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.

Transition to barefoot of an unhealthy foot

This foot was never 'officially' diagnosed as suffering from laminitis. But the signs were there. Stretched white line with blood at the toe. Significant stress rings and a dropped sole.

The first picture is beginning of Sept 09, the second is today Feb 2010. I have edited this post to put in today's picture. If you click on it you can clearly see how the foot is still scooting forward, but we are getting there. Both pictures right fore.

It's easy to see how distorted the hoof capsule is in the first photo. The toe is too long, the heel underslung and there is a wave in the coronary band where the quarter is out of whack.

In the second photo (apologies for the mud) you can see a much shorter hoof capsule overall, the heel is back in the correct position and there is no distortion in the coronary band. The mustang roll is less than pretty, but we are working on that :-)

These pictures have a bigger time frame between them. The first is beginning Sept 09, the second is today, beginning Feb 2010. Both right fore.

You can easily see how the foot has decontracted and the concavity has improved signifcantly. There is still more to go, but we are making progress. This hasn't been achieved because of the trim, but because the whole lifestyle of the horse has been addressed (DEET).

The horse was allowed to self trim its sole and bars which happened very quickly once the shoes were removed. The bars were badly overlaid and had become embedded in the sole.

Underneath the overlaid bars were substantial, weeping corns.

The 'live' sole was more convex than concave and there was a significant amount of bloody torn laminae at the toe. All in all a very sick and painful foot.

Despite the difficulties we are making progress and today the horse was able to walk comfortably over a patch of large, fairly sharp stones.

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.

Livery yards and barefoot

Humph. Am coming to conclusion that keeping a barefoot horse on a DIY yard is much easier than in the horse is at full livery. I've never been satisfied with full livery. Virtually all the digestive/condition/happiness issues I ever had with a horse have been at full livery.

It always seems that owners instructions are optional. As is good basic horsemanship.

If you are at a great full livery yard that can keep its staff, that sticks to instructions and puts the horses first you are very very lucky.

The reason this conclusion has reared its ugly head today? Well I horse I know and love which is desperately metabolic is constantly having its short and long term health compromised by the 'interesting' happenings at its full livery yard. Not fair, not right and not what its very dedicated owner is paying for. :-( Sorry rant over. Its been a long, not so good, day.

Event Lines

Stress rings, grass rings - call them what you will. They are often thought as normal or natural and casually dismissed. Because they are so common few 'professionals' remark on them, let alone give advice, so its hardly surprising that the uninitiated pay them scant attention.

But Event Lines should be taken seriously, observed, noted and the effort made to link back to the 'event' that caused them. This is where a diary or great memory help, because an Event Line will typically first show about 1cm below the coronary band roughly 4-6 weeks after the 'event'. This of course will vary between horses.

All sorts of things can cause an Event Line. Typically a horse is/has received an overload of sugar/starch. But it could be a bad reaction to worming or an injection.

Grace has had some substantial Event Lines as you can see in the picture below. Grace has had (probably previously undiagnosed) sub clinical laminitis. She is sensitive to sugar, but also to vaccination.

In December she had her second of three set up innoculations and suffered a bad allergic reaction. Sure enough, as her foot has grown down, this 'event' has shown up as a substantial Event Line on her hooves.

Event Lines can be rings or grooves. At the time of writing I know of no definitive evidence as to what influences ring or groove. I just know that some horses tend to throw rings, some grooves and some a bit of both.

Don't ignore them, they are vital feedback direct from the hoof that something has happened to upset your horse's metabolism.

From observation only I am concerned that it is possible that horse shoes mask the symptoms of an event, but it doesn't mean a horse is not struggling metabolically, just that the feedback mechanism is compromised.

Feeding a horse is actually 'farming'

Bacteria. The horse is home to an enormous vat (the Cecum) of bacteria and when you feed your horse its important to keep the bacteria in mind. Upset these little guys and your horse (and your bank balance) will pay the price. Here's why:

About the Cecum

The cecum is a blind sack approximately four-feet long that can hold up to 40 quarts (approx 10 UK gallons) of food and fluid.

The cecum is a microbial inoculation vat. The microbes break down feed that was not digested in the small intestine, particularly fibrous feeds like hay.

Feed will remain in the cecum for about seven hours, which gives the bacteria time to start breaking it down. The microbes will produce vitamin K, B-complex vitamins, proteins, and fatty acids. The vitamins and fatty acids will be absorbed, but little if any protein.

The microbial population in the cecum is somewhat specific as to what feedstuffs it can digest.

If a change of feed occurs, it takes about three weeks to develop a microbial population that can digest a new feed and maintain a normal flow through the cecum.

A general rule for safely changing feeds:

Week 1: Feed a mix of three-fourths of the old ration and one-fourth of the new ration.
Week 2: Feed a mix of one-half of the old ration and one-half of the new ration.
Week 3: Feed a mix of one-fourth of the old ration and three-fourths of the new ration.
Week 4: Feed all new ration.

Be aware that sudden switches between different feed qualities result in rapid changes to the bacterial mix and the sudden death of the less favoured bacteria.

Death of large numbers of bacteria will, in turn, lead to the release of large amounts of endotoxin from the bacteria.

