Below is an Xray of a Right Front hoof. The right side is the medial side, the left is the lateral one. (The view is from the front).
The two views are the same, one shown un-marked up for clarity.
The tops of the collateral grooves are indicated with red marks. The depth of the collateral groove is determined by the height (or length) of the bar, which is not visible on xray. The collateral groove on the medial side is very deep, much more so than the lateral side. It appears to be projecting up into the bottom of the coffin bone which is probably very painful, since this area is full of sensitive tissue. The bar and collateral groove has pushed up the inside side of the foot, displacing the balance of the foot. The inside wall is much higher and longer than the outside. The hairline and top of the wall/coronary band are indicated with the red arrows. The two points should be straight across, parallel with the ground. Another detrimental effect of this deep collateral groove is the displacement of the P3/P2 joint. The joint space is narrower on the outside, wider on the inside. This can lead to ossifications and arthritic problems such as sidebone and ringbone.
Lowering the bar on the inside to the same length as the outside will correct these balance problems.
February 13, 2007 at 9:37 am
I’d say that it is not enough to lower the inside bar. You would also have to direct attention to the outside bar- both collateral grooves are too deep even if the inside is more so. You should expect inflamation in the living tissue above both bars that will cause excess horngrowth for some time and need to be trimmed often. Trimming often- twice a week- in the beginning until the inflammation is gone is vital to correct the imbalance, or there will be a vicious circle of excess growth of barhorn, causing inflammation and so on.
http://www.hovvardsforbundet.org
February 15, 2007 at 12:39 am
Thank you for your comment Ann. I agree with you, you are absolutely correct that this would be the trimming protocol required to see improvement. The main emphasis of this post was to show, very clearly thanks to this xray, how damaging long bars and thus deep collateral grooves can be.
December 14, 2008 at 1:02 am
your nuts. A horse with a coronary band as uneven as that has alot more than a long bar issue,
December 14, 2008 at 1:58 am
Dear David,
First, you are rude and you have bad grammar.
Second, I would like to draw your (sp.) attention to a few things: this post is not intended to illustrate and discuss all of this particular horse’s problems (as you can see it has multiple tags including clubfoot, conditions and treatment, etc.). It was posted to illustrate the relationship of long bars to long collateral grooves and how these are actually visible on xrays, because people don’t believe or don’t know what is under the surface when looking at the bottom of a foot.
This is not to say the horse doesn’t have other problems. What do you think are his other issues brought on or manifested by the uneven coronary band?