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Correcting Foals’ Limbs Without Surgery

Ontario farrier finds rapid results in straightening angular limb deformities

 

Several years ago, one of my customers had a mini foal born with a serious angular limb deformity. This experience set me on a course to tap into my engineering background to develop a process for correcting angular limb deformities.

Frank Lupton, a long-time farrier from Oklahoma City, Okla., and champion breeder of mini horses, was the subject of an article that was published in the September/October 2009 issue of American Farriers Journal. That article was the best source of information for what I was doing. I asked Lupton to review, critique and coach me on my work with this mini. He generously agreed to share his time, experience and knowledge with me. From that first experience with the mini foal, I began developing the repeatable process by combining sound engineering principles with sound conformation and farrier principles.

Farrier Takeaways

  • Horse owners have a very short window of time to make critical changes to correct angular limb deformities in foals. Any delays could result in the deformities becoming permanent.
  • Brian Hyodo’s method involves trimming the foot to balance and adjust the conformation, rather than balancing the foot to the conformation.
  • It’s critical that you understand how to apply these changes correctly. A wrong change can be as effective in making the deformity permanent as the correct change is in eliminating the deformity.

The benefits of this process include:

  • Rapid early results straightening the limb.
  • Execution can be accomplished in a normal, non-aseptic environment, such as in a stall with…
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Brian Hyodo

Brian Hyodo was a systems design engineer with IBM before retiring and starting his second career as a farrier in the Toronto, Ontario, area.

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