Barefoot - its a whole horse thing

Regular followers will have seen some of these pictures before.

I want to show how if there are metabolic, physical or stress issues these have to be dealt with as part of the transition. When a horse is not 'whole horse' healthy, it is likely to show in the feet and even the best trim in the world can't fix a poor diet or a stressful environment.

Just deshod, flare and stress rings clearly evident

Today, the foot is in better shape, but the lower two thirds is full of stress rings. The last big ring about 1/3 the way down was from when she had an allergic reaction to a vaccination.

Just deshod, heel contraction clearly evident

Today, foot decontracted

At least two severe laminitic episodes are evident in the stress rings. It would appear there was some separation. (I used off fore for this shot because the picture was much clearer, but both fores are the same)

The separation has grown out and the foot is a much better shape, but there are still stress rings, albeit much fainter than before


Just deshod - this foot is a mess of shedding sole, lack of trimming and thrush, it is misleading as to the true picture of what is going on with the foot

A bit later, the sole has shed out (this was not trimmed), the overlaid bars were trimmed and the wall tidied up and rolled. This picture shows how 'sick' the wall is. Very thin with little water line - it disappears altogether in the back half of the foot. The sole is completely flat, with very little depth to the collateral groove. The shape is more indicative of a hind, but its actually the near fore.

Same foot now. The heels have broadened, the shape is rounder and although its hard to see in this photo there is more depth to the foot.


But holistically this is still a sick horse. If you looked at her in the 'traditional' way you might not think so - her coat is shiny, she eats well, her eyes are bright and full of interest.

But her feet still hurt sometimes. Especially when she has been turned out on grass, or has suffered some stress. True she can manage a lot more surfaces than she could and she is happy to work on a circle both ways. But her feet lack sufficient concavity, her walls are still a bit thin, she has stress rings and struggles on lumpy concrete.

Until these issues go away I will not consider my job done. And my work won't be completed with a trim; its about diet, building her confidence so that she gets less stressed, repairing her immune system and then giving her enough appropriate exercise.

It's really easy to lame a horse with a bad trim, but the best trim in the world won't fix a horse if the other aspects are not properly addressed.

Barefoot horse case study hinds - day one

This is a continuation of yesterday's post which looked at the fronts.

We will be able to tell more when the shoes come off. For now I have bulleted initial observations.

Right Hind Front, Left Hind Front

• Both hinds show stress lines
• The divergence in angle is clearly seen at the top of each foot

Right Hind Side, Left Hind Side

• Bull noses on both hinds
• Cracks around nail holes, especially on left hind, these appear infected
• Heel is contracted

Right Hind Heel, Left Hind Heel

• I can't find the right words to describe what I see, so please compare these heels with those of a robust, healthy barefooter

Right Hind Sole, Left Hind Sole

• Heels are somewhat contracted
• Frogs look weak and thrushy
• Shoes are impinging on frogs
• Both toes are crumbling, there is a deep cavity under the shoe which is full of black, smelly gunk

Barefoot horse case study fronts - day one

The owner of this horse has very kindly let me post these 'before' pictures of their horse's feet.

There is a lot going on with these hooves. I will bullet initial observations after each pair of pictures. These are limited - we will be able to tell more when the shoes come off.

For the first stage of the transistion to barefoot the owner is moving the horse onto a high forage, low sugar diet with mineral supplementation (not OTC). This stage will take four weeks as the horse is weaned off a packaged mix.

Right Fore Front, Left Fore Front

• Both feet show stress rings
• The top of the hooves is showing a significantly different angle of growth to that lower down, suggesting flaring
• Left front toe has been damaged, the owner reports an infection

Right Fore Side, Left Fore Side

• Stress rings very clear in left fore
• Heels appear underrun
• Although not clear both fronts have bull noses
• Lateral cartilages appear weak

Right Fore Heel, Left Fore Heel

• Both heels are contracted
• Palpitation revealed poorly developed digital cushion

Right Fore Sole, Left Fore Sole

• Heel contraction very evident
• Frog weak and thrushy
• Infection in the toes
• Bars are overlaid

I will post more pictures of these feet when the shoes come off - and I will post the hinds tomorrow.

