Tom, Rick--
We have a 10 yr old TB, never raced. He has a fibrous nonunion of the RF coffin
bone, medial wing; the injury occurred some time (probably several years)
before we purchased him at age 5--the injury was why he never raced. 16.1,
about 1300 lbs., Bold Ruler/Gallantly lines.
He has a history of persistent recurring deep heel bruising (primarily the RF,
but sometimes LF too). He is also king of the long-toe low-heel configuration.
We have, we think, solved his problem, and I would be interested in your
opinions.
What we tried: eggbars, with and without plain and degree pads. Heartbars, to
relieve pressure on heels (took 'em off a week later, they made him sorer).
Open shoes, with degree pads. Straight bar on RF, open on LF, with degree pads
(3 degrees). In all of this, consistently working on shortening the toe and
encouraging heels as best we could.
Our farrier (who, btw, is a CJF and extremely good with the fire) was out of
ideas, and called in a bigger gun (name on request, don't like to seem to be
puffing people here). He recommended continuing with the straight bar on RF,
open on LF, and degree pads-- but trimmed about... 1/8 inch (or less) off the
medial heels, both front feet, and also ground down the pads a touch on those
surfaces.
That was in August. The horse has been sound ever since, is now growing his own
heels and bars for the first time in his life, is down to a 1 degree pad, and
we think will be out of pads come about June. He is jumping and galloping
(eventing type stuff) and working comfortably with a 200 pound man aboard.
Two questions, which we are all sort of eyeing and wondering about. What is the
engineering behind this working? The physics, the stress lines, etc. If it
helps, this horse's front cannons are *very* slightly bowed out. Otherwise,
legs are fine.
Second question: what do you think about dispensing with the bar? We have all
been so fixated on that old break that we assumed it was causing the trouble...
but is it? Was it all minutely incorrect heel balance? Always remembering, that
if we are wrong and it *was* the break, we'll probably be looking at a 3 to 4
month layup while he gets over the bruising.
Opinions invited. Meanwhile, the current trialogue makes me grateful for my CJF
farrier who knows he doesn't know everything....
Pat
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.