Talbert Farrier Services

11/25/2024

This post is making the rounds on Facebook. Take it with a grain of salt. Notice the images are of the same foot, but one has been photo shopped. There is no source cited for the claim, and no definition as to what constitutes a "long" toe.

Here are a few thoughts on the SL:
The suspensory ligament confuses most professionals due to it's orientation. Coursing down the back of the leg it is easy to associate it's function with that of the deep flexor tendon or the superficial flexor tendon. The SL is different. The main body of the SL bifurcates then inserting on the proximal sesamoid bones with each branch then coursing distally but forward to the front of the pastern where it merges with the common extensor tendon, creating a hammock or sling that cradles the fetlock in it's descent (thus helping to "suspend" the weight of the horse when the limb is loaded). When we isolate an injured SL via manual flexion of the distal interphalangeal joint (the coffin joint), we can solicit a pain response and this should be a clue that if flexion produces pain, maybe we should not "set" the coffin joint into a flexed position via a wedge when treating SL injuries. The SL endures a greater assumption of force when the deep flexor's suspension force is decreased. Force does not and cannot disappear, it can only be reallocated to other structures. Lessening the static force of the deep flexor (specifically by raising the hoof angle) increases the load on the suspensory ligament (SL). The opposite is also true though, by increasing the force on the deep flexor (by lowering the hoof angle) the force exerted on the SL decreases. This is counterintuitive for most equine professionals and owners alike. The industry is so convinced of what must be true based on the repetitious emphasis placed on breakover and phalangeal alignment, that critical thinking is virtually nonexistent. It may be better for a farrier to not understand these things and then he or she would suffer less in an atmosphere where they are typically expected to do the opposite. With tincture of time, what can heal will heal, confinement, rest, and patience are the crucial components to promote healing. In all honesty, I cannot say any shoeing protocol, or treatment modality expedites this process despite claims made. It just cannot be demonstrated. Every horse presents with different conformation and no two SL injuries are identical to compare. You cannot replicate the exact injury and treat one differently to dare say one preferred treatment outperforms another. We don't know that anything we do genuinely results in a better or faster healing process (at least not to any measurable or appreciable extent). We cannot say that x, y, or z will heal the injury 3% faster, we cannot even say that an SL injury will ever heal to satisfaction. They can be a frustrating and debilitating. I've shod these horses with Denoix style suspensory shoes and I remain unconvinced that it was worth the effort and expense. I've shod them with wedges as well (more times than I can recall), hoping to be wrong. Neither alternative offered much more in my opinion than a gesture for the owner's sake. You see, whatever is on the hoof when elapsed time allows for some degree of healing to occur will often get the credit, but correlation does not infer causation. Healing can occur in spite of us just as it can occur sometimes because of us. The plural of anecdote is not data. SL injuries take a long time to heal and they don't always heal very well.
Farriers can often be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to suspensory ligament problems. We hold the hind hoof in such a position during the shoeing or trimming process that this is essentially an extended flexion test. The farrier can often tell that a suspensory is bothering a horse months to even years before it becomes apparent enough to be diagnosed.

DID YOU KNOW…?

1. Long toes increase the risk of suspensory ligament injury by 3.5 times!🤯
2. Toe grabs increase the risk of suspensory ligament injury by almost 16 times!😳

Talk to us about how to help your horse stay injury free!

08/23/2024

I had to think for a minute how long I've been doing horses for Jack. 18 years. I remember I was at his barn when I returned a call to my wife and found out she was pregnant with my second son who turns 18 tomorrow. Jack managed the care of several horses for Mr Bayer who has also had some health problems recently. With the winds of change shifting, and some uncertainty on the horizon, at our last appointment Jack asked if I wanted to keep doing the horses if someone else took over. I said no sir, I don't want to deal with anyone else, it's been you and me all these years, when you go, I go. Jack was a good friend. RIP

View Jack Edward Smith's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

08/16/2024

I worked 3 polo seasons for Kevin in Point Clear. Some of the best times and some of the wildest times. He was a mentor, a friend, and a big brother during those years. A great horseman. A pivotal figure in my story. We shared some adventures. RIP

Kevin Thomas Fawcett, of Fairhope, Alabama, passed away unexpectedly on Monday, June 24, just weeks shy of his 60th birthday.

07/26/2024

I'm saddened to learn today of the passing of one of the best to ever play the sport. When it comes to horsemanship I hold very few people in such high esteem. He was a dear friend and mentor to my uncle and I'm sure the lineage of much of what I was taught could be traced back to this man. He was always kind to me and he won't soon be forgotten. My condolences to my good friend Mark Gutierrez. Your pops was the man.

07/13/2024

I lost the original photos of this hoof when my old phone shattered, but it had a medial quarter crack that was through the coronet. You'll have to trust me it was ugly. I think it is pretty much resolved now. I worked on this same horse several years ago for the same issue. This is the second time we've found success with it. Maybe this'll be the last time. Hopefully.

