A recent study found that heel contraction was more common in shod than in barefoot horses, but did not confirm that metal horseshoes were to blame.
Contracted heels have been defined by the
ratio of frog length to frog width. The foot can be described as contracted when
the frog width is less than 2/3rds its length. The affected foot is less able
to absorb concussion and may lead to lameness.
Magdalena Senderska-Płonowska, with colleagues at the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life
Sciences, Wrocław, Poland, assessed the influence of shoeing and other risk factors, such as age, access to paddock, and breed, on heel contraction.
The 114 horses included in the study were of
various warmblood breeds, and were being
used as riding-school horses, pleasure horses, and sport horses. They were considered
to be sound by their owners or riders, were at least three years old, and came
from yards across Poland.
One group had been kept barefoot all their
lives; the others had been regularly shod with metal shoes for at least the previous
year.
Dr Senderska-Płonowska measured the width and
length of the frog of all four feet of the horses in the study. She found that individual
horse features, such as yard and breed, had the most significant impact on the
width:length ratio of the frog.
There was a significant difference in occurrence
of heel contraction between yards. Breed was also an important
factor. Silesian and Arabian horses had significantly greater frog width:
length ratio compared with other breeds.
Being shod did not affect the frog width: length ratio.
A full report of the research is published in the Journal
of Equine Veterinary Science. Senderska-Płonowska concludes:
“heel contraction is a multifactorial problem,
mainly caused by breed and unknown features correlated with the individual. The
results disputed the popular myth of metal shoes being main cause of
contraction, an important factor for all hoof-care providers to be aware of. “
Because of the significant difference in incidence of
contraction between yards, she suggests the need for more research on larger
groups of well-defined phenotypes of horses from yards with low and high
incidence of heel contraction to identify the environmental factors responsible.
For more details, see:
Magdalena Senderska-Płonowska, Paulina Zielińska, Agnieszka Żak, Tadeusz Stefaniak
J Equine Vet Sci (2020) 95:103293.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103293
1 comment:
It would be helpful to include how many horses with contracted heels also had thrush. I find that deep central sulcus thrush is a major contributor to contracted heels, whether shod or not.
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