF back and the heel not contacting the ground:

wholehorse.jpg

lflatcothmu.jpg

LF lateral view 

The curved toe bulge appears to be a vestige of a brief period of shoeing and will disappear with rasping and as the wall grows down. The hairline is bulged up because the quarter wall is too long and should be lowered as per the green dotted line. The heel should be lowered as per the red line.

cothmu.jpg

Both Hoof Pastern axes exhibit broken-forward alignments (light blue).  The pasterns should be more upright. The left one appears worse and that is the leg showing the lameness. Lowering heels and smoothing bars, and lowering bar points so that the heel buttress is the weight-bearing point, will improve the HPA as the horse will no longer seek to avoid putting weight in its heels (red lines) .

The flaring and separation should also be addressed.

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