04/26/2024

03/27/2024

In response to a brief exchange I saw on another farrier's post, I have an opinion to share that I'm sure some will disagree with. The anticipation that others may have different views doesn't alter the confidence I have in my own. In 27 years of trimming and shoeing horses I have not once encountered a situation in which I believed the previous farrier "caused" a horse to founder as a consequence of how they trimmed or shod a horse. Not one. I have seen laminitis cases that were mismanaged, and those choices have consequences, but I have not seen an example of phalangeal rotation that can be confidently attributed to the farrier's poor shoeing or trimming alone. Is it possible in theory? Many things are possible in theory, but the cascade of events posited to rationalize certain theories are improbable to the point of statistical irrelevance.
While I'm up on this soap box I may as well say one more thing. Your previous farrier did not cause your horse to have low heels. I've encountered this assertion so many times over the years and if this were possible then we would have discovered the curative answer for the club foot. Your previous farrier could patent his technique and retire. The suspension force of the deep digital flexor tendon dictates characteristic growth of the heels. Farriers sometimes employ supportive and mechanical tactics to attempt to address this force when it is excessive or insufficient, but despite our best efforts the biologic recipe of force that is responsible for hoof conformation is something that we have far less influence over than we care to admit. (unless we start making better breeding choices)
Poor farrier work or neglect can certainly have a deleterious impact on hooves, more so when a disparity of force already exists. Healthy hooves are rather resilient. Hooves owing their low heel height to compression suffer greater imbalance when excess growth compounds this force. Realistically we cannot "fix" low heels to any greater degree than we can cause them. We can encourage improved heel structure when we can identify contributing mismanagement but only by the extent to which that mismanagement has amplified the compressive force already present. Often it (mismanagement) is a lesser factor contributing in a minor capacity to the primary cause which is the deep flexor's inability to maintain a positive PA. Until we discover a way to shorten that mechanical linkage, we cannot address the cause.

02/20/2024

To shoe or not to shoe?
For what reasons do we tend to shoe horses? Protection. Traction. Support. Mechanics. These are typical answers. A standard horseshoe is essentially an artificial extension of the hoof wall. It mimics the presence of natural wall growth.
Protection- Hooves need protection when their sole depth is insufficient to cope acceptably with the footing they must traverse.
Traction- Hooves may need added traction when our demands pose a hazard.
Support- Support is an overused and generally misused word in describing the principles of an application, but certainly increasing the load borne by one structure decreases the load previously borne by another proportionally. As for a shoe "supporting" the coffin bone, no.
Mechanics- Some shoes may be used to decrease leverage, when leverage is deemed problematic. Is all leverage bad? Certainly not. Levers allow for efficiency in movement. Excessive leverage is bad, especially when coupled with injured tissue that is opposed to that leverage.
So does your horse "need" shoes? The word "needs" is subjective. In other words, it depends on who you ask, because the definition of the word "needs" seems to be up for interpretation. Some people use the word "needs" freely and others reserve the word to apply strictly to what is known as a certainty.
Who knows? That is actually the question. Who does know? If you answered the farrier, I would be inclined to agree. The reason I say the farrier is because the prospect of shoeing a horse involves an inherent risk to benefit analysis. Every time a nail is driven a risk is taken. Who knows more intimately than the farrier who will drive those nails how significant that unique risk is? What may seem advisable in theory, may not be in practice when considerations are taken into account that are almost always ignored by those not individually responsible for the work.
We want to shoe horses that truly need shoes and limit our exposure to risk otherwise. That means when we hear the word "needs", we should pause and explore the rationale behind it. Did the owner's neighbor make the call that this is what the horse needs? Did the owner just read a magazine article about it? If a vet made the statement to the owner, what was the diagnosis, or the logic behind the statement? Did someone make a blanket assertion without seeing the horse? Sometimes a horse may indeed be better off with shoes but the present condition of the hooves pose a greater risk to their safe application than the minor advantage presumed. Other times the advantage of the application is such that it warrants the statistical risk even with very difficult and fragile hooves.
The capacity to distinguish and differentiate between what is a good idea and what is a poor choice comes from experience earned diligently in the laboratory of oops.
Very often I find that when a person says their horse needs shoes, either the person (more than the horse) needs their horse to have shoes, or the actual need more accurately stated is depth. Given the presence of adequate sole depth most horses do not "need" shoes. Shoes may compensate for the insufficient depth, but depth is what is lacking in the moment justifying the need. Ironically when that natural depth is gained it is then often removed to appease those who then view the hoof as being "too long" in its appearance.
What is "too long" is another debate. In my world though I can say most horses go lame from having too little hoof rather than too much.

01/13/2024

Apparently this page will be soon removed permanently by Facebook, I've been sent a notice that it goes against their community standards. I'll lose dozens if not hundreds of case photos and a decade of posts, musings, thoughts, etc. I was given no example of what they supposedly found wrong and was told this is their final decision. To appeal I have to send them a photo of my drivers license, birth certificate, or passport. If there is anything you're interested in on this page you better save it now.