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Foal Foot Maintenance
The subject came up the other day about foal trim intervals and when
the first trim should take place.
The question was, "Do you think
trimming foals early and regular would stop a lot of the problems that
we see in the feet of horses today?"
After some thought I replied
"Although there are some foals with feet or leg deformities, generally
speaking, most every grown horse has some issue with their feet, and seldom
have I ever seen a foal with a foot problem."
What I had said that
prompted the question was, "If I had a foal on my property, I would trim by
rasping the foals feet once a week for six months, starting in the
first week. After that I would trim the foals feet once every two weeks
till twelve months. And then trim every four weeks, through to
eighteen/twenty-four months".
"That sounds like a ridicules trim schedule. Why so often?"
Although the bones in a horse continue to grow for a few years till it is
full grown, the epiphyseal growth plates in the distal end of each major
bone in the limb of the horse,
stop growth in very definite time intervals. These intervals are 3,6,9,etc.
months. The first being the most distal and the smallest, the Second
Phalange (or P2) stops growth at the epiphyseal growth plate at three
months. The next is the P1 at six months and the Canon Bone at nine
months.
Limb Bones - Closure Times
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Short Pastern Bone (P2) |
3 mo. |
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Long Pastern Bone (P1) |
6 mo. |
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Cannon Bone (M3) |
9 mo. |
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Tibia |
8 mo. |
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Radius |
24 mo. |
The importance of the epiphyseal growth plate is that although
the bone still grows to full size long after, the epiphyseal growth plate
determines the angular placement of the joint. What this means is that if
the foals foot has a medial/lateral (inside/outside) foot imbalance, the
joints are not growing straight, and leg distortion will remain in place
for the rest of the horses life, period. And forever after the
Veterinarian, and the Farrier are left to deal with the deformity,
whether or not it leads to chronic trim/shoeing compensation, or even
ongoing lameness's.
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We need to keep the foals feet level, and trimmed to length through the
entire "Epiphyseal Growth Plate Growth Cycle", to ensure straight limbs.
To just correct the balance every so often will not be sufficient, as the
longer the joints are out of balance, the more out of balance growth
takes place in the bone, and the short periods of balance are not enough to
compensate. |
So if a foals foot is kept in balance with a strict trim schedule, the
result should be that the limbs of the horse should remain straight, and
any other genetic foot problems will then become more manageable.
I would hazard a guess that a person raising a foal, and having a record
of the trim schedule, would be able to demand a higher value at the sale
of that horse, as the horse will have less issues with its feet as it
ages.
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