Wizard Session 307: I’ll Be Back Up On My Feet
Monday, 10/31/11
I did another longeing session with Wizard, this time incorporating a trot pole into the workout. We worked in the indoor arena, and did some spiraling, plus work with side reins. I saw him trip one or two times, and it looks like he grew a lot of toe. I put a call in to the farrier to come out a little early in the shoeing cycle since he grew a lot of toe.
The farrier shod Wizard on Saturday (11/5). Our typical shoeing cycle is 6 weeks, but in the summer I do 5 weeks when it looks like his feet are growing quickly. The farrier did a lot of work on bringing his toes back. There was a really interesting recent discussion about negative palmar angles on COTH, and I’m wondering if working on his toes might help the hind end issues.
This is what caught my attention…
Here are some “diagnoses” that are highly suspect of negative hind palmar angles:
Sore back
Sore stifles
Sore withers
Sore hocksOther signs:
Mild hind lameness defying diagnosis
Stopping at jumps
Missing leads
Cross cantering
Heavy on forehandThese are some areas that can either be caused or exacerbated by negative palmar angles behind.
Even more signs:
“My horse needs regular hock injections”
“My horse gets regular chiropractic/acupuncture/massage therapy”
“My horse needs a saddle fitter”
“My horse needs regular Adequan/Legend/(Other) injections”M.W. Myers, DVM
Wizard also get a set of shoes that are lighter in weight and appeared to be smaller. On Sunday, my friend came out and massaged him. He was REALLY touchy in the beginning, but in more specific places. Last time she worked on him, she said he was basically sore all over. He was really resistant in the beginning on Sunday, but once he got into “massage mode”, he was back to being his usual responsive self. I’m going to do a few more longeing sessions and see how he feels to get back in the saddle.
Rock and Racehorses: The Blog 
Good to know! My new farrier was here 4 weeks ago and said that my old farrier actually caused Molly’s lameness through uneven trimming methods. He pointed out that everyone has a dominant hand, and that farriers who aren’t careful can leave a horse unbalanced with the symptoms you listed simply by using their dominant hand with the rasp on one side and their weaker hand on the other. The difference in pressure used can cause the unbalancing, leading to a shoulder and diagonal hip to be dropped, dragging rear toes, stiffness in the hocks, etc. David (my farrier) said he’ll have Miss Molly Moo fixed up in about 6 months to a year.