A line on a horse’s hoof can often be used to chart its health.
Lyle Bergeleen of Spokane, Washington, who shoes horses across North America, draws that line from front to back across the hoof, where hair meets horn.
He says that the straighter this line, the healthier the hoof.
Bergeleen grew up on horseback on a South Dakota farm, spent years as a cowboy and studied animal science at Montana State University.
He said most of horses’ hoof problems are caused by their owners.
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“We fix them tight with shoes that don’t flex,” he said. “We cut their hoofs so they are too long front and back. It results in added stress on parts of the hoof not intended to carry all of the weight that they are forced to. There is no end of ‘great things’ we do for them. We humans supposedly balance their feet, but often that just isn’t the result.”
Bergeleen said horses will suffer some form of lameness if the hairline is distorted.
“You can see a properly balanced hoof pretty easily. Short heel, short toe. The entire bottom of the hoof is carrying the weight of the animal and there is one symmetrical plane along the hairline.”
Bergeleen’s theories were influenced by studying a population of wild horses in Montana.
“In the wild, if they have the right nutrition and are on a mix of terrain, you see the hoof wall worn short and with straight hairlines,” he said.
David Wilson, an equine surgeon and professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine, agreed that hairlines are a good way to monitor hoof health.
“The hairline generally follows the coronary band. If there is a problem inside, you can often see it on the outside, a lump or a dip in that band.”
He said owners often believe that hoofs should be longer than they need to be.
“You can get chronic pain or injury that would be unnecessary if the balance and loading of the foot were taken into account during hoof trimming or shoeing,” he said.
“Not all feet that have crooked hairlines have problems, but a lot do.”
Bergeleen said many stainless steel, titanium and aluminum shoes are too stiff and fail to dissipate the concussive force of the landing foot over its whole surface.
“Shoes that don’t allow the sole to get involved with carrying the load and require the bony column (on the outside) of the hoof to carry all the weight are working against the way the animals’ feet have evolved.”
Bergeleen said that with each step, the entire hoof “expands outward and returns to shape. If the animal isn’t being trimmed and shoed properly, then that same force must be transferred up into the joints and skeleton through the legs and the whole horse. They don’t ride well. They get irritable and distracted. That starts with their feet.”
