Blade (dbL)

Blade was in his mid 20’s when I pulled his shoes. He was already retired from riding. He was known as a “grumpy old man” and he was mildly aggressive with me for the first few trims, but quickly became more willing to just stand quietly and patiently during trims. He’s been barefoot for 4 years now and after having a problem eye removed, his demeanor has become even softer. After having his two main sources of pain relieved he’s turned into a pretty sweet old man.

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October 2021 - Pulled Shoes and Set Up Trim

December 2021 - Blade is currently retired and turned out full time in a large paddock with 3 younger horses on dirt footing ( currently mud ). The owner reports that he’s getting around pretty good.

2 months progress showing a lot of new regeneration at the sole/lamina/wall junction, making for a much more comfortable break over.

Oct 2021 - Jan 2022 (3.5 months progress)

The distortion is starting to grow out after the hpa has been maintaining a better position for a couple of months now . This is after pulling shoes with wedge pads and correcting the heel/frog/seat of corn relationship. It’ll take 7 months to grow out this hoof capsule at this new angle. I suggested removing alfalfa from Blade’s diet today ( possibly for the second time ). We’ve made it this far without dietary changes but I warned the owner of foot soreness when there’s no more insensitive retained dead sole covering the thin live sole. The goal is to get it to exfoliate on its own but the live sole underneath needs to callous properly to provide comfort. In my experience, alfalfa impedes the callousing process and makes the live sole soft and rubbery. This allows coffin bone pressure. Again. This doesn’t seem to make as much of a difference in a foot with a lot of retained dead sole thickness. A retained dead hoof capsule performs more like a rigid cast rather than a supple shock absorber.

This is a hard phase to get comfortable with, when the shoes and wedges come off and the effects of chronic toe loading are revealed. I keep my focus on the heel/frog/seat of corn shapes and relationship, the horses comfort ( is it continually improving? ), and I assess the new growth coming down from the hairline ( is it coming in better connected and is the new better connected wall making it closer to the ground?

Oct 2021 - Apr 2022. It’s tough to disguise the truth from this photo angle. Blade’s feet are still super flat and they still have a lot of live sole to build, but at least he doesn’t have 3/4” of prolapsed retained dead sole anymore. It’s very important to understand that I helped him grow that off…I didn’t just rasp it off to make it look better. I’m happy we made it to this stage. I was concerned about this guy. This much prolapsed dead retained sole is an indication of a lot of bone erosion ( pedal osteitis ). This comes from chronic toe loading. I see it in bare foot and shod horses that are improperly trimmed, shod, managed. It’s not easy for older horses to come out of shoes, especially if they’ve had shoes on for a couple of decades. On the plus side, the owner of this horse is staying on board with the trim schedule and giving him time to heal with very little work expectations. He lives in a 200’ X 200’ pen with 3 other horses so he does have room and a reason to move. The diet and footing ( alfalfa and packed dirt ) aren’t what I recommend and we’ve talked about it, but those changes haven’t been made yet. When I rehab older horses with crooked legs and depleted feet I really like to have everything in place to set them up for success, but I also have to consider how much people are able to help, and just do my best to get the trimming part right. Blade is sore at this point, but he’s doing better than he was in shoes. He comes up to me for “in between trims” when I’m trimming his herd mates so I know the trimming alone is helping him. His owner is looking into boots with Cloud pads that don’t rub his heel bulbs. When I look at the big picture, I’m feeling good about the progress we’re making, even though I think it could be better. Blade lives about 7 miles from my house at a barn where I trim about 20 horses so it’s easy for me to keep up on his trims. I have other clients that are doing everything possible for their horses, but they live 2-3 hours from me and I can’t keep them on as frequent a schedule as I’d like. I keep this in mind when a horse owner isn’t doing all they can, but they’re doing their best.

My short term goal is to at least build Blade’s soft tissue so he’s not loading his soles, and if I can help him build at least another couple millimeters of live sole, he’ll be much more comfortable, even if his feet are still flat. My long term goal is to help him build some true concavity. That will depend on the amount of bone erosion, and the amount of soft tissue he can build. That’s why I don’t throw in the towel when I see bad looking radiographs. Every horse is different. I never know where the limits will be…so I just keep pushing them. In the beginning there is a conversation that takes place. They won’t give me their feet at liberty if they don’t trust me: they trust me when I trim their feet. It’s a difficult line to walk, but it’s important. Those first few swipes of the trim can make all the difference. The horse knows the limits at each trim and I listen to them, but even they don’t know what is possible. We figure it out together.

18 months progress. This 25 year old QH who lives in a 12’ X 36’ out door run/stall on wood shavings w/ daily turnout out in an arena. He eats Bermuda/alfalfa/senior and I keep him on a 4-6 week trim schedule. Most of that is not ideal but he’s been more comfortable and steadily improving since shoes and wedge pads were pulled. Slow progress is better than no progress.

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