Balancing and Shoeing Trotting and Pacing Horses

by William J. Moore

There is very little attention paid to the hind feet. They try to get them the same length and angle, but there are very few hind feet properly fixed to control a perfect line of action, to lengthen or shorten the stride, to close or widen the action or to elevate or lower the action. There are very few floormen that can level and balance a hind foot. In preparing it for a shoe to correct faulty action, the majority of them do not know how to hold the leg to look at the bottom of the foot to tell which side is highest. They should keep in mind while fixing the foot, the results they are trying to get; if they do not, they are liable to get the foot too low on one side or the other. A hind foot that is left the highest on the inside is a dangerous weapon to a trotter or pacer; it will cause injury to ankle ligaments and to bones of the foot. In the majority of cases the angle of a hind foot should be several degrees shorter than the angle of the front feet. A hind foot that is left the highest on the inside on a trotter or pacer will have a tendency to close up the line of action of the hind leg and create cross-firing and shin, hock, ankle and pastern hitting. As the coffin or pedal bone of a horse’s foot is symmetrical in shape, it is not proper to have wings of abnormal growth more on one side of the foot than on the other, for this constitutes an unbalanced foot. If it measures more on one side of the foot than on the other, from the center of the frog, make both sides alike, to balance up matters and to conform with the shape of the coffin bone inside; if the toe of one foot is longer than that of the other it creates a longer leverage to leave the ground from, therefore the stride of that leg would naturally be a little longer, everything else being equal. If the heels of one foot are left higher than those of its mate, the stride would be a little shorter and the jar or concussion greater. A good rule in fixing hind feet is, always cut or rasp the inside of foot down first, because you can always get the outside of a hind foot cut down to the level of the inside. A foot should be fixed so that the leg will be kept in the middle of the foot. If the foot has a contracted quarter, one side or the other, you cannot do it until the contracted quarter is expanded, which is easily done (see article on contracted feet). It is difficult to fix feet to suit the leg, and line of action, and also some people’s eye, all at the same time. The frog of the horse’s foot should never be cut, if it is in a healthy state. A diseased frog that has loose fragments hanging to it may be trimmed off so as not to be holding filth. Never cut the heels open with a knife or rasp to make the foot look wider across the heels, a practice that has long existed with some people. It is unnatural, it helps to contract the heels, and shortens the bearing surface from toe to heel. Any one that does this is dangerous. Trimming out the frog, opening the heels with the knife, cutting out the bars, and too much of the sole, will give you a hoofbound and contracted sore-footed horse, it will help to shorten up his gait and sometimes make him rough gaited. Feet of this kind cannot stand the jar or concussion that feet can that have been properly treated.

III. A TROTTER INCLINED TO SINGLEFOOT AND PACE.

The first thing to do is to change the angle of his front feet to a longer one by rasping the quarters and heels down several degrees, do not take anything off the toes. The hind feet should be in length and angle nearly the same as the front feet, perhaps an eighth of an inch shorter at the toe, and within 3 degrees of the same angle. The second thing is to add about 3 or 4 ounces more weight to the front shoes, and a little more if needed, after you have tried the former. If the horse carries a toe weight put it on also. The third thing to do is to put calks on the hind shoes, toe and heel, using as light a shoe as possible. The fourth thing to do is to allow the animal to go as low headed as possible, this is very important. The changes in the footing of different tracks will sometimes cause a horse to become all unbalanced. Slipping is very bad for a horse when at speed; it unbalances the action and creates muscle soreness, and the poor animal is made to suffer torture by some of the drivers or trainers, because the animal does not perform as well on a track that don’t suit the shoeing as he did on a previous occasion that did suit, the same way shod. I must say in reference to trotters that are inclined to singlefoot and pace that in fixing the hind feet I would prefer to get the angle of the hind feet as near to the angle of the front feet as possible, because it helps to confine them to the pure trot. The shorter the toe and angle of the hind feet as compared with the front, the quicker they will go into a singlefoot and pace. The causes of the roughness in the gait of the trotter are that the feet are at too short an angle, not carrying weight enough in front, and checked too high, or slipping too much.

IV. CAUSES FOR BECOMING ROUGH GAITED.

The front feet or the hind feet are not mates, or high heels on one foot and low heels on the opposite; they are cut too low on one side to hang level compared with the opposite side of the same foot, a long toe on one foot and a short toe on the opposite foot; these variations create a different angle, when it should be the same; that is, the front feet should be mates and the hind feet should be mates. Cutting out the frog, bars and sole, and opening the heels with the knife will also lead to a rough gait when the foot is dry and hard, and the horse strikes a hard track at speed. Carrying head too high, too low, or to one side, or pulling on bit too strong will do the same thing.

After fixing the front feet as directed, do not leave the heels on the hind feet high or the toes of the hind feet too short, fix the hind feet by leaving the toes long enough and the heels low enough to create an angle to within a few degrees the same as the front feet. This will prevent breaking over too quick which increases the liability to singlefoot, and fixing hind feet this way lengthens the stride and helps to confine the action to the trot longer and purer.

V. SHIN HITTING OF THE FRONT LEGS.

A foot left too high on the outside from centre of toe back to the outside heel will cause this. Some travel very close and others wing in: this winging in is not always because of an imperfect or unbalanced foot, sometimes it is caused by a deformity of the leg, or a contraction of the muscles or ligaments, sometimes they will be either longer or stronger on one side of the leg than on the other, which has a tendency to control winging or paddling. To fix a foot that is hitting the shins of the front legs, shorten the toe to a natural length foot, while doing this keep lowering the outside of the foot, leaving the inside of the foot quite a bit higher, by actual measurement, in some cases a quarter of an inch higher or longer is not too much. Shoe with a plain shoe or a side weight shoe with the heavy side of shoe on the inside of each foot, the heavy or wider side of the shoe will prevent sinking in the ground, which will help matters. Bevel or hot rasp the inside edge of shoe from the inside toe back to the quarters. Shoe with the weight that the horse goes best with.

VI. HOW TO MAKE A SHOE TO PREVENT WINGING IN.

Make a heavy side weight shoe, the same kind of shoe as for a paddler but the weight or heavy side of shoe will have to be on the inside of the foot. Fix the feet, according to article in this book on winging in, to receive this shoe. Bevel or round off the inside toe back to quarters on this shoe. With the foot properly fixed for this shoe there will be an immediate change. If a toe weight is used keep spur towards inside toe from centre of foot but not far enough to hit knee boot.