I am so thankful to have crossed paths with Bear, a 12 yr old Quarter horse who was severely lame. Bear had suffered from caudal heel pain and was diagnosed with Navicular Syndrome when he was about 7yrs old. Traditional shoeing and wedge pads had kept him moderately sound but not rideable for about 4 yrs. Then he foundered, twice. His owner was taking him to UC Davis to get $800.0 (a set) shoeing. Unfortunately, Bear would be sound for about a week and then return to a founder stance or a recumbent position. When I met him a Vet was encouraging the owner to consider euthanasia, which was understandable given the amount of pain Bear was in. Radiographs showed that Bear had coffin bone deterioration and his feet looked horrible. He was lying down when I arrived at the ranch and when standing, would rock back and pivot on his hind end. It was bad. I told the owner I would do my best but I was not sure how much I could help Bear. Here are some photos of the first trim.

He had long toes and under-run heels. The walls were shelly, brittle and flaking away. White line disease and thrush had eaten away the sole and there was a lot of exfoliating material that needed to come off. It was nerve racking to remove anything from these hooves, he had so little live sole. Once the overgrown wall and exfoliating sole was removed I could see that Bear had minimal collateral groove depth. It appeared Deep Digital Dissent had been occurring for years. There was tremendous wall separation caused by the Laminits. He had a Lamellar Wedge which was distorting the look of the white line.

To sum up, Bear had every form of hoof disease I had ever seen, occurring simultaneously. It made sense that he couldn’t walk. I trimmed Bear, and let him stand on pads while I picked up each foot. I brought the toe back and took the wall length down to about the level of the live sole plane. This is too short for a sound riding horse but having the hoof wall relieved, stopped much of the tearing forces acting on the lamina. I finished by applying the mustang roll then fitted him in dome pads and Easyboot Epics. I was blown away by how quickly the trim and padded boots relieved the pain. Once in the boots Bear stopped rocking back on his hind end and even offered a few trot strides as he returned to his stall.

I told the owner we would have to make big changes, not only to his trimming and hoof care, but to his living environment and diet as well. Bear was living in a 12 by 24 paddock, and was being fed Alfalfa, and lots of starch (a “senior” horse feed). Not only were his feet a mess, he was thin and had poor hair/coat quality. The owner agreed to keep Bear in boots and pads 24/7, and clean them daily. His hooves were being soaked daily in dilute Lysol and water to kill the Thrush. Bear was moved (that day) to a multi acre pasture and turned out with another horse. Bear wore a Grazing muzzle to prevent over eating of pasture grass. His new diet was grass hay, a salt lick and water. Sugar and starch were reduced in his diet, (no more senior horse feed). Here’s the Second trim.

Thanks to the diligent work of his owner,(removing the thrush, changing the diet, and moving Bear to a new living environment), he was feeling better every time I saw him. The support from the boots and pads gave him a chance to move correctly and the pasture gave him a chance to move as much as possible, stimulating hoof growth and the development of the internal structures (the digital cushion and the lateral cartilages). He began to grow new sole and his Collateral groove depth increased. An added bonus of the diet change was that he gained about 100lbs and his coat came in darker, and had a glossy sheen. The speed at which this happened was unusual, or was it? The owner followed all instructions correctly and immediately. I believe that’s why Bear was returned to soundness so quickly. He was being ridden at a walk in his boots after the third trim, and about the 5 trim, was returned to full work in boots. He now is used as western pleasure horse and only wears his boots when working on the trail.

Bear is not a million dollar race horse, or a jumper or a champion cutter. He’s a family horse, who was loved and cared for in an extraordinary way. To restore him to a pain free, working life was the most wonderful experience I have had as a trimmer. Bear taught me that the process of a Barefoot Rehab is collective. The trimming was important, but without the changes in environment, diet, and treatment of fungal infection, would Bear’s results have been so fast? I doubt it. Bear’s owner Debbie is the real hero. She gets a big pat on the back and I’m grateful to her, Thanks Debbie!

Valentine (Val) is a 7 year old Fresian cross. Primarily a jumping horse, she is also ridden lightly on the trail and does some dressage schooling. Val is beautiful and has stunning feet; she has never worn metal shoes. The concavity of her feet is nearly perfect. Because her bars are robust, I prefer to trim them as little as possible. Her frogs were trimmed a little this time due to some small pockets of thrush developing in the central sulcus. Other than that, she just needed a rebalancing and a reapplication of the mustang role.  Val was happy to be a cover girl and an example of an ideal barefoot horse.

Safeer is an 11 year old grey Arabian. He is primarily used as a lesson horse and a pleasure/trail horse. He is a playful, sweet, and busy guy, who has always had a stiff right shoulder which causes his stride on his right side to be shorter than his left side. When horses routinely land with unequal stride lengths, they begin to distribute weight unequally on the limbs.

The shorter stride on the right side causes diminished weight bearing and ground interaction. Consequently the heel on this limb is not appropriately worn away. The left leg begins to bear more weight than the right with every stride causing an excess wearing of the heel and overgrowth of the toe. This deviation of symmetry from the upper body causes an asymmetrical hoof growth pattern. The hooves must be constantly trimmed to more closely resemble true balance. However, the hooves may never return to full symmetrical growth unless the upper body issues are addressed. Safeer has been seeing an eqiune body worker since this process began, which has helped his right shoulder and extended his stride on the right.

For the past three years he’s been in metal shoes that haven’t helped correct his imbalance. When I pulled the gelding’s metal shoes, I saw Safeer’s left hoof had an under run heel with a very long toe. He had a wedge pad on his left front. The right front was very upright and had a high heel, where I found severe thrush running up from the central sulcus creating a deep pocket almost to the hairline. This high right heel was very tender from the thrush. Safeer’s owner did an excellent job of eliminating the thrush and on my next visit, (when these photos were taken) he was thrush free and much more comfortable.

He had been sound after pulling the metal shoe’s and with his thrush resolved I felt comfortable starting to bring back the toe on the left front. As you can see from these pictures, the toe on the left front was brought back to almost normal parameters. The growth rings show how the heel was being dragged under by the ever lengthening toe. To keep Safeer comfortable while he adjusts to landing more on the heel of his left front and ward off any potential tenderness, Safeer will be kept in boots for the next several weeks while he adjusts. I will continue to post pictures of his progress in the next few months.