Hoof balancing - don't try this at home

Some of you may remember a post I did a while back about hoof balance, in response to a comment that "a horse's leg is like a table".

If there is only one thing you should remember about balancing hooves its that your intentions are irrelevant. No-one, whether farrier, trimmer or owner sets out intending to do anything but the best possible job when they trim a horse. Unfortunately good intentions are no way of ensuring a safe, effective trim.

There are lots of factors to take into account when assessing hoof balance - and how hooves look from the top is perhaps one of the least useful. What really should determine whether a hoof is balanced is how it is loading and  - anatomically - whether it can be used in the most biomechanically efficient way.

While we can get a hint at some of the factors in play by watching the horse move, studying how its hooves land and looking at its conformation, that in itself is only superficial.

The only way of guaranteeing that the balance is right is to have detailed knowledge of every injury that the limb - and indeed the rest of the horse - have undergone. To react and allow for every stress and compensation that the limb - and the whole horse - have to make as a result. To allow for micro-trauma to tendons, ligaments and muscles that you can't see and have no way of  monitoring on a regular basis. To factor in a response to the terrain the horse lives and works on and to adjust growth so that is is appropriate for the level of stimulus the horse is getting.

Don't forget that all of these factors will change from day to day, week to week, season to season - and you begin to get an inkling of why balancing hooves is an incredibly complex job.

For example, here is a robot designed to be able to move on different terrain and maintain stability - pretty impressive for a human-engineered design. But imagine how you'd feel if your horse moved like this...

We can do lots of things very well but complex equine biomechanics is definitely best left to the experts - and of course I mean the equine experts, not the so-called human experts - if at all possible - and it will be possible for most barefoot horses in regular work...