A Discussion on Heel Height
Q: My horse always had high heels and was sound. Now his heels are lower he is sore. Should I let his heels grow tall again?
A: Yes it would be worth trying to let his heels grow out to try and get some relief. You can start by trying Cloud boots and see if he likes the elastic support and heel elevation. In my opinion, the problem is that horses need low heels and a deep digital cushion. They’re born with that but most lose it by the time they reach mature weight because they don’t get enough self wear or frequent proper trimming to make up for it. Once they lose that ratio, the high heel with a shallow digital cushion might be more comfortable than trying to bring the heels back down but it causes internal atrophy and damage. The trick is in gradually lowering the heels as the digital cushion and live sole build depth. There are signs that tell you when the heels are ready for a correction. It’s not a linear approach, like take another mm at every other trim. That’s not how it works. I roll the heels to shape them more properly without lowering them to much in order to get the horse leaning back first then I roll them lower over time as they get used to more caudal weight bearing. The frog/heel/seat of corn shapes and relationship change throughout a rehab so you can’t make the same correction everytime. The shape and relationship of the F/H/SOC also changes over time as the hoof goes through stages of development while building. That’s why trying to establish a comfortable heel height and maintaining it also doesn’t work. Another thing that is important to understand is that you can’t make a heel correction without considering break over correction, because the DDFT and the Extensor tendon don’t work independently of each other. Thats why I float the wear pattern. I’m constantly looking for equilibrium in tension between these two tendons.
The first thing you need to understand is the difference between functional soundness and structural soundness. Just because a horse is more comfortable, doesn’t mean their hooves are correct. They can compensate until there’s a bigger problem to fix. It’s also hard ( but not impossible ) to make progress if you’re keeping the horse sore all the time. In my experience with this particular issue, I try to leave the heels alone until the horse is more comfortable. I’ll still roll the sharp edges but I won’t lower the heel wall. Once the horse reaches a heel height that is more comfortable, I’ll take note of that and try to maintain that for a while, and then slowly start rolling them down again. Only this time I’ll take it a little slower. My goal for every horse is to establish as low a heel as possible and as deep a digital cushion as possible. Some come along pretty good in a trim or two and others take 7 years. It’s listening and learning what each horse needs that becomes more of an art form or atleast an opportunity for personal growth. I have a 28 year old mare that I’ve been trimming for 20 years. She’s always liked the way trim and never said a word about her feet. About a year ago she started holding her left hind up and shaking it a little when I try to pick up her right hind. I know she’s asking me to fix something on that foot but I don’t know what it is. They look like they’ve always looked. I trim her every week or two and I keep looking for whatever it is that I’ve been missing. She’s been very patient with me, but also very persistent in telling me she’s not happy with that foot. I think a vet would just charge me for rads and just say to put shoes and wedges on her, or just say, “ She’s old “. It must be very frustrating for them to rely on us to figure things out.
Q: What about flattening the heels?
A: If a farrier is willing to flatten the entire heels to the widest part of the frog and flatten the entire wall down for more support, I doubt if they know anything about the anatomically correct shape of the heels, let alone the subtlety of the ground contact points. It takes a lot of patience and struggling with self doubt to build hooves, rather than just trim them. I doubt many farriers are comfortable with patience and especially the self doubt part. You have to just keep asking questions and trying things until you land on ones that start making sense and you have to get good at seeing when something isn’t working and get out quick. I think the most over looked tool in anyone’s tool box is that we already know more than we think. We just chicken out too soon.
Q: Should I take more toe to compensate for allowing the heels to be taller?
A: No. I’m always looking for equilibrium in DDFT and ET forces. So I float the wear pattern and get in tune with the horse to figure out where they need the subtle corrections. Before I knew how to do that I just rolled everything as close to the edge of the sole as possible going a little more aggressively at the toe and a little more conservatively around the heels. That’s basically been my approach for 20 years it’s just the last decade I’ve focused more on the feedback from the horse when I’m floating the wear pattern. Now I make little trim decisions based on that.