Barefoot hoof - building concavity

04 Sept 09 (photos 1 and 2)



07 Sept 09 (left photo - 3) 10 Oct 09 (right photo - 4)



29 Nov 09 (left photo - 5) 23 Dec 09 (right photo - 6)



12 Feb 10


All photos are of the same foot

This foot is an ongoing case study about building concavity.

In photos 1 and 2 you can see that if the walls were trimmed to remove the flare the horse would be walking on her convex sole. But if the flare is not removed there will be a leverage action on the already stretched white line which can be incredibly painful.

The sole is flaking and ready to shed; and we don't really know what is underneath. I prefer in these circumstances to let the horse self exfoliate, but there may be times when this is not possible.

Exfoliating the sole by hand is a highly skilled job. It is important to remove what nature would take, given the chance – but avoid cutting into the hard or live sole underneath.

Excessive thinning of the sole – often associated with preparing a foot for a shoe - can lead some people to think their horse will not be suitable for barefoot. At other times an attempt is made to carve concavity into the sole.

Both of these practices will just make the horse foot sore over rough/hard ground and vulnerable to injury. However if the horse is subsequently shod, the reduction in blood supply means the horse can not feel its feet properly so is unaware of the problem.

However some horses both shod and bare will develop a tin can foot – with a deeply compacted false sole. This should be removed, but it is entirely different from paring or carving the sole. Done correctly the sole will ‘pop’ out in several large chunks.

Photo 3 - three days later the sole has exfoliated quite substantially, but there is still some way to go. You can see the sole is very flat and there is very little depth in the collateral grooves.

Photo four - one month on; there is a little more depth in the collateral grooves and the sole has cleaned up a little more.

Photos 5 and 6 – another 7 and then 4 weeks. The foot has got ‘stuck’. Even though it is winter we do not have enough control of the sugar in this horse’s diet. We start to teach her to accept soaked hay. This is unusually difficult; a) she initially hates it and b) we have weeks of snow, frozen taps and no spare water for soaking. So what should be fairly easy takes several weeks.

Photo 7 – the horse has been on properly soaked hay for one week. If you scan across the sole you can see how it is building a ‘rim’ just inside the hoof wall. Often when building concavity an early step is the hoof putting in a rim of sole that often resembles a pretend shoe.

Provided the foot/horse is correctly managed this rim should build and grow and change until we end up with a neatly concave foot. Only time will tell if I can successfully manage this horse to the next step. But I know we are on the right track because the horse has gone from being footy over stones to quite comfortable.

Bruised and flat soles

If you read the last post you will probably realise we have had a lot of problems with flat feet and bruised soles (because of too much sugar in the diet.

The trouble with the bruises is that depending on the thickness of the sole they will show up long after the damage is already done.

So if the foot has pancaked we have a couple of options. Most horses are very good at choosing the going they are comfy on - so for training purposes, we let them go on the verge if they need to. But at a competition or on a longer ride this might not be adequate.

It took a while to find boots that worked for us. They needed to be a doddle to put on, suitable for sensitive skin and stay on through deep mud. The Gloves do this for us, although we had to experiment with fit.

In the end we fitted Power straps (not shown) and on the off (right) hind, which is a peculiar shape, we put a square of carpet tape on the hoof wall. This works perfectly, a bit like athletic tape, it is grippy but it also 'fills out' the hoof wall. Because this horse's skin is very fine we also line the inside of the gaiter cuff. A bit of bed sock is perfect! :-)

We only use the boots some of the time and at the moment, with no sugar in her diet, this horse doesn't need them at all. They are a useful option for when we have made a mistake and the horse is paying the price. Much better than shoeing because when the horse is not working her feet are free to contract/expand and wear as nature intended.

This horse is not particularly easy to fit with boots, as her feet are all slightly different and change so much, so fast, but the Gloves have worked well. I would recommend using a fit kit.

