Some Insight into Toe Angles
with Nancy Filbert, Certifed Strasser Hoofcare Specialist

Question: Where does the 45 degree front hoof angle come from? Must all horses be trimmed to be 45 degrees in front? Why does Dr. Strasser give a range from 45 - 50 degrees, and Jaime Jackson's books specify 50-60 degrees (front)?

Nancy: You are correct in stating that Dr. Strasser stated the range of 45 to 50 degrees in her book for the angle of front feet. At the Canadian practicum (Feb. 2001), Dr. Strasser changed that recommendation and made it a consistent 45 degrees. Maybe it was between the publication of the book and recently that she dissected a bunch of feet and measured coffin bone angles. I know Denise McLain did, as both she and Dr. Strasser had found that front coffin bones on all breeds had angles of 45 degrees, and hinds were are 55 degrees. I can also verify this--every coffin bone I have pulled out of a foot is either at 45 or 55 degrees. While in Germany, I went through Dr. Strasser's coffin bone collection, and yes, they were all right on the money; those European horses are running the same angles we are.

The hoof wall should be a cast of the coffin bone. Making angles steeper than the 45 and 55 gives the horse a coffin bone that is too frontally loaded, stressing laminae, decreasing hoof mechanism, putting unnatural stresses on joints; hense ossifications. Soon the heels grow faster than toes, hoof wear becomes uneven. The 30 degree hairline angle assures us that the coffin bone is equally loaded from front to rear. The plexi guage is a delight to use.

When Jaime measures hoof angles, he does get different angles than Dr. Strasser. And this is for 2 reasons.

a) The mustangs are wearing off the bottom half of their hoof wall on rocks and other abrasive surfaces. This appears to change the angle, but in reality, the hoof wall is just thinner in this area, creating a steeper profile.

b) Strasser always measures her hoof angles fully weightbearing. Jaime measures his wild mustang angles in a non weightbearing state - the contracted phase; the horse is usually tied up or on the ground. The combination of these 2 factors will steepen a hoof quite considerably. This must be accounted for in the comparison of the different hoof angles between Dr. Strasser's and Jaime Jackson's research.

Question: I found that if I don't back up the toe length, my horse stumbles. Why does Dr. Strasser recommend leaving the toe that long?

Nancy: We as students found we would have to back up toes a bit to get proper breakover. This is especially seen with horses that had high heels, that were then lowered, and just weren't used to walking with the new shape of their hoof. However, BACKING UP THE TOE DOES NOT CHANGE THE ANGLE! Think about this. The rest of your hoof, being at a 45 or 55 will still align with the angle designated on your plexi square. But, your breakover point is changed. You should "tweak" this to assist your horse in moving correctly. Individual owners are the best at this, they know their horse the best, and they are there to see the immediate results to help their horse.

Look through Lifetime of Soundness or Shoeing, A Necessary Evil? and see how Dr. Strasser backs up a toe. She backs up the toe so that the back up area is perpendicular to the ground. It is not rasped smooth as is done in traditional farriery. I questioned her why she does it different. Her response was good - She doesn't want to rasp into the hoof and "blend" it because then you are rasping into the spiral tubules, and when they grow out, they have the option of "wandering." She makes a blunt back up, therefore the spiral tubules are all kept in place - and as the hoof wall grows out and gets a tight attachment to the coffin bone, eventually, the hoof wall will be solid when it reaches the ground.

Here is another thought on breakover. I was always plagued by folks (whose horses had high heels and or shoes) on "How could they - the horses - get their feet out of the way with those long toes?" Dr. Strasser's response was that "As soon as the heel leaves the ground, the foot is weightless, enabling breakover."

Dr. Carole Schwetz, the Veterinarian in our class, explained it a little better to me: Imagine your foot in a ski boot. Think about the weighting in that boot as you try to break over. Your heel remains weighted as you try to pull your foot through it's range of motion. Such is the case with a shod hoof, and to a slightly lesser extent, an overgrown, improperly trimmed unshod hoof. This is where the ossifications come in with regards to sidebones - ossifications of the lateral cartilages. That constant pulling on the heels puts unnatural forces on those cartilages, hence the body needs additional support, then we see "sidebones."

With the correctly trimmed hoof, breakover is a thing of beauty. As soon as the heel is unweighted, the hoof is free to move. Plus, the hoof is so elastic and flexible, it is allowed to bend/flexduring it's initial breakover. She went on to explain that there are 3 or 4 (I forget... I only get a B on my lesson!) ligaments that attach from the coffin bone to places on the pastern, and as that pastern moves, those ligaments bring the coffin bone around in perfect harmony. Since that talk, I have spent much time studying the breakover of my horses walking, trotting and running freely. The breakover, carry through, and foot placement of a traveling hoof is nothing short of watching total haromony and grace. It is beautiful. So often, when I am in the company of other horses (shod or improperly trimmed) my eyes search for this, and they find a very non -harmonic, disrupted action, coupled with nasty impaction.

Once last thing; when in Germany we trimmed a herd of Russian Trotters - broodmares. I happened to see them when we were all done trimming; they were turned out in a large paddock area with their foals. These were extremely good looking mares, a conformation that I found very handsome, predominately different shades of bay. They were all trotting off as a herd, and each one of them had beautiful action. The breakover was wonderful, every pastern had beautiful leaf spring effect, every foot landed evenly.I will never forget that sight!

I hope this helps to clarify things somewhat for folks. What speaks the loudest to me is that the front coffin bone does measure out to be 45 degrees, and the hind coffin bone measures out to be 55 degrees. See for yourself! Start dissecting some hooves and look at those coffin bones! But, when you pull those coffin bones out of steep hooves, don't forget to check the front edge of that coffin bone who has been walking on it's tip and too frontally loaded - you will find an indented tip. The circumflex artery has been pinched, the coffin bone started eroding due to unnatural pressure. This is just the beginning of what happens with high heels. When we sat down and studied the coffin, navicular and pastern bones, the history was all right there. The bones told the entire story. Of course, this gets into way too much detail for this page; but a documented study on this would sure be an eye opener for skeptics.

--Nancy Filbert, Certified Strasser Hoofcare Specialist

©2006 by The Horse's Hoof. All rights reserved. No part of these publications may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher and/or authors. The information contained within these articles is intended for educational purposes only, and not for diagnosing or medicinally prescribing in any way. Readers are cautioned to seek expert advice from a qualified health professional before pursuing any form of treatment on their animals. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.