Posts filed under “Navicular Disease”
An Interview with…Me!
Well, I guess turnabout’s fair play, so when Dr. Bruce Nock said he’d like to turn the tables and interview me, I could hardly refuse! The only thing Bruce has mentioned so far is that he wants to question me about what hooves can reveal about not only the feet themselves, but about the rest […]
The “Correction” Misconception
(Note: This is a much-expanded version of an article originally written for the 2018 edition of the Ohio Equestrian Directory.) When a knowledgeable hoof care provider talks about a horse’s hoof being “in balance,” he or she is referring to a hoof making contact with the ground without rocking or twisting in either the side-to-side […]
Horseshoes: A Means to What End?
Years ago, I was invited to speak at a “natural” horse training and care event put on by a large horse farm. I began my talk to what turned out to be primarily American Saddlebred owners with a phrase I’ve often used as an introduction to what I do: “My overwhelming concern in hoof care […]
An Introduction to Hoof Care
Yes, I’m fully aware that it’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything, and I apologize for it. But life has been, well, crazy these past few months, so I do have something of an excuse for my apparent neglect. But I assure you I have a variety of interesting articles under way, several […]
Navicular Disease – Part 3: Treatment & Prevention
“Once begun this disease process is irrevocable and unremittingly destructive. There is no cure, no return to normal….It is no doubt true that “cures” of navicular disease with any form of treatment reflect an incorrect diagnosis. One does not cure bona fide navicular disease.” – James R. Rooney, DVM Difficult words to hear and accept, […]
Navicular Disease – Part 2: Diagnosis
As established in Navicular Disease – Part 1: Background, navicular disease is damage to tendon, cartilage, and bone at the interface of the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT or DFT) and the navicular bone as the consequence of heat generated from friction. The friction is the product of slow and/or fast vibration from improper (non-zero-coffin-joint-acceleration) […]
Navicular Disease – Part 1: Background
It’s a relatively small bone – about the size of a human thumb in the average horse. It bears no direct weight, doesn’t join any other bones together, and is rarely broken. And yet, it’s the alleged culprit in many, many cases of equine lameness. Without a doubt, no part of the equine hoof is […]
The Hoof Landings Tower of Babel
This isn’t even remotely what I expected to be writing about right now. In authoring my recent series on heel-first landings, I assumed that everyone likely to read them was familiar with the definitions of the various types of landings – probably because what the different landing types are called are, in themselves, accurate descriptions […]
The Myth of the Heel-First Landing – Part 3
Hopefully, Part 1 and Part 2 of this series have laid sufficient groundwork (no pun intended!) for you to now be ready to hear why the feral horse lands flat-footed at the walk. Let’s briefly summarize what we’ve covered so far: As a quadruped, the horse’s anatomy and way of going differs from the bipedal […]
Spring is Here?!
I know just how my horse felt when I took this photo many years ago. Following some surgery, he’d been stuck inside for a couple of weeks, so I carried a camera with me (pre-digital days, I might add!) as I turned him loose again for the first time. He was ecstatic! The weather here […]