I have avoided writing about helmet angles, because there is no simple answer I can give you. I’m going to talk about the angle of the helmet wall at the front of the helmet. The angle of the helmet should be the same as the angle of the shoulder and hip. Usually this means that the rear wall of the helmet is 2 ° more angled than the front wall of the helmet.
Each type of breed will have a different conformation, so the angle of their hooves will be different. You’ll want to visually adjust the angles of your horse’s hooves, but that can be difficult, so I’ll risk giving you some rough figures. A working quarter mile style will generally be 53 ° in front and 55 ° in rear, those are the most common horses in my area so that’s what I saw the most. Now remember that some quarter horses, like the English style, are for all intents and purposes a thoroughbred with a more sloped shoulder, so they typically run 50 ° in front and 52 ° behind. The Arabian horse will have a steep shoulder, most Arabs I have seen have quite steep angles to their hooves when combined with the shoulder and hip, like 55 ° in front and 57 ° back. Some Arabs even go steeper.
Now if you’re clipping a mule I’ll tell you what the angles of my mule’s hooves are, it’s 57 ° in front and 59 ° back, that’s how it’s built, I could actually trim it a little bit steeper. to better match the shoulder angle, but it’s a little above the knee, I don’t want it to bend at the knees, so I trimmed it with less angle. And that’s where you have to use your brain, see where your horse is most comfortable, and remember that some horses just don’t grow or at least build heel, so you’ll probably never get the best hoof angle on that particular horse. Genetics play an important role in hoof quality and some horses simply don’t have the genetics behind them. You can thank some of the breed associations for that, they bred by the head and cheated by the feet.
When trimming the hoof down so that the sole lives on the toe and trimming the heels to the back of the frog, it should be fairly close to the proper angle, on most horses. You can verify this with a helmet gauge to see how you are doing. When trimming your horse, make changes sparingly, if you suspect that you have left the toe on too long for a while, don’t change it into a trim, make the changes over the course of a couple of trims.