Farriers Could You Please explain .....

[Frankie]

What you mean by, roll the toe????

There has been a few posts lately about horses with some type of foot problems, mine that foundered included and it has been suggested a few times to roll the toe. What does that mean, what does it fix/correct and what conditions would have you trim this way?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Fred]

To roll the toe hold the foot as you would trim it , looking at the point of the frog,

rasp straight down the toe. When you put the foot down you should see a little

gap at the toe. This eases the breakover for the horse, all it does is take off the

sharp edge . It will not hurt the horse. Linda B

 

[Minimor]

To answer your question about what conditions benefit from a rolled toe....two come to mind at the moment (will maybe think of more tomorrow, but tonight I'm falling asleep here, so two is all you get from me!!)

First is a condition like founder, where you want to take the pressure off the toes as much as possible. By rolling the toe you make the breakover easier, and so there is no pressure on the hoof wall in the toe area; this eliminates the tearing of the laminae that you might otherwise get if the toe was left normal or a bit long.

Another instance is if the horse is overreaching, and hitting the heels of his front feet with the toes of his hind feet. By rolling the toes of the front feet, they break over faster, and therefore "speed up" the front feet just enough to let them get out of the way of the hind feet (which in turn can be slowed down just a little).