Worry no more

Having had a day to reflect on the idea that Cheeto was coon-footed, I remembered that the last farrier complained that his heel was too low. I'm no farrying (how the hell would you spell that??) expert, but I think a low heel could contribute a lot to breaking the angle between hoof and pastern. Sooo, I can stop worrying about how Cheeto will have to retire at the grand old age of 5.

Let's take a stab at measuring Cheeto's shoulder angle, shall we?
The pic is crooked as hell, and since we're measuring the shoulder angle against the ground, I had to draw a line (fuschia) to represent the ground. The blue line is Cheeto's shoulder angle, I think. I added the vertical fuschia line as a point of reference, so you can see Cheeto's shoulder angle inside of a right angle. Looking at that, I guesstimate his shoulder has an angle of 60 degrees with the ground.

The lime green line is what I wish his shoulder looked like. But, I guess then he wouldn't be Cheeto anymore.

Shoulder angle confuses me b/c there are like 4 different ways you can measure it, and they all give back different angles. Whatever the case, I know that Cheeto has a more upright shoulder than is desirable. But just how undesirable his shoulder is, I can't say.

It also looks like it could stand to be a bit longer. Why is a long shoulder desirable? More room for muscle? Bigger shoulder? More torque? (Does "more torque" even make sense?)

Oh! And I learned that a horse's hocks should be level with the chestnuts of the forelegs. I was wondering b/c I was walking around looking, and thinking "Man, every horse is deformed!" So I reassessed my premise: hocks should be level with knees? No!