Belle (dbL)
Pachebele was living in a domestic horse herd on grass pasture with severely neglected hooves. She suffered severe bone loss as a result. She was also extremely obese. The new owner that hired me moved her to a 10 acre pasture that had native grasses. After a couple of years of corrective and rehabilitative trimming, she made a full recovery with beautiful wild burro type hooves. Then she had a laminitic episode and delaminated all 4 hoof capsules completely around each coffin bone. The hoof capsules were loose enough that I could twist them about 1/2 mm independently from the coffin bones. I decided to leave them on and see if I could trim a little off at each interval and see how long they could stay on to cover the bones as the new wall grew down from the coronary band. They stayed intact until they got pretty close to the bottom. She laid down a lot through the process but she grew brand new hooves that looked beautiful again.
June 2015 - Set Up Trim
August 2015 - Third trim
Photo Credit: Claudia Landreville
Left: pre trim ( first trim ) 2015 Middle: post trim ( first trim) 2015 Right: post trim 9/2019
September 2019
August 2020
Left - pre trim Middle - post trim Right - red ( missing calloused live sole ) blue ( unconnected dead wall ) green - soft tissue development
The improvements in soft tissue were achieved in spite of missing so much coffin bone and live calloused sole at the toes. *She can retain dead sole at the toe to fill in the void but there is no laminar connection to the wall. This gives her the ability to lean on her toes but that’s what caused the coffin bone and live sole loss in the first place. In order for her to have a chance at continual development, building her soft tissue is the only way I know but it requires using it and relying on it.
With this much bone and sole loss I try to keep her loading in the space between the red arrows. This regenerates the soft tissue ( outlined in green ). Leaving the wall long to cover the toe looks better from the top but it allows the dead sole to fill in and allows her to toe load which erodes more bone.
Judging by the amount of retained sole that Bell needs in front of her frog tips, she is probably missing quite a bit of bone at the tip and quarters of P3. She is still able to build soft tissue in the back of her feet. This is what makes it possible for her to have sustainable bare feet that have the potential for improvement.
2015 - 2022