Sticky stifle and trimming

Question
Do you have tips on how to trim a horse who has a sticky stifle and the hoof capsule is shifting on that same side. The frog is not centered and his outer quarters tend to be longer and crack on that side so I'm thinking he's weighting the inside of that hoof more? Thanks.

Answer
Hello Christine,
thanks for your question...unfortunately, this is a difficult one to answer by E-mail and without photos of your horse's current hoof shape and conformation. My mare had a very similar condition based on your description and it turned out that improper hoof care actually created the stifle/hock issues. This may NOT be the case with your horse, though. Since I have some hands on experience with this, and of course would like to give you the best advice possible, can you take pictures of your horse's hind legs and a also a pic of your horse from the side, standing on concrete or some other solid surface where I can see the hooves, and also take a pic of your horse at ground level from the back - showing both hooves from the back, and if possible also a pic of each hind hoof picked up to see the bottom? Based on these pics I would be more comfortable giving you my advice since there is no one way to address your question but possibly some very specific things you may want to have your farrier do to help your horse. The key with any trimming approach is to assure that the hoof is in a position where it provides the best support for the horse in motion and while standing. You can usually read wear and growth from unshod hooves and often derive where there may be issues, so what to trim and how really depends on where your horse is right now. When you say sticking stifle, can you describe what this looks like? Stringhalt or upward fixation of the patella?
As to your description of what the wear and growth of the hind hoof looks like, without seeing pics, the trimming approach that may be most appropriate is really to lower the side that has gotten too long, but do so where you have a balanced heel plane and a balanced toe plane around the coffin bone. Depending on the wear of the side that seems to load more heavily, you may only need very minor adjustment on this side and use it as your guide or you may need to adjust this side as well. However, apart from mediolateral balance, the toe-heel balance is also critical since you do have wear and weighting in all planes on the hoof capsule. Underrun heels or excessive length of toe can easily contribute to mediolateral imbalance as well and also contribute to stifle issues...so is basicall the assessment of the hoofcapsule as a whole....so pics would be great to discuss this further since you can possibly make the situation worse by only correcting one plane versus the whole hoof.
You can send these pics to my personal E-mail address at jnksize@comcast.net.

Hope this works for you!

Take care, Christine