Heel buttresses - do they need support?

LH Solar shod

LH just deshod

LH Solar 3 months deshod

LH Shod

LH Just deshod

LH 3 months deshod

Once again many thanks to the carer of this horse for their support in posting these pictures. They are working extremely hard to get a difficult case on track.

Now - the point of this post. How often do you hear the phrase "This horse needs shoes to support underrun heels/weak heels/crumbling walls/weak soles....."(delete as appropriate).

The horse in this case literally has them all. The soles when shod gave under lightish thumb pressure, there was very little collateral groove, the walls were thin and breaking away, there was flare and the heels well, they didn't look so bad with the shoes on.

Take a look at the just deshod pictures - look at the heels in those. The side view is pretty average - it's what you are expecting to see, what you do see in hundreds of horses in hundreds of yards. But how many times do you get a close snoop at the heels when the shoe has been taken off?

Look at the second photo in the series; the solar view. This heel is not strong, robust or particularly ready to bear a lot of weight (so it must need a shoe?).

Now look closely at picture 3 - can you see how the heels are beginning to take shape? They now have a buttress and are now about the widest point on the foot - which as you can see has changed shape dramatically. Compare the shape of the foot in picture 3 with the shape of the shod foot in picture 1.

You can see equally dramatic changes taking place in the side view. Although it is not so easy to see the heel change; if you examine the whole foot you can see how all the damage is growing out and how the whole foot has 'relaxed'. Despite appearing a very solid structure, the hoof is remarkably 'plastic' and it is possible to force it into unnatural shapes; and equally possible for it to 'relax' back to normal if given the chance and if the forced unnatural shape hasn't caused long term damage.

This is not an easy one for the carer to take on. Their first transition to barefoot and as you can see there was a lot of damage to undo.

Important point - the horse is sound on arena surfaces and grass. Still struggles with stones, but this is improving very slowly as the sole thickens and gains some concavity. There is still flare to grow out.

Congratulations to the horse and the carer for their efforts :-)

Masking problems rather than fixing them

This post is inspired by my current horse; Grace.

Grace is barefoot and is in transition. Her shod feet were in poor condition and she is laminitic with suspected EPSM. To add further insult at sometime in her past she has received fairly traumatic injuries.

The reason I mention the laminitis, the EPSM and the injuries is that it is important to have a good understanding of the context in which a horse makes its transition.

Earlier this week, when I noticed that Grace was struggling to trot on a plain concrete surface it would have been very easy for 'Shoddies' (today's handle for people that shoe their horses) to blame her bare feet. It would have been equally easy to blame an influx of excess sugar from the spring grass. Or maybe even the EPSM. And I spent some time working through these thoughts.

After doing some research and sharing my thoughts with other experienced barefooters we figured out that the problem is at least in part related to her old injuries. It was even harder for me to realise that the school work that we have been doing to help with the injuries was also part of the problem. In fact it was Grace who had to point this out, I'd never have got there on my own.

So we have a smart, sensitive horse which was going lame on concrete - and at first glance it did look like a foot problem. In the bad old days she would have been shod and maybe with 'corrective' shoes. - However as this is not actually a foot problem she would still be lame. Then there would have been the endless rounds of nerve blocks, trot ups and pain killers and expense.

But because Grace is barefoot she can feel her feet. And because she can feel her feet her feedback to me about what is going wrong, where, is so much more accurate. Because I don't put on the shoes she hated so much she is learning to trust me and is getting more communicative as a result. Because shoes are not affecting the way Grace uses her feet and limbs I can more clearly observe what is happening in what circumstances.

Because the communication channels are not blurred in a multitude of ways by rings of steel we have been able to take a horse that was unsound in trot on concrete and get it sound again. And it didn't cost a penny or involve any drugs. And she is getting more trusting on an almost daily basis.

I am not saying Grace is cured and will forever be sound. I very much doubt this as there is so much more to unravel with her. But I do know that by taking her shoes off we removed a mask which hid problems rather than solved them. And don't get me started on shoes and laminitis :-)

Hooves are barometers

Hooves are barometers, with a time lag. The last time Grace had a jab she had an allergic reaction and it has shown up as a significant event line on her hooves.

I wonder if her tying up yesterday will present itself as another event line in the weeks to come?

This is one of my issues with horse shoes. They don't just cause damage in themselves, they mask the symptoms of other health issues which need addressing, but because the horse is wearing shoes the problems go unrecognised.

With Grace being barefoot I know that if I don't manage her diet properly she will get footy. I can address this quickly and she will recover quickly. Depending on how deliquent her diet was and for how long she might not even get an event line.

But I see horses with countless event lines; indicating a more severe problem, which have not shown any lameness; probably because they are wearing shoes. As the shoes restrict the circulation to the foot, the horse can't feel them properly, so vital feedback is denied.

Which of course is why we shoe horses. It allows us to work animals that are sick and to ignore the consequences.