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Part Two
Again, my goal isn’t to grow heel. It’s to keep the heels low enough to build digital cushion and live sole depth ( at the seat of corn ). Letting the heels grow out on a sore horse in order to get them comfortable again is understandable, but I personally would only do that to get a do over so I could start working on getting their heels lower again. Here’s my personal hard lesson. I’m not saying I’m right or there isn’t another way, I’m just saying I’ve found a spot between a rock and a hard place on some horses like this and it can be really challenging to get them out of it, let alone teach it to someone else that hasn’t been through it yet:
I have one right now that I’m working through. I haven’t documented it because I’m helping another farrier navigate it. They trim as good as I’ve seen. I agree with their trim decisions and I see the progress they’ve been making growing out the hoof distortion and growing in a healthier foot. The horse is more comfortable post trim when I trim him and I’m sure that’s frustrating for the owner, the farrier, and the horse. The horse is actually fine as long as he has food in front of him. He doesn’t seem to care too much if he limps or not. He’s had a LF issue for years. He has high heels and used to have pretty bad rotation so he’s missing some coffin bone at the distal edge of his toe.
Leaving the heels high causes more bone erosion. Keeping the heels low causes pain. The two choices literally teeter on the bridge of the foot where the back of the coffin bone erosion is. Stop and visualize that. This is what I call being stuck on the bridge. Most vets, farriers, trimmer/owners have two choices because they aren’t aware of the actual problem:
1. Keep the heels low and try to keep them sound with boots/shoes and soft footing ( in some cases even using pain meds ).
2. Grow the heels longer to find a comfortable height ( in some cases using wedges, shoes/boots and even pain meds ).
These are the two common management approaches.
A third option that is less used or understood is to trim the dead sole and frog away then pull back the heels from covering the seat of corn and roll the heels from the ends of the collateral grooves to just above the insensitive live sole at the seat of corn. This puts the horse’s weight in the right position over the heels to build live sole and soft tissue. That elevates the coffin bone and repositions the weight bearing behind the bridge and over the digital cushion. That’s the way the horse was designed to carry itself. Learning the details of that is another story.
The more coffin bone loss the considerably more difficult it gets to achieve this.
I get asked how I know when they don’t have enough coffin bone?
I don’t. Every horse is different. Some horses genetically have more digital cushion, thicker soles, deeper coffin bones, better conformation, more stoicism.
I’ve been asked how I decide when to give up?
I don’t. I just keep exhausting the options of building soft tissue and live sole until the owner or the horse tells me they can’t do it anymore.
People talk about tool boxes. Here’s my tool box:
-frequent proper trimming
I’ve saved some horse by trimming them daily for a year until I could gradually get them to a 1 week trim and 2 weeks would a week over due for a trim the rest of their life, in order to keep them going in the right direction.
-boarding on sand. I’ve helped owners bring in sand or even build track systems with sand to keep their horses going in the right direction.
-back to back glue on shoes. I’ve glued shoes on back to back for up to 4.5 years to keep horses going in the right direction.
-Cloud boots. I’ve used weekly and biweekly trims and Cloud boots 24/7 for up to 12 years to keep horses going in the right direction.
In the past I’ve tried casts, steel shoes, wedges, various composite shoes, long trim schedules, and even meds to keep horses comfortable, but that’s all those things ever did was keep them comfortable and that was only until they didn’t. Those options usually only made it even more difficult to achieve sustainable soundness.
I’m not saying that I even did any of it right, but that’s just been my own experience. I can say that I’ve never seen more convincing documentation than I have with the way I do it.
We started this page with high hopes to be able to share these options with others who were struggling to help horses in their care. The other hope that I’ve always had is to be able to learn from all the members lessons and have that come back to help me and the horses in my own care. For that reason, I am in no way telling anybody what to do. I’m just sharing what I’ve done. If anyone wants to try a different route, I’m all ears. I just hope it’s properly documented so I can see the results and decide for myself if I would consider it as well.
TL;DR I don’t focus on the toe length or heel height. I just focus on the peripheral edge of the insensitive live sole and roll everything as close to that as I’m comfortable with.
