Beckie’s Equine Letter
News, Case Studies, Questions & Answers
And a Lesson of the Month in every Issue
June 2005 -- Issue 2
Lesson of the Month
Basic Anatomy of the Foot
This month I’m going to go over the basic functions and structures within the foot, along with a diagram showing the main points. It really is important to know this basic anatomy. For instance if your horse stands on a nail and punctures its sole, you will know what areas could be affected, how serious it could be, and what action to take.
Main Functions
There are 5 main functions of the foot:
Protection --To all the underlying structures.
Support Weight --To support the vast weight of the horse mainly through the wall.
Absorb Concussion --Mainly via the Digital Cushion and the Frog.
Provide Grip --The natural concavity of the hoof and wedge shape of the frog gives grip.
Regulate Circulation --The laminae assist with blood distribution to all parts of the foot. Whilst the frog acts like a pump sending blood back up the leg.
Basic Anatomy
If you have a look at the separate sheet you’ll be able to see the structure of the foot, with the main parts labelled. The functions of these main parts are as follows:
Case Study
Jacqui O’Connell—Tinkerbell
Jacqui bought Tinkerbell, a 5-year old Welsh Section B, in May 2005. Within two weeks of her arriving she got a severe viral infection followed by laminitis. The laminitis was more likely stress induced as she had been in two different yards in short succession prior to her coming to Jacqui’s, and she wasn’t obese.
In any laminitis case it is essential to take x-rays so you know what’s going on inside the foot. Simply looking from the outside will never tell you what stage the laminitis is in, and whether any rotations of the pedal bone have taken place.
After we took the x-rays of Tinkerbell we could see she had minimal amounts of rotation at this stage. The vet wanted me to put on a pair of natural balance shoes along with some pads and hoof packing to add extra cushioning to her frogs. This would encourage the blood supply back to her feet.
As this was probably only her second ever pair of shoes and her feet were now very sore it wasn’t a very enjoyable experience for either of us.
Her feet continued to get worse so the vets wanted her to come into the practice so I could trim her feet with x-rays taken at each stage. The vet then removed some of the wall to relieve the pressure on the laminae. Afterwards Tinkerbell didn’t improve as much as we would have hoped. We tried taking the shoes off and taping soft pads to her feet. As we thought it was stress induced we didn’t want to make it a traumatic experience by using nails.
Jacqui then decided to take her off traditional western medicines, including bute, and completely change the treatment. She put Tinkerbell on specially prescribed traditional Chinese medicine (herbs). Within a few weeks of starting this new treatment, Tinkerbell started to improve. And to our delight a few months later she was very comfortable being ridden, with all the signs of Laminitis growing out of her feet at an unbelievable rate.
Pic-1: September at the vets. You can see where the vet removed some of the front wall.
Pic-2: March, 6-months later. A good little foot!
This just goes to show how important it is to be open minded regarding these alternative treatments. Well done Jacqui!
Feedback
I have two horses one of which is Hilda. She used to drag her back legs really badly, to the extent we had to reinforce her shoes with special weld, to prevent her from wearing right through them. Hilda was very unbalanced and found it difficult to pick her feet up. Beckie suggested I try natural balance shoes and they have been fantastic. Hilda has definitely got a spring in her step now and moves along much more freely. We can also have her shod every 6-weeks now without reinforcing the shoes--they are worn, but not like tin foil on the one side anymore.
My other horse Rosie is a 4-year old Welsh cob. Rosie used to wear her shoes down a lot at the toe so we have now tried Natural balance shoes on her too. As she was trying to bring the breakover back herself by wearing the toe of the shoe it made sense to try something that might suit her better. They seem to be working extremely well for her too. I now have two very happy horses and thoroughly recommend these shoes!”
Sarah Mathews