If you have a very short term or an acute situation with flat feet or similar you can make an effective, temporary 'boot' with wadding, something tough like canvas and carpet tape.

Flat foot to concavity and some of the challenges

Taking your horse barefoot is both challenging and rewarding (when you get it right). It can also be very frustrating when you make a mistake. But trust me, even the most successful barefooter will have made mistakes. This is especially true in the more difficult environments where the ground is often wet and muddy and the grass grows fast and lush.

This post shows that you can make mistakes and recover and end up with a very sound, very happy horse.

The mare is working hard, on a very low sugar, high forage diet and over the summer successfully completes two novice endurance competitions.

In the last post the first three pictures showed a really tiny Western Pleasure QH foot (as well as others).

This is a hind foot from the same horse as it 'arrived' April '08 - you can still see the nail holes from when the shoes were pulled the previous Autumn(ish)./div>

Slightly bull nosed, stress rings and bruising are signs that all is not well.

An injured sacro illiac, some dodgy trimming, too much sugar and an abcess later the front foot looks like this in August '08.

The sole is on the point of bulging (now why didn't the farrier or the vet point this out?) There is flare, there is virtually no depth of collateral groove (so no depth of sole) and the wall is really thin. When the foot was cleaned you could also see blood in the white line. But I was very inexperienced at documenting things then so didn't know enough to clean the foot before taking the photo!

After 12 weeks of box rest for the sacro injury the horse is still lame. So we move her to a mini PP track and within two weeks she goes sound and shortly after that she is rideable.

Feet are still terrible though and being trimmed in ski tip fashion. See Dec '08 below.

The mare spends a month completely off grass and on gravel instead and has one 'proper' barefoot trim. Jan' 09 left below.

Back on grass PP track. The improvement in concavity continues - you can see the sole getting ready to flake and the back of the foot is looking better. But if you look at the heel bulbs (2nd picture) you can see some odd marks/damage. This was little abcesses blowing out of the back of the heel. It went on for some time and then just stopped.

Then we had a foreseeable disaster; which we only saw with hindsight! The grass grew (bad bad grass), the sole splatted and the mare got horribly bruised.

Then because of circumstances other than feet, the mare spent much of the summer stabled, being exercised 3 times a day and her feet started to heal. In the picture below you can see new concavity spreading out from the centre of the foot. The outer rim of sole is still pancake flat at this stage.

At this stage the mare is working hard, on a very low sugar, high forage diet and over the summer successfully completes two novice endurance competitions.

The left hand picture is of a freshly trimmed foot. You can see the thick wall, tight white line and the wear in the heel area. This foot is on the way!

In the right hand picture you can see here how the sole is naturally exfoliating and exposing new concavity. There is a dirty great hole in her frog where an abcess blew out. You can also see how much thicker the hoof walls is, even with a big roll.

Unfortunately it is possible to make the same mistake over and over again. In the Autumn the mare turns out again which is much better for her socially. There is a struggle with grass management and quite inadvertantly a high sugar product is added to her feed.

Once again the feet splat and she bruises her soles. You think we'd get the message by now :-) This mare can't handle sugar.

The results are felt not just in her feet, which lose concavity again, but also in temperament - the mare looks sad and tired even though she is not working so hard.

Her owner though is both fantastic and dedicated. The source of sugar is found and eliminated. The feet start to improve again.

But as the nights draw in and with a saddle problem the amount of exercise is cut drastically.

Now, I often hear how people are worried they will wear their horses feet to the bone. Well actually, if you manage your horse well the problem is actually the reverse. This horse's feet have been stimulated to the extent that they grow so fast the owner can't wear them out fast enough. And then when the exercise reduces you can get the problem as seen in the next picture.

This foot looks like it's trying to emulate the 'tin cans' I worked on in the States. Just because it's gone short of some wear. The sole is in reasonable nick, although the heels are getting long.

We trim the foot and as it adjusts to less wear the growth slows. By the next trim, we have lost the tin can effect, but the heels are on their way to the moon. The horse has developed thrush and the foot is starting to contract again.

