In this paper I cover what I mean when I use the term Orthopaedic Balance and why is it so important.  These are the two questions I am asked whenever I see a new client for the first time. To see why I use these term lets go back a few years and look at how I come to use this terminology.

All farriers are trained to look at the feet and balance them before placing a shoe on the foot, for centuries this is what has happened. I was trained to do just that, look at the foot and balance it and fit a good hand-made shoe. I did this for years with out any problems. Then I started recieving horses that were showing signs of soreness or lameness and as I was trained I started fitting shoes to help increase break-over as well as trying to change other aspects of the hoof flight. These methods did work on some horses but not on all and it frustrated me that I could not get to the bottom of their problems. I worked hard at fitting shoes that would bring the point of break-over back to where it should be and I made shoes that would fit out to where the foot should naturally be. All of this was to no avail as the hoof never did fully imporve and I was noticing upper body changes such as asymmetrical muscle groups in these horses.

This is when I started asking questions to vets and others professionals about the boimechanics and muscular- sheletal alignment of the upper body. I soon realised that the way I trimmed the foot was the single most influential thing that would change the biomechanics of the foot and upper body. It was at this stage that I started to research how weight and energy was transferred directly through the limbs to the bone structure of the foot. I then realised that the hoof capsule had to encapsulate the bones symmetrically or else the weight and energy could not be transferred through to the ground correctly. This incorrect weight transfer would cause the horse to change its flight pattern along with its upper body, then long term problems would manifest as hoof and /or upper body ailments.

These aliments are really alignment problems and in humans they are known as orthopaedics (deformities of the bones). This comes about when the weight is not taken correctly on the limbs and transfers to the ground unevenly. This is even more pronounced in quardrupeds as they have four limbs carring their weight not two like humans. The way in which we trim a foot is to allow the correct orthopaedic alignment of the hoof and body and the correct transfer of weight to the ground through all four feet. Hence the term orthopaedic balance.