Thehorse.com - Full Article
By Christy M. West
Apr 23, 2014
Understanding the hoof's inner structures and how they work together
Like the tires and suspension on the truck you drive to the barn, your horse’s hooves take a beating daily. The hoof is cleverly engineered to handle stress, yet hoof problems are unfortunately common. “The foot appears to be the dominant site of lameness in performance horses,” says Stephen O’Grady, DVM, MRCVS, owner of Northern Virginia Equine, in Marshall.
Lameness results from pain in the foot’s inner structures, which are heavily influenced by the outer hoof. O’Grady explains that the hoof is viscoelastic, meaning that it deforms or changes shape dynamically with high stress (expands with weight bearing). It also changes shape or distorts in a more long-term manner with consistent stress (such as contracting over time because of shoes that are too small)...
Read more here:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/33739/horse-hoof-anatomy-part-1?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=lameness&utm_campaign=04-23-2014
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