I am getting ready to leg up the horse with the propensity for mushy frogs. He has been off for well over a year, during which time he has been massaged every other week and has had turnout all night.

He has some "changes" in his hocks and he is 14 years old and an upper level dressage horse.

My "plan" is to take 4-6 months and just focus on building his underlying muscles to help support the "old joints." I had him put in egg bars behind because his hindend is weak (which seems all too typical these days), but I'm wondering if there may be a better choices to help his hind end out. Any suggestions?

I forgot, what are the differences in "results" between eggbars and trailers?

Anytime you have a bar shoe, the hoof capsule itself will become more static. With an open heel shoe, more movement of the hoof capsule will be allowed. A trailer will also be at an angle to the lateral heel, and only be toward the outside of the hoof, while an eggbar will support each heel, and be behind the entire foot instead of just the outside heel. As to the weak hind end, I would need more information as to exactly what you mean by that in order to offer any comment.

So, basically, the eggbars give an overall support without necessarily changing the way the horse would move (by providing more "stability" in one area than another)?

It almost seems that the nature of trailer would possibly be hard on an older horse's joints, is that correct?

What I mean by weak is: he is 14, hasn't done much of anything for about a year and is a big, big horse that has to carry quite a bit of size/mass around while getting legged up (and I don't just mean my butt - LOL).

Good day. I hope this finds all well with you.

In an earlier post I asked you about legging up an older horse with a weak hindend, and never gave you the additional requested information.

This is a now 15 YO horse that is trained through Prix St. George. He has been examined from one end to the other over the past years and there is nothing specific that jumps out. He was in terrible condition - muscle wise (all tight and knotted) and with no muscle tone whatsoever when I picked him up - he was also 200#s underweight, closer to 300#.

He does have changes in his hocks, but, to what degree, I'm not sure. I suspect he has an old hind end suspensory but the vet doesn't think so (and is so adamant that they didn't even want to ultrasound the suspensory).

He is stiff (as I would suspect) when he comes out, but works out of it. The most "telling" thing is that he lands toe first on his hind leg (which I suspect suspensory issues) but works out of it and with more work, gets better (i.e. as he becomes fit, he looks better and better).

He is in a size 4 shoe and right now I have him in trailers behind ... when I first got him I had him in egg bars (which I really liked the way he looked in them).

I guess all of this babble boils down to the question ... while legging him up - egg bars or trailers and is there anything to help him with the slight toe-first landing on the one hind????

Landing toe first on any foot is often a sign of heel pain. I would leave the horse in egg-bar shoes to support the hoof. You might try filling the egg-bars with equipak to see if there is any difference in the toe first landing. Equipak really seems to help heel sore horses.