If this happens your horse could get laminitis or colic which are the two leading causes of death in the domestic equine. So much unnecessary death, so easily preventable.

A future blog will have a look at the stomach and digestion more generally. And probably more about the evils of sugar! :-)

The elephant in the room is made of molasses

On January 15, 1919 in Boston, US, molasses killed 21 people and several horses. And molasses is still contributing to the death of horses today and every day.

An emotive statement perhaps - but if you understand equine physiology and throw in a splash of economics you can see how the case can be made.

Molasses is a by product of sugar production. And thanks to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations I learnt that sugar production has grown by over 50% in just over 20 years*. The same sort of time frame which has seen an explosion in the addition of molasses to horse feed.

About 75% of global sugar production comes from sugar cane. The yield of molasses from sugar cane is 3.5-4%. That is a lot of molasses; has to go somewhere and for the moment horses and their owners are an easy, profitable market.

Horses are paying the price with their health. And their owners are paying twice over – once for the molassed feeds and again for the increased vets’ bills.

The impact of a diet too high in sugar is not just the big obvious things like laminitis. There are all sorts of minor symptoms which go unnoticed or are dismissed as trivial or behavioural, when really we are making the horse sick. Have you ever noticed a horse with any of the following:

- Has, or has had laminitis
- Poor feet (crumbly, contracted, or won’t hold a shoe
- Has stress rings on their hooves (also known as grass rings)
- Footy over stones, ruts or hard ground
- Walks like a duck behind (or as if it has a full nappy)
- Has non specific lameness issues
- Is 'off', moody, grumpy or irritable
- Doesn't look you in the eye, or even looks away
- Has a dull coat
- Smells unpleasant generally or has gas issues
- Produces 'cow pat' style droppings
- Is particularly spooky or hard to manage
- Is cresty, has cellulite or excessive body fat
- Gets swollen legs when stabled
- Has a swollen or greasy sheath (gelding) or greasy teats (mare)
- Is 'lazy', reluctant or naps

Just think – it might be the sugar in their diet. But until its taken out you will never know for sure.

Of course it’s not just molasses which is to blame; any diet and/or management regime which doesn’t respect the equine digestive system can cause trouble.

Horses are not designed to eat large quantities of sugars or simple starches. They are miracles of evolution (or day 6 depending on your point of view), perfectly designed to live well and prosper on large volumes of high fibre, low nutritional value, plants, while still retaining the ability to run really fast from a standing start, over a fair distance and turn on a dime (sixpence).

The downside of this brilliant piece of biological engineering is that while a horse's digestive system is perfectly fitted for its purpose, it isn't particularly adaptable and it doesn't work anything like a human's.

So what should we give a horse? It’s really very simple, go back to basics, respect nature feed:-

- Ad-lib high fibre, low sugar, mixed forage (hay or haylage)
- Free choice access to natural sources of minerals
- Free choice access to good quality water

If your horse is working hard or is a poor keeper you can add things like:-

- Micronised linseed (excellent source of amino acids and omega 3)
- (Low sugar) Sugar Beet (Kwik Beet is the lowest in the UK at 3%)

Some horses will benefit from free access to beneficial herbs. My old horse was always better when given access to dried nettles, which she loved. Another horse always feasted on roses after a work out.

Just bear in mind that some plants are really high in sugar, so you need to know your plants and restrict access as appropriate. I knew one horse that adored Elderflowers and berries but her legs always swelled afterwards, probably because of the sugar content.

I’ll write more about diet specifics in another post, as this one is long enough already!

* On average between 1988 and 1990 global sugar production was 109 879 000 tonnes. For 2010 the projected figure is 165 131 000 tonnes.

Barefoot - a horse management question

How often do you hear 'I tried barefoot and it didn't work for me.'

The operative word being 'me'. Where barefoot is not working - it is often for the person and not necessarily the horse. Let me explain my thinking.

Barefoot requires some reworking of how we manage our horses. We have to put aside some of our conventions and start looking at life from the horse's point of view. It may take some time and persistence before we get the management mix right (for the horse).

There are a whole chunk of people out there for whom this is not an option, for whatever reason. For these people barefoot might not work (don't get me wrong - given the appropriate care it would most likely work for their horses).

Let's briefly look at the management issues that need addressing and then I'll post about each in more detail separately. For ease of reference I use the acronym DEET - Diet, exercise, environment and Trim

Diet is a big factor - a significant proportion of the horse population is sensitive to sugar. It's really a digestive problem that has side effects on the feet. Modern diets have a tendency to be very high in sugar.

Exercise - the horse is designed to move, more or less constantly, and can easily cover 20 miles a day routinely. Current methods of horse care tend to restrict movement which has lots of side effects, one of which is poor foot health/growth.

Environment - Hooves adapt to the surface they work/live most on. The current trend towards soft sand arenas, grassy paddocks and protection against wear on hard surfaces contributes to poor, weak and crumbly hooves.

Trim - Hooves will self trim to their own optimum when given sufficient exercise over the right sort of terrain. Current management practices tend not allow this to happen. An effective barefoot trim will mimic the natural wear pattern and only remove what nature would have removed given the chance.