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Wayne_B

Horses getting down on back bumpers

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I noticed a post on the thoroughbred page here from Dee asking about horses getting down on their back bumpers particularly one only

without knowing which one it would most commonly be the off side 

I have a pacer that was having this problem without my knowledge as I had never seen this on previous horses (20 +) 

It is eye opening to google pacer on a treadmill this initially shows their front action but if you watch closely the hind hoof lands in the background and it is amazing to see what happens in slow mo

Once aware of the problem I believed there were 3 options at that time as he was low on the heels 

Most trainers bandage these joints and use either a tennis ball cut in half or a little bra cup style insert beneath the bandage 

This did not work on my horse he got down that hard both inserts came shooting out some 6 metres at high speed and lets face it the problem only occurs once my horse starts breaking 28 secs a quarter 

next I tried double trailers on the back but this did more damage eventually crushing his heels

I then went to the graduated 3deg Aluminium shoes with moderate success 

The best thing for him turned out to be a set of polo pony hind boots by Roma when fitted correctly not as used for polo though

My horse due to a stable injury has been off the racing scene for over 2 years but is now in full work again during those 2 years I have looked after his hooves and can see improvement in him already

Getting back to why the off hind was the worst most farriers are right handed and when they do that particular hoof they tend to pull it to the side to work on it and invariably get a distorted view of the hoof

They nearly always cut this hoof down too much on the outside and this was how my problem started last time

A top farrier would not make a mistake like this but most of them just want to get the shoes on and get paid

I have even had one in the past cut the horse down like this after I told him not to touch this foot as it had taken me 3 months to get it to grow properly

I am glad there are some good videos on YouTube and books around now written by professional farriers and not just blacksmiths that can provide guidance 

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