Shorty had his shoes pulled about two years ago now and has been doing quite well barefoot. His right
front not only suffers from navicular but is "wry" as well. The hoof was literally growing sideways...below
are a few shots about four months into his transition. As you can see the hoof is unbalanced but he is
travelling well and only time will tell if nature can fix him. We are slowly re-balancing his hoof and watching
his wear pattern and soundness closely. After two years Shorty went from landing toe first in shoes to
being able to trail ride barefoot for a good two hours before getting sore. Cannon Hill vet assoc evaluated
him spring '09 and gave him a 1 of 5 on his soundness exam. He will not be blocked again and is doing
quite well with boots on the front for long rides. His arena work will continue barefoot for the winter and
sliders will be put on the hinds for competitions next year. (You can't slide without a slider plate guys-so he
will have hind plates during show season and we'll rehab them each winter.) Below is his story as told by
Wynna...
front not only suffers from navicular but is "wry" as well. The hoof was literally growing sideways...below
are a few shots about four months into his transition. As you can see the hoof is unbalanced but he is
travelling well and only time will tell if nature can fix him. We are slowly re-balancing his hoof and watching
his wear pattern and soundness closely. After two years Shorty went from landing toe first in shoes to
being able to trail ride barefoot for a good two hours before getting sore. Cannon Hill vet assoc evaluated
him spring '09 and gave him a 1 of 5 on his soundness exam. He will not be blocked again and is doing
quite well with boots on the front for long rides. His arena work will continue barefoot for the winter and
sliders will be put on the hinds for competitions next year. (You can't slide without a slider plate guys-so he
will have hind plates during show season and we'll rehab them each winter.) Below is his story as told by
Wynna...
right:: shorty at his fourth trim '07. His right
front hoof appears "wry." Angular limb
deformity has caused this hoof (lower leg) to
turn "toed out" and has crushed the outer heel
horn tubules causing them to fold in. Films
taken in '09 confirm P3 had dropped lower
(laterally) to this side and have calcified; hence
the damage is unrepairable.
front hoof appears "wry." Angular limb
deformity has caused this hoof (lower leg) to
turn "toed out" and has crushed the outer heel
horn tubules causing them to fold in. Films
taken in '09 confirm P3 had dropped lower
(laterally) to this side and have calcified; hence
the damage is unrepairable.
The Story of Shorty
Shorty was bred to be a reining horse.His sire and dam had both produced money earners in the NRHA(National Reining Horse
Association). Like most reining horses, Shorty was started under saddle before 2 years of age.Even though Shorty is small(14
hands and 825 LBs), his rider was a normal size adult male.This combined with his young age put a lot of pressure on his still
developing bones,tendons, and ligaments.None of this mattered to his trainer. The bottom line was how much he could win in the
show pen and ultimately bring to sell.He was shown as a 3 yo and he did win money in the show pen but not enough to make him
a big time prospect.He was shown in the NRHA futurity and hauled all over the US in hopes he would still make it big. This never
happened,instead he became thinner and more lame because he was being used so hard.Finally he was considered a failure and
sent home. He arrived at my friends as a 4 yo stallion who was lame and skinny.My friend immediately gelded him and had him
nerved because he was so lame from Navicular disease.I loved Shorty on first sight and brought him to my farm shortly after this
time.My farrier recommended bar shoes with pads for his navicular disease.
I had Shorty shod and away we went on our first trail ride. Being a show horse Shorty was scared to death of creeks because he
had never had to cross one in the show pen. So here we were about 15 minutes into our first trail ride and Shorty wouldn’t budge
because of his water phobia. To make a long story short I did get him to cross the creek but in the process I had torn off one of his
expensive bar shoes that was just put on him. For the rest of the summer I shod him in front and continued to ride him. He did
good with regular shoes but I was worried that this was a ticking time bomb for Shorty.
In the fall, Shorty was sold to a friend at my barn so she could gain confidence riding a well trained horse. She used Nancy as her
trimmer so Shorty was given over to Nancy to correct.Nancy has been trimming Shorty for 2 years and he is doing fantastic. This
summer I had the opportunity to buy Shorty so we are now together again. I have been doing some reining work with him in hopes
to return him to the showpen next year. I left him barefoot in front and used the slide plates behind and he continues to do
wonderful.If we go on long trail rides I use the easyboots on him. Nancy has done a wonderful job managing Shorty’s navicular
disease.I would recommend anyone give this method a try for a navicular horse.
Shorty was bred to be a reining horse.His sire and dam had both produced money earners in the NRHA(National Reining Horse
Association). Like most reining horses, Shorty was started under saddle before 2 years of age.Even though Shorty is small(14
hands and 825 LBs), his rider was a normal size adult male.This combined with his young age put a lot of pressure on his still
developing bones,tendons, and ligaments.None of this mattered to his trainer. The bottom line was how much he could win in the
show pen and ultimately bring to sell.He was shown as a 3 yo and he did win money in the show pen but not enough to make him
a big time prospect.He was shown in the NRHA futurity and hauled all over the US in hopes he would still make it big. This never
happened,instead he became thinner and more lame because he was being used so hard.Finally he was considered a failure and
sent home. He arrived at my friends as a 4 yo stallion who was lame and skinny.My friend immediately gelded him and had him
nerved because he was so lame from Navicular disease.I loved Shorty on first sight and brought him to my farm shortly after this
time.My farrier recommended bar shoes with pads for his navicular disease.
I had Shorty shod and away we went on our first trail ride. Being a show horse Shorty was scared to death of creeks because he
had never had to cross one in the show pen. So here we were about 15 minutes into our first trail ride and Shorty wouldn’t budge
because of his water phobia. To make a long story short I did get him to cross the creek but in the process I had torn off one of his
expensive bar shoes that was just put on him. For the rest of the summer I shod him in front and continued to ride him. He did
good with regular shoes but I was worried that this was a ticking time bomb for Shorty.
In the fall, Shorty was sold to a friend at my barn so she could gain confidence riding a well trained horse. She used Nancy as her
trimmer so Shorty was given over to Nancy to correct.Nancy has been trimming Shorty for 2 years and he is doing fantastic. This
summer I had the opportunity to buy Shorty so we are now together again. I have been doing some reining work with him in hopes
to return him to the showpen next year. I left him barefoot in front and used the slide plates behind and he continues to do
wonderful.If we go on long trail rides I use the easyboots on him. Nancy has done a wonderful job managing Shorty’s navicular
disease.I would recommend anyone give this method a try for a navicular horse.
coming soon...a short vidoe of Shorty at work...
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Website designed and maintained by Nancy Frishkorn AA, CHCP
Liberated Horsemanship Instructor www.liberatedhorsemanship.com
Liberated Horsemanship Instructor www.liberatedhorsemanship.com