More isn't always more.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, I think we traditionally had always sort of focused on the limbs for unsoundness and we still need to.

Obviously, there's a lot that goes on in terms of arthritis, tendon injuries and that sort of thing.

But what ties it all together, what moves the horse around is that core movement.

So as you mentioned, I think one of the ways that we can have an influence on that is in early development of horses.

Dr. Durham, how about you? I mean, you work on this topic just a little bit.

How are these coming into play? How can they help and how can they hinder?

Well, the main way they can help is that we, you know, we can't see inside the hoof.

Even a seasoned farrier who's picked up a million hooves doesn't have the luxury of being able to see exactly where the tip of P3 is, the angle of the shape of the bone, the dorsal hoof wall, all of those things that the x-ray shows really well.

I do want to say that what's important is that, uh, The way I learned to radiograph feet in vet school is really more centered on the joints and not so much centered on the hoof.

And what I've found is that if we take good podiatry x-rays, then you get these really important alignments so that you can get the proper sole depth measurement, angle measurements, all of that really accurate.

And if you take it sort of the old way that I did, it's not a bad lateral.

It's just not useful for a farrier.

So what should we be taking into consideration on angle?

Mm-hmm.

So for example, if you look at a camel's foot, the, the, the hoof wall essentially is like a little tiny claw.

They're mainly using their digital cushion.

In horses, the digital cushion is important, but it's much less complex than it is in the camel, and the camel, they rely on that.

But in the, in the horse's hoof, we have so many of these really, um, w- as you said, they're all tightly packed in there, but in, in particular the, the laminar structure.

The lamina just means fold, and when you think of it, it's essentially like this really long sheet, uh, two sheets together and then they're just folded over and over and over again.

Those are the primary folds, and then there are the, the secondary folds, secondary laminae or secondary lamella, and all that's doing is creating surface area in the horse's hoof.

... for it to expand.