Lame Horses Have Different Leg Pressure On Sore Legs

Subtle lamenesses overlooked during routine examinations may be spotted with a new pressure-sensing system being developed at the University of California-Davis. Flexible pressure-sensitive plates measure treadmill pressure patterns when attached to the bottom of each hoof.

A resulting topographical map indicates exactly where the force is applied on the foot, says researcher Carter Judy. During tests with a half-dozen horses, the system never failed to detect the presence of lameness and indicated that lame horses placed less pressure on a sore leg.

Very Few Farriers Never Use Keg Shoes

Only 4 percent of the farriers who filled out an American Farriers Journal survey at last winter’s American Farrier’s Association annual convention in Kansas City, Mo., never use keg shoes. Some 66 percent of surveyed farriers sometimes modify keg shoes, another 26 percent almost always modify keg shoes and 4 percent never modify keg shoes.

Some 69 percent of farriers use handmades on fewer than 10 percent of the horses they shoe. Another 19 percent use handmades on 20 to 30 percent of horses while only 12 percent use handmade shoes on 50 percent or more of their clients’ horses.

Check Out More Than 250 Unique Foot Problems

A new feature on the Web site from Horse Science•Horse Sense is a collection of 250 photos of hoof models and problem feet in 14 categories that you can study or purchase at low cost for use in footcare lectures. For example, Allie Hayes…