07/28/2026
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.
Our attention needs to move away from the 2 dimensional idea of toe length vs heel height and move to the 3 dimensional idea of whole hoof development. The digital cushion is highly regenerative and has the ability to support the entire horse on an elastic cushion instead of relying on the strength of lever and pulley function of the ddft and skeletal attachments. The body is meant to be supported more by the muscles, not by the skeleton. The foundation of this support is the digital cushion. The strength of the digital cushion relies on its depth. Its depth/strength relies on the weight distribution of the horse. The weight distribution of the horse relies on the shape of the frog and heels along with the relationship of the wall to the peripheral edge of the sole. This healthy ( healing ) distribution comes from continually shaping the heels properly to get the horse to lean back comfortably…and keeping the horse leaning back comfortably keeps the heels and frog shaped properly and the weight comes off the toe.
Horses do this for themselves in nature. People come up with all sorts of ways to avoid attempting to simulate nature…because it’s inconvenient. Nature does it daily. How often do you do the work? Some people would rather pursue egoic goals, and take advantage of the horse’s youth, thinking they will avoid the inevitable breakdown of the horse. Or do they know?
The horse will not likely be sustainably functionally sound until it’s structurally sound. In order to be structurally sound the hoof capsule must be fully live. In order for the hoof capsule to be fully live it cannot be deviated from its growth origins ( coriums ) at the coffin bone. This cannot be faked by externally shaping the hoof capsule to balance it around the coffin bone. The regenerative, new, live, undeviated horn has to be grown in while the degenerative old, dead, deviated horn is grown off. The shape of the hoof capsule will eventually match the shape of the coffin bone.
A perfect fit…a perfect foot…
for that horse. This needs to take into account the bone erosion and morphology.
IMO, chronic toe loading is the leading cause of most lameness. Improper and/or infrequent frog and heel trimming is the leading cause of toe loading. When you consistently leave the heels longer than the calloused live sole at the seat of corn
( to gain “ heel height “ ), you put their weight on the toes. Every mm of elevation from the heels 👠 puts a proportionately greater amount of weight on the toe. Think about a 1000 lb horse floating on a 1/2 mm of blood between the bottom of their coffin bone and their sole. How much elevation in the heels would cause a reduction in blood flow under the toes on a 1000 lb horse. Chronic pressure and lack of blood flow causes bone erosion. Sole thickness and coffin bone erosion are usually measured in mms. The bone erodes little by little ( less than a thin sheet of paper at a time ). We don’t recognize it until it’s a mm ( 10 sheets of paper ) in many cases, one mm of vertical bone loss at the tip of the coffin bone = several mm of horizontal bone loss ( from the tip toward the palmar process). This is relative to the weight distribution of the horse. 1 mm of vertical height at the heels = ( approx ) 2 cms of horizontal compensation at the withers on a 15 hh horse. This goes for dorsopalmar balance as well as mediolateral balance.
I recently read a post where someone said the fetlock joint prevents the horse from straining their ddft. I don’t believe this. The fetlock joint shares the strain with the coffin joint. The fetlock just takes the brunt of the strain if you elevate the heels to reduce the ddft strain at the coffin joint…until it can’t anymore. Once the fetlock has too much morphology from strain, the horse has arthritis and the strain returns to the ddft. Eventually the ddft fuses with the lost leg joints and the horse’s lower leg is cast in a conglomerate of bone and tendons with minimal blood flow or ability for flexion.
The elevation has to come from between the bottom of the coffin bone and the frog corium. This is where the digital cushion resides and it has the regenerative ability to gain depth. You can literally pump it up with the horse’s own weight. This relies on proper heel and frog shaping so the horse wants to lean back. When more attention goes to the proper shape of the heels and frog instead of their guesstimated height, the horse will lean back and build digital cushion depth and strength. The more engaged the soft tissue becomes, the deeper and stronger the digital cushion gets and the more the horse can engage their core. True collection comes from engaged ( collected ) feet.
Their feet can build. Let the horse’s weight work as nature intended…for them instead of against them.
