1. The Long Toe

	If you thought that was bad enough, it gets worse! Because the domesticated horse walks over concrete, bitumen and other hard surfaces a leverage occurs in the laminae ( the bonding layer between hoof wall and the bone ) the laminae respond by increasing the surface area.

Of course some farriers realise that a shorter toe will help the horse in breaking away, so they roll the toe on a rim shoe. This has little or no effect, and still protects the toe, which in turn pulls the shoe forwards, giving less and less support . As the toe does wear the point of break over creeps even further forwards.

The hoof capsule distorts as the toe gets longer thus stretching the sole and the horny wall, the sole lowers to the ground to become weight bearing. In Rim shoeing the farriers will attempt to counter the dropping of the sole, by means of a pad or eggbar or similar device, in order to lift the foot off the floor. This may give quick relief to the horse, but unfortunately it is only temporary, eventually the sole continues it's journey to the floor. If the sole is left with no support then the bony column comes through the sole and the horse finally is put down.

When things get critical, the use of a heart bar is advocated. As you can see, a leverage occurs( between the blue and red lines) and the amount of support is still the same as a normal rim shoe, the tongue of the Heart bar is doing very little, if anything it helps tip the pedal bone further!

Second Problem :- Hyper- Extending
With the horse having a longer toe than is necessary, the horse starts to hyper-extend. What does this mean?

To get over the long toe the horse is forced to pick up it's hooves higher in the air and thus can not reach as far forward. This results, in the hoof landing heel first causing mass trauma to the hoof, symptons can range from bruised heels to even a fracture.

(This is a Flash animation, you may need to update your software it it does't work)

 The concussion to the heel portion of the hoof causes the Navicular bone to disintegrate, some people call this Navicular Disease, but being man made is of course a Syndrome.

 The heels start to become bruised and the heels can become over expanded, by the constant landing heel first. To put it in human terms , stand upright and jump forwards without bending your toes. You don't get far and you land heel first, and the concussion hurts!

Over time the pedal bone slowly disintegrates :-

A simple sign of this happening, is to observe the wear pattern on the heels which show signs of wear and tear. As the heels come in to contact with the ground, all the animals weight is dispersed upon the heels.
The heels are forced to expand and contract , this causes the heels to wear away and wear a groove mark on the shoe, sometimes referred to as a friction groove. Once looked upon as a sign of good blood circulation, now understood as an ailment in the making.

The Long Toe Pt3:-

Third Problem :- Tendons

Its a well know fact that long toes damage tendons and ligaments, yet there are those who do not acknowledge this.

Farriers continue to fit the shoe to the edge of the horny wall preventing wear of the hoof, so it becomes too long at the toe and creates tension in the tendons and ligaments.

	The longer the toe, the increased pressure on the tendons and ligaments. The fetlock joint is a fulcrum point bit like a kid on a see-saw.
	With the long toe and the heels left untrimmed in typical rim shoe manor, the horse is forced to stand further forwards. By doing this the majority of weight passes straight down stressing the tendons.

Yet if the horse is allowed to stand further underneath its self, then weight is evenly dispersed:-

Rim Shod		Cytek Shod