Interference of hooves--from a trimmer

Dear Dr. Tom,

I am trimming a 6 year old paint that had horribly run under heels in shoes when I got him 4 months ago.  He has been completely sound through the process and his feet are looking better, but every once in a while he still scrapes his front heel bulb with his back hoof.  I trim every three weeks instead of four because I'm a little timid.  His concavity has gotten much much better and his heels are backing up, but they are very short.  His front angles are up to 50 degrees now and his back are just a couple degrees higher.

This doesn't happen often, but boy does it look like it hurts!  He scrapes the skin off his heel bulb!  Is there something obvious I am missing from my trim?  Do you have any suggestions on how to correct this?

Thank you for your help!

Holly

Holly,

 

My biggest suspicion would be the toes are too long (perhaps on all four feet).  If they're too long up front, sometimes the horse doesn't get the hoof off the ground quick enough to escape injury from behind, and if they're too long behind, they can reach forward and grab the heel of the fore.  Of course being long behind can also delay breakover behind.  There's probably as many interference injuries caused by inadequate body/muscle conditioning as well.  There's some horses with nerve problems that don't control their limbs appropriately, causing themselves injury.

 

Dealing with underrun heels, one of the most successful trimming techniques involves shortening toes (from the front aspect of course).  So perhaps you can deal with both these issues simultaneously?

 

Dr. TT