Loading - how shoes affect even good hooves

These photos are interesting because they show Lady - a rehab horse who arrived with some of the nicest hooves I've seen on a lame horse(!)...

Unlike many of the horses who come here, she had healthy frogs and a good digital cushion but despite this, she came with persistent lameness which on MRI was isolated to damage to the deep digital flexor tendon. Her right front was the worse foot, which is unusual, but following nerve-blocks it became apparent that the problem was in fact bilateral.

She has only been here a short time, but the photos are intriguing because they give a clue to why shoes may have been exacerbating, not solving, her problems.

Of course, its hard to take photos which are exactly comparable, and these aren't, but even so the shod foot is longer, and loading further forward, than the same hoof without a shoe.