Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Looking At Turk's Feet

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Paint gelding Turk suffered a massive injury to his right front foot in his youth. His 4 y/o year to be exact. He's 12 this year.

However, as you can see from this picture, the problem these days is not with Turk's previously injured foot, rather his uninjured left front... This is the residual damage from Turk's injury...
It definitely changed the way his foot looks...


But as crazy as that hoof looks, unless it is allowed to get too long and causes the crack in the hoofwall to split up, that is not the hoof that is causing the disjointed gait problem Turk is experiencing.
The uninjured hoof is 'pancaking'...
Having front feet that look like they belong on two different horses is making it difficult for Turk to travel evenly. I was hoping that simply keeping him trimmed up would help bring things back into line, but I almost wonder if he isn't going to need a bit of a wedge pad on this foot to bring the angle more in line with the injured hoof?

To this point, I've done the best I can by keeping him trimmed up and working on getting his angles similar. But, since I would really like to have a horse that travels correctly, so that I can actually see what his potential is...it's time to get a farrier involved.

I think Wade and Mikey need to ease this way and help me out. ;-)

13 comments:

City girl turned Country Girl said...

WOW that is quite the injury he had!! Poor guy, problems with both feet! Can't say I've ever seen anything like that before!

I hope you get him all fixed up soon!

GoLightly said...

Compensatory lameness. Horses are almost as stoic as cats;)

That old injury was pretty devastating.
Good luck with him!

Mrs. Mom said...

Let me get coffee in me and I'll try to focus my eyes--- I see something there but until I wake up some I cant put my finger on what it is.

Anonymous said...

Is his shoulder muscling symmetrical? His haunches? Are his hind hooves a matched pair? He's very interesting, for sure!
~spotz58

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

GL named it on the dot...due to having to shift his weight to the left leg to compensate for his injury, Turk has put a lot of stress on that leg and sort of pushed it out of alignment.

Mrs Mom-I thought you might be able to help. I know it's difficult to see exactly in pictures. I did bring Turk's inside heel on the uninjured foot down a degree or two as my brother recommended doing that to help him to put more pressure on that side. He has been putting a lot of pressure on the outside of the hoof, causing the inside to flare badly.

spotz-His shoulder muscling does appear to be symmetrical, however his stride is affected. Due to the differences in his breakover, he lags in lifting his left front. His hind feet are a matched pair and his haunch muscling is also uniform. But I do believe that there are underlying problems there as well. Turk cannot maintain his left lead in the hind end. He is going to need some chiropractic work. Right now, I am working on his stretches and trying to get him as unilaterally limber as possible.

We have a lot of work ahead of us...months and months, maybe as much as a year to get everything back the way they need to be.

It's a darn shame the horse is a lousy ranch horse, because he is perfectly usuable in that capacity. However, he is AAA+ bred top and bottom and he never did settle into the 'ranch horse' mentality.

Anonymous said...

I would guess his hind lead problem is also due to compensation - he's not comfy on the RF so uses the R lateral pairing to take pressure off the RF. It may just be habit, though, especially as his muscling is okay.

The lateral deviation in the LF is disturbing. Is that a high splint I see or a blip on the pic? I would be shaving the inside heel down too.
~spotz58

Unknown said...

Poor bugger. Compensatory lameness.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

spotz-I do believe that is the beginning of a pressure splint. Right below and inside his knee right? Is that what you are seeing?

I also noticed that he is beginning to get a knot directly on his knee. It is still soft and I actually did notice that his whole knee seems to feel a bit squishy.

We are definitely on the verge of no return. That left leg needs to be brought back into alignment as quickly as possible or poor Turk is going to go from 'a tad off' to full blown and permanently lame.

It's odd how all of the sudden everything started to be so noticeable. I've kept this horse trimmed up the last 3 years and there was not all of 'this' going on. It was only this last winter when I was not around to keep horses trimmed that everything started to go wonky.

I think Mrs Mom has some ideas. Most likely she is going to do an educational post on all of the technical stuff.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's where I was looking. Can't wait for Mrs Mom!
~spotz58

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Looks like that was a hell of a mess when he injured it ! Yup Mrs Mom, Mikey ,Wade or whoever ca help. Wonder if your vet/chiropractor or actupunturist can help as well?

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

fern-I know Turk needs some chiro work, and it just crossed my mind this afternoon...I'm wondering if I should get him worked on before doing anything else to his feet?

By the time it crossed my mind it was too late to call the chiro/vet. But I will definitely do that first thing in the morning and talk with her about it.

Danielle Michelle said...

Yikes! I'm dealing with that with my yearling from his crazy baby legs, legs are looking good (albiet occasionally crooked looking as he keeps growing like a weed) but the hooves have me baffled! He's currently on a 6 week trimming schedule to even them out but me thinks he will be having corrective shoeing for life if I plan on riding him at all if we don't this fixed before he's 2 or 3. You do need to get a good farrier who specializes in that. I think you'll end up with some bad arthritis and joint pain later on if relief doesn't come soon. Best of luck - I love my horses and would do anything for them but it's hard when it gets expensive at times.

You're so proactive though - I know you'll find a solution - keep us posted!

Mrs. Mom said...

OK crew- Turk's post with adjusted photos is up on my blog. Take a peek, and see what y'all think/ have to say!