You can see the stress rings from the sugar the mare had in the Autumn. The wall is really thick and I've put on a fat roll to enable her to break over properly without suffering mechanical leverage on the flare.

The owner has strict instructions to work the horse much harder, on a variety of surfaces, where ever she is comfortable. I know the owner has the dedication to put in the work.

But there is the rub - unless you are keeping your horse on a PP track with a variety of surfaces it takes a lot of exercise to give the horse hoof the stimulation it needs. Most people don't actually ride enough :-) So far from restricting the amount of exercise you can give your horse, you will probably need to give it more.

You will also need to manage your horse's diet and environment really carefully, with attention to detail and a consistant approach.

A few people have horses or conditions that make it really easy. But that kind of luck is as rare as hen's teeth in the UK.

As you can see from this video - the mare is very sound on gravel and if you can slo mo it you will see she has a solid heel first landing.

A pasture trim is not a high performance barefoot trim

This has been an incredibly hard post to complete. I've wept buckets throughout because the horses to which the hooves belong are especially dear to me, even though they are not necessarily my own.

Each of these horses has suffered unnecessarily because of human ignorance (and butt headedness).

And having thought about it, and reflected on all the evidence to hand, I have come to the conclusion that when farriers complain about barefoot trimmers taking 'their' business, they have only themselves to blame. If my local farriers were able to do a good barefoot trim I would never have had to learn how to do one myself.

But maybe it's really the farrier bodies that are to blame? My own ex farrier often complained that the farrier training syllabus, exams and competitions all focus on how to make/fit shoes - not how to trim a foot. In one three day farrier competition they may only do three feet. Heck in 3 days they should be able to do close to 40 times that amount and still do a good job.

The following pictures and information are all drawn from my personal experience. It's not scientific 'hard' data, but it may be more reliable than the stuff about climate change :-) At least I know the source and I have my hands on the evidence.

~~~

I used a farrier to trim my first barefoot horse for around 10 years. It was the same farrier who supported/encouraged me to keep my horse bare when I was facing much opposition and I will always be thankful for that.

Took me a while though (years) to figure out that the farrier's enthusiasm was running ahead of ability. I did a lot of road mileage on my mare and didn't realise that it was the self trimming which was working rather than the stuff I was paying for.

It was when I became involved with another laminitic horse, with poor feet that was not self trimming, that the flaws really started to show.

Look at the pictures below - do you see what I mean? The really tiny foot was not my farriers fault - it had been made that way by the not so wonderful practice among the western pleasure community of wanting tiny feet on their big buttocked horses. They would probably support chinese foot binding too.

But the practice of taking off huge chunks of the toe underneath (solar side) to effectively put a ski tip on the foot is all down to my ex farrier.

The second picture shows how the 'raw' edge of the trimmed foot hasn't been dressed. The third shows how the contracted foot has 'sucked in' at the quarters - look for the dark shadow running the full length of the quarter from coronary band to the edge of the wall. Its not well illustrated by these pictures but the coronary band is doing weird things too.



The fourth picture is the same horse months later. The farrier is still at it - ski tipping. But almost worse is the flare which has not been addressed. Huge opportunity for mechanical leverage (where the laminae get torn) and when this happens its very painful - imagine tearing your nails off the nail bed and you get the idea.

The 'ski tip' is also shown in the same farrier's trimming of another horse (fifth picture). It's not a good picture but you can probably still see what I mean. Another error is leaving in the deeply compacted false sole - you can see its been scratched and chipped at. The frog is very thrushy and has been packed out with dressing and lint.




The sixth picture is a whole new can of worms. Another false sole - so the farrier addresses the problem by carving back the heels and to the extent that the horse goes lame. And never in all the years I've been around horses (over 35) have I ever seen a regular farrier 'dress out' the wall edge of a barefoot horse. We all know that if you don't 'dress' the wall edge (mustang roll in american) then the hoof wall may chip and/or split.

I could go on but I think if you look at these pictures and then compare them with a properly completed barefoot trim I think you will see the difference. If not - post me and we can discuss.