You can't necessarily judge a book by its cover

And a 'pretty' hoof won't necessarily perform better than one which is less photogenic. This foot has become rock crunching against the odds. It might only last for a few days, the horse is so metabolically challenged I plan to celebrate while I can :-)



Photos can be misleading. So let me describe what I see 'hands on'. The sole is really very flat and has been for months. Every time we get a smidge of concavity we have a metabolic event of some sort and it splats.

The white line is stretched and doing something rather nasty at the toe. We have also had a bit of thrush in the frog. But the horse is sound over some pretty nasty rocks. Bouncingly sound. Long may it last. We can work on better form, but healthy, active, function will go a long way to helping that happen.

Cross your rasps for this one. :-)

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.