The Horse

SEP 2017

The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.

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41 September 2017 THE HORSE TheHorse.com horses seem to have better purchase (because the frog's in direct contact with the ground) than shod horses—unless the horse is shod with special traction devices. The Healthy Frog A healthy frog in the unshod horse should have full contact with the ground when he is standing and should look like a wedge at the back of the foot. "If the frog is big and healthy and contacts the ground—and loads at every step—it pushes the heels apart," says Burns. "This aids the normal biomechan- ics of the horse's hoof capsule." "It has a nice V- or heart-shape," adds Nelson. "A contracted foot with a re- cessed frog that never touches the ground is not healthy. A big robust frog that hits the ground and has as much contact as the hoof wall and the bars (the folds of the wall on either side of the frog) is do- ing what it was meant to do. The bars and the frog and the caudal (back) two-thirds of the hoof wall should be touching the ground in a barefoot horse." Shod horses, especially those wear- ing toe or heel calks for traction, do not experience frog contact with the ground. Neither do club-footed horses, whose frog on the affected hoof is recessed. And even some barefoot horses' feet are just more concave than others. So every horse's frog is a little differ- ent. "A Thoroughbred's frog will be much different from a Shetland pony or a draft horse," says Rucker. "Various breeds have different frog characteristics." Frog Care and Trimming Bowker says the best way to care for the frog is to leave it alone. "Trimming the frog is worst thing that we do to the frog; 'neatening it' just begins the slow process of its deterioration," he says. "A lot of people are more concerned about how it looks—keeping it trimmed and tidy—than how it needs to function." But there is debate among farriers about frog-trimming. Steve Sermersheim, CJF TE, AWCF, lead farrier at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, says frogs in certain environments do need trimming. "Here in Illinois it is wet nine or 10 months of the year, which can lead to thrush and other problems," he says. Trimming essentially helps prevent pockets from forming where bacteria can proliferate. "I don't get overly aggressive with trim- ming the frog, however; I like it nice and big and healthy because it needs to bear weight, touching the ground," he adds. Burns says he trims the frog only to re- move loose edges and to mimic the shape of the horse's dermal frog (the solid base that it grows from). "It does need to be trimmed and maintained," he states. "Just like the hoof, you don't get a nice healthy foot by leaving it alone and forgetting about it." Another scenario in which farriers reach for their trimming knives is when the frog sheds, or exfoliates, naturally— which can happen once or twice a year. Sermersheim says he sees a lot of shed- ding frogs in the spring, when he receives phone calls from worried horse owners who think their horses' frogs are falling off. "It is just shedding the old dead tis- sue," he says. "You'll see a natural separation be- tween the old frog and the new tissue underneath," says Rucker, who recom- mends trimming off the old, loose dead material before it traps thrush-causing mud and debris. Regular cleaning around the frog also helps in this effort. "You need to make sure the commissures (the valleys between the frog and the bars of the hoof) are clean," with daily hoof-picking, says Sermersheim. "If those edges are not cleaned out, they collect a lot of muck, bacteria, sand, manure, etc." Environmental Impacts The hoof copes in different environ- ments amazingly well. "When you think of equines that live in the arctic, the trop- ics, high mountains, low valleys, swamp conditions, and deserts, you realize they do adapt," Bowker says. "A frog on a desert horse's foot will look different from that of a horse in a humid climate, yet both are doing their job." Regions with major changes from wet to dry to wet again can compromise hoof tissues, causing thrush in horses kept outdoors, says Rucker, especially if the animals have contracted heels. Farriers and veterinarians also see a lot An unhealthy or ill-kept frog is prone to the bacterial infection thrush (seen here) or even canker. MATHEA KELLEY While there's debate among farriers about whether to trim the frog, many agree it's impor- tant to pare loose edges and dead tissue. DUSTY PERIN

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