More tall walls

Another day, another horse, another set of overly tall feet. 

This one came as a perpetual tripper.  I have never seen such an enormous jumpers bump (not pictured) on a medium heavy cob (and no he doesn't do any jumping).  Also camped under.  I suspect that this guy, being 20, is going to have more problems with reeducating his muscles than he will have with his new feet.

That's not to say the 'new' feet won't be noticed.  His heels will widen, the frog will come into use, breakover will come back, the proportions will change, the walls will get denser as will the sole.  How could all these changes not have an impact and not be felt?  Sometimes I wish the horses could talk to us - other times I am quite glad they can't.

Frog is tiny and not touching ground, heels are very tall

Heel is contracted, bars bent inwards,
 foot is 50/50 rather than 2/3 and 1/3

Wall much taller at quarters than toe

Height on opposite quarter

Well where do I start?

Apologies for lack of posts! So much to blog about I don't know where to start.

Thought you might find these interesting. Older horse, started tripping, shod 7 weeks ago. Clenches not risen at all.

1 Frog not touching ground,
 foot clearly peripheral loading

2 Note inverted 'V' of back of foot/heel bulbs &
detrius under toe of shoe

3 Note height of foot and nail holes in
relation to ground

4 Note narrowness of heels, and tiny frog

5 Compare with 1

6 Inverted 'V' very noticeable, heel too tall and contracted

7 Compare with 3 note excessive height

8 Compare with 4



9 Post trim, compare with 1 and 5



10 Post trim, compare with 4 and
7, note nail holes, multiple event lines and
 change in angle

11 Post trim and short road walk
 compare with 4 and 8, note dip in toe

This horse has quite hard feet, not bad at all for such a long time shod. But they are quite contracted, the frog hasn't been in contact with the ground for ages and there appears to be some dietary issues.

There have been lameness and tripping issues. Some related to the feet, but others ? Whatever happens, this guy is going to be able to move more comfortably now he is not on stilettos. I am expecting him to have a few good and a few bad days though as he gets used to his new feet, as they decontract and while we figure out what regime is going to suit him, especially as he has many of the symptoms of Insulin Resistance.

His owner is considering setting up a track and we may fit boots in order to be able to step up his exercise a little more sharply than we would otherwise.

And the mystery foot belonged to .....

Fred! 

Fred mid Oct 10

Fred end Feb 11

This horse has gone from strength to strength.  No more tripping and he looks years younger.

Pins and needles

Ok as always I try and make this blog relevant to the everyday horse owner who has or wants to have a barefoot horse.  So I am not shy of acquiring ideas from the queries raised on forums - even though I do advise that these are not always good places to go to learn about barefoot.

Anyway someone contacted me about their horse, via a forum and this inspired the previous post about Ouchiness just post deshoeing.  The good news is that their issue seems to be resolving itself and they were kind enough to suggest that I might use their experience to help others.

Here is their note (names removed to protect the innocent).

Hi again,


This is the update and hopefully I won't have to bother you again....

Got to my horse's stable this morning and it was obvious that she hadn't moved alnight - all four limbs were slightly filled, poop in one big pile etc, etc. Got a halter on her and asked her to move...she was very reluctant and walking really strangely - exaggerated steps like when you put travel boots on them??... The filled legs cleared immediately but she was still walking really strangely.

Left her stabled and checked again about 3 hours later - repeat display from the morning so called the vet as I wasn't sure if moving her was wrong.


Vet attended - all life signs normal, no heat in feet, no sensitivity in feet, eating/drinking fine, no digital pulses, farrier had done a spot on job with removing shoes and balancing feet, no laminitis - still wouldn't move....weird
Transpires then 'pins and needles effect' were not allowing her to feel where her feet were. Got her out in the school and after a few mins she was walking normally. Will keep walking her in hand till she gets to realise that she still can walk!! Hopefully, that will be it and we can proceed with our rehabilitation programme!!


Thanks again, and just thought you would like to have another record of 'strange results' for your blog!!

Regards,