Trimming Significantly Changes Hoof Morphology - Study concludes the mustang roll trim is detrimental to the equine foot (Jeff Cota)

Artikel aus dem American Farriers Journal über die Studie von Brian Hampson mit Beteiligung der DHG e.V.

July 3, 2017

Although farriers have been tending to horses’ hooves for thousands of years, there is no universal acceptance for the way they are trimmed. In some circles, the conversation can be rather acrimonious.

The lineage of wild horses split from domestic horses about 45,000 years ago, according to “The Evolutionary Origin and Genetic Makeup of Domestic Horses,” a study led by Pablo Librado and published in the October 2016 issue of Genetics. About 5,500 years ago, man started interacting much more with the domestic line of horses, and they were domesticated. For the first couple of thousand years, though, horses weren’t handled much, nor ridden. Rather, they were used for meat and milk.

Historically, it’s difficult to pinpoint the origin of the horseshoe since worn out iron was generally melted down and reused. Four bronze horseshoes were discovered in 1897 in an Etruscan tomb dating from the fourth century B.C., according to “Etruscan Horseshoes from Corneto,” published by the American Journal of Archaeology in 1902.

“So that’s about 2,500 years,” Australian equine hoof researcher Brian Hampson told attendees at the 2017 International Hoof-Care Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio. “You would have thought that we would have developed enough knowledge and agreement in that time that there wouldn’t be any argument on trimming methods, but apparently there still is.”

Goals Of The Study

Inspired by the 2011 study, “Effects of barefoot trimming on hoof morphology,” that was led by equine veterinarian Hilary Clayton and published in the Australian Veterinary Journal, Hampson documented various styles of barefoot models and how they affected hoof morphology.

Farrier Takeaways

Trimming methods can significantly change the morphology of the equine foot.

The practice of aggressively trimming the toe drastically reduced the length of the toe by an average of 26%.

The mustang roll is detrimental to the health and stability of the equine foot and it is the antithesis of natural.

“The goals of the study were to document the changes over a 12-month period when these horses went through a change of trimming model from a basic model, standard sort of trim, to something that someone thought was a little bit special,” he explains. “We wanted to know whether the capsule at the end of that 12 months actually fitted into what the philosophies of that trimming model were. [We also wanted to know] whether they made the changes that they thought they were going to with the horses. ...