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  Discussion on Balancing of feet for pedal osteitis
Author Message
New Member:
Mwpennya

Posted on Monday, Oct 10, 2005 - 8:12 am:

Hi, my six year old warmblood is not moving forward and is very slightly short on the off fore when trotting.He is lame on flexion and nerve blocks established that the problem is in the hoof. He was x-rayed and although he has fairly upright feet already, it was established radiographically that he has fairly small pedal bones relative to his size and relative to the size of his feet and also has a degree of pedal osteitis.The x-rays indicate that he needs to have his toe dumped significantly in order to correctly align his pastern on the pedal bone.My concern is that his feet are already very upright and I wondered if this would affect the rest of his limb negatively eg knees.I also wondered if going barefoot would assist in naturally obtaining the correct balance in his feet? Radiographically he appears to have a long toe but physically he has boxyish feet. He has a history of "being lazy" so I believe this has been a problem for some time although he has competed in 1.10m jumping classes and is graded elementary in dressage . I have owned him for 9 months and he vetted sound when I bought him, although I never x rayed him.He has never felt lame at all.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 11, 2005 - 6:20 am:

Welcome Penny,
If we assume the radiograph has been correctly taken and interpreted then correcting the anterior-posterior imbalance will help the rest of the leg. Going barefoot is not likely to achieve your aims. In most of our man made horse environments, correct trimming is still important to maintaining correct balance with barefoot horses.

I am worried that your visual assessment seems to conflict with the radiographs as you should be able to balance most feet without radiographs. Were the radiographs taken with the horse standing square? Also it is worrisome that pedal osteitis has been diagnosed, as this is a over diagnosed condition in my experience. For more information on these subjects see,
  • Care for Horses » Hoof Care » Trimming and Preparing the Feet for Shoes
  • References » Equine Illustrations » Leg Anatomy and Conformation » Foot and Pastern: proper a-p (anterior to posterior) balance and trimming
  • Equine Diseases » Lameness » Diseases of the Hoof » Pedal Osteitis
If you continue to worry about the difference between your visual assessment and the radiographs I suggest you get a second opinion. If you take some careful pictures of the horse standing square from the side I am sure you will get lots of opinions.
DrO
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