The 1998 USDA agricultural study showed one-half of the US equine population reported having at least one horse with lameness in the previous year and costing an approximate 195 million dollars in veterinary treatment and on average 110 days in lost use, making lameness the most costly disease condition to the horse population.

Why wait for these debilitating ailments to interrupt your horse’s career and your enjoyment and cost you thousands of dollars in veterinary care and monthly supplements? Preventative measures for lameness should be the focus to all horse enthusiasts and professionals.

We’ve all heard the saying no hoof, no horse. When you think of the amount of weight and force that the hoof must bear, it is clear that an even distribution of that weight is one of the keys toward a healthy and strong hoof. When this weight is distributed within the hoof in an imbalanced nature, overtime, the wear and tear obviously would lead to damage and deformation of not only the hooves but the lower limb joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and withers to name a few.

Your whole horse is affected by the slight imbalance of the hoof because something in their body must give. Simply by walking around, they are constantly on their feet, damaging their bodies one step at a time. This uneven distribution can be caused by so many factors:
- Trying to get off the pain associated with a stone bruise
- Stall walking or pacing the fence
- Conformational faults
- Misaligned posture
- Sore muscles from a work out
- Poor fitting saddle

The Hoof Wizard is an easy to use balancing tool that provides a visual aid to measuring hoof balance from a top down approach promoting soundness by properly aligning joints and reducing the threat of injury to our whole horse. The Hoof Wizard is a safe and effective tool for everyone involved in the horse community to relieve your horses stress, reduce owners’ costs and improve the horse’s performance and overall health.

The Hoof Wizard can help as an aid for the owner to recognize when your horse needs to be rebalanced thus reducing the time your horse’s body must suffer due to the imbalance in their hoof or hooves. This use alone can save your horse from pain and discomfort, save you money on supplements and veterinary care and help them recover more quickly from injury caused by imbalance by promoting healthy tissue and growth.

Support your horse. For only $59.50, become better informed on horse’s most important health concern, their hooves! You’ll be glad you did.

Regarding the balance of a horse's feet, I have found the Hoof Wizard to be a useful starting point for discussion between the veterinarian, the horse owner, and the farrier. It reduces confusion by providing a frame of reference for making adjustments to the feet. It gives us all something to look at and a way to communicate our goals.

It has helped me personally to focus my attention on the balance of the foot. It has improved my eye. It is another tool in my toolbox, not my only tool, but a useful tool. And I am learning to trust it.

To summarize, the Hoof Wizard is a useful tool for balancing a horses feet, for giving the eye a frame of reference to balance the foot, and most importantly, perhaps, for creating a frame of reference to open a conversation between the veterinarian, the owner, and the farrier about how the balance of a horse's foot may impact that horse's conformation, lameness, and performance.

Dr. Derrick Vandrey, DVM
Rose Hill Veterinary Practice
Washington, VA
www.rosehillvet.com

We are honored to have the members that take their time to share the knowledge that has been shared with them by others. We hope you will find a sense of purpose in sharing your knowledge of horses with others, that someday could make a difference.