Please tell me the basic
angles I should have my farrier stay within on my
horse who is a Quarter X
that I ride huntseat/training level dressage.
I know that everything traditionally
relates to the angles of the shoulder
and pastern. Some
farriers realize this, some don't, some feel it has more
to do with the shape of
the hoof. Could you clarify for me?
Most modern veterinary and farrier texts state
that aligned, normal phalangeal
angulation in light horses is usually 50º
to 60º in fronts and 45º to 55º in hinds.
QH tend to be on the high side of normal.
Assuming angulation somewhere in
the normal range, in terms of efficient movement,
it's important to have the
effective length and angulation of pairs - fronts
or hinds - to be as nearly equal
as possible.
I am moving away from the
town that my current farrier is in and I need a new
farrier. I don't want to
insult anyone's intelligence but I want to be able to say
"his feet need to be somewhere
around [n] degrees for our riding style"
Style has nothing to do with efficiency.
If you nail a horse's foot to the ground in
the name of "style", sooner or later, the horse
pays the piper.
It seems that around here
the majority of farriers in this area insist on cutting all
the heel off and leaving
toes a little too long in my book. Maybe I'm the one who's
the moron but that style
can't be conducive to a healthy foot/leg either?
If efficiency is measured in caloric expenditure
in getting from here to there,
then a long toe and low heel are the antithesis
of efficiency. All else being equal,
efficient movement is the result of short levers
and phalangeal angulation as
upright possible within normal parameters.
