Those who have been following our farm adventures are probably familiar with Thumper, our first 2021 foal who was born premature and had some leg problems at birth. Thumper was born with severely lax pasterns on his front feet which means that the joint between his leg and his hoof was too weak and rather than walking upright on his hooves he walked on the very lowest section of his leg. Lax pasterns are not uncommon in draft horse foals and generally correct over time on their own. In this case, Thumper's pasterns were so weak that they were actually on the ground when he walked which meant that he was not using (and therefore strengthening) the joint as he should be so we looked for ways to help with the process. When our vet visited she recommended a special type of shoe called an Ibex Baby Cuff that would prevent the hoof from lifting up and straighten up the leg while he moved so that Thumper could use the joint correctly.
I have to admit, at first I was skeptical! I just could not wrap my mind around how this shoe would be enough to hold the leg where it needed to be. The baby cuff shoe is a glue-on shoe that comes with extensions on all sides. This allows the farrier to use the shoe to correct a variety of leg issues by using extensions on the front, back, or sides of the foot as needed. The extra extensions are just cut off so the shoe is basically customized the the foal's needs. After a special order, overnight shipment and lots of calls around to find a farrier with the right tools we applied the shoes late one Saturday night. The difference was incredible! Although he still had a lot of extra slope to the pasterns when he stood the extensions on the back of the hoof provided greater stability and he was able to stand, move and nurse better almost immediately.
The shoes are designed to stay on for a maximum of 3 weeks since baby feet grow quickly and need room to expand. We ended up removing Thumper's shoes at 2.5 weeks when he seemed to be getting a bit sore. I took photos throughout the process to document how his legs were changing and you can see how far he came in that time. To me, the real sign of success was seeing him running, jumping, and bucking in the field once the shoes came off and we were able to turn him out without fear of him catching them on something. Seeing as he was a foal that required a week of nearly round-the-clock attention to get up, nurse, and stay hydrated the sight of him acting like a normal foal feels nothing short of miraculous.
