This is where you look...

...when you want to assess foot balance...

Don't bother with the front of the foot - at least not first-off. Here is where the action is - here is the place the whole weight of the horse should be landing.  These photos show the same horse one year apart - spot the difference?

You've all seen those action shots of horses landing at a gallop - like this...Its a biomechanical marvel to see the whole weight of a horse land at full stretch on one hoof...

...and (of course) for this to work, the horse (even a shod one, as in this photo!) will be landing on the back of the foot and loading frogs, heels and digital cushion - the shock absorbers of the hoof.

If you look at the 2 top photos the hoof on the left looks much less balanced. The hoof has a reasonably well-developed lateral (RH here) side but a weedy, crushed medial side. 

A year later, in the right hand photo the digital cushion is more evenly developed and hence more evenly loaded; the horse is significantly sounder and is moving better a year on. Not just the foot but the whole limb is more balanced.  

But from the front, this hoof is much trickier to read. In fact it looks like this...

...and featured on the blog a little while ago. Looking only from this angle, many people would want to trim the medial wall and "re-balance" the foot. How wrong that would be - because when you assess it from the "business end" the foot is already balanced (the level hairline is another giveaway, btw).