Is there a correct angle for the horse’s hoof?
I was taught in shoeing school that front feet should be between 50 and 55 degrees, and hinds a couple of degrees higher than whatever that horse’s front are. In practice, I have found this to be true, but it is not something I see as a goal in trimming the foot. There are many different schools of thought on angles, from those saying all horses should have such and such an angle to those saying the angle does not matter one bit. The approach I have found works for my clients horses is to balance the foot based primarily on reading the hoof itself (identifying and eliminating signs of horn distortion or white line damage). I do take the hoof-pastern axis into account, but it is only part of the picture. In horses with good conformation, trimming to the true foot (sole plane) will reveal the correct hoof pastern axis for that horse. But some horses with a broken back or broken forward hoof pastern axis will not be sound unless the hoof is trimmed to alleviate some of the problems caused
