Barefoot for Soundness

-- Mustang roll (or vertical cut) to the middle of the water line -- see photos of mustang feet on Hoof Shape page.

-- Trim the heels to the horse's preferred height. This may vary with wet/dry seasons, terrain, condition of the frog, and changes in work. Be ready to let heels be "too long" if the horse shows any heel discomfort such as toe-first landing.

-- Bars generally will not need trimming if the horse gets enough movement to wear them.

-- Frog should only be trimmed if it gets long enough to lean over to one side. Only remove the leaned-over part. (Diseased frog should be trimmed away to let air get to the bottom of the infection.)

-- Watch for flaring, especially during your lush-grass season(s) when grass laminitis can weaken the white line -- and IMMEDIATELY return to the "white line strategy."
 

The hind feet are trimmed the same way as the front feet. Hind feet get a mustang roll, too.

If a hind foot has worn too short in the heels and the toe has gotten "long out in front," back up the toe to the edge of the sole. You can stop backing up the toe when the toe / heel proportion (from a line drawn across the widest part of the hoof) comes back to 1/2 - 1/2 and the bulbs are no longer squashed flat.

Looking at the sole, hind feet are generally not symmetrical in their medial-lateral (inside-outside) outline. The outside half is generally wider, due to different forces in the way the hind leg moves. Do not try to make them symmetrical! The toe is more pointed than a front toe.

The hind feet often grow longer on the inside (medial) because domestic horses with nowhere interesting to go often stand around with one hind leg cocked; the other leg centers under the hindquarters so that the hoof wears more along the outside. The imbalanced hoof makes the hocks wobble sideways (seen by walking behind the horse) and there will be a very sore acupressure point on the rump that shortens the stride. Every time you trim, look for and trim the excess growth along the inside of the hind feet; often the outside doesn't need trimming at all.

A "paddock paradise" walking track will help the horses to wear their hind feet level. See Jamie Jackson's book on Homepage.

Once a foot is consistently landing heel-first, with the walls trimmed to the level of the sole, even a very imbalanced foot should re-shape itself gradually towards side-to-side balance. In Gene Ovnicek's opinion, we should let the foot change in its own way and at its own speed -- especially a very imbalanced foot, because the imbalance can be due to the coffin bone sitting unevenly inside the hoof capsule, or even taking on an uneven shape. I have several coffin bones like this, they must have been shod crooked for a long time and the bone adapted to the imbalanced trim.

However, this doesn't mean we can be sloppy in our trimming. A "high spot" of as little as 1/16 inch (1 or 2 mm.) somewhere on the wall can make a horse very uncomfortable in his joints and can make him toe-out or toe-in. Finding and trimming a high spot will immediately make the horse more comfortable and you should be able to see the difference in his legs. A leg with a completely balanced foot looks "like a tree growing out of the ground" -- straight and vertical.

The heel-first landing (see Breakover page) is the best way to help the coffin bone re-shape itself. When the foot lands on the heel, flexion and circulation work the best and the hoof is capable of amazing changes and self-rehabilitation.

Because the hoof is not a square vertical object but grows forward at a slant, there are two directions that we can trim the toe, so we need two ways to talk about it.

A long toe means that, looking at the bottom of the hoof, the wall has grown beyond the sole. To shorten the toe means to cut the excess wall length on the bottom, until it is level with the sole. Long toes are uncommon because farriers tend to shorten toes into the toe callus.

A forward flared toe has a weakened white line (laminar) connection to the coffin (pedal) bone and sticks out too far in front, causing a late breakover. It may or may not be longer than the sole; farriers often shorten the toe underneath and cut the toe callus away, while leaving the toe flare, so that the coffin (pedal) bone has very little sole protection.

With late breakover of the front feet, there may be forging (hind foot hits front foot because front foot cannot get out of the way soon enough) and/or a shortened stride. And, crucial to soundness, you will see the foot landing toe-first or flat, rather than the correct heel-first landing (See Breakover page).

To back up a forward-flared toe means to cut the excess forward-flared wall, with either a vertical cut or a mustang roll (rounded bevel), to a position where the horse can break over correctly. The vertical cut, or the curve of the mustang roll, should go all the way to the edge of the sole, which in a forward flared foot has grown forward past its correct position.

We trim forward-flared toes this way until the wall has grown down with a new, tight, white line (laminar) connection all the way from the coronet to the ground, which may take several months to a year. After a forward-flared toe has grown down unflared, you can change to a regular mustang roll which ends at the center of the "water line," the layer of white, unpigmented wall between the outer wall and the "white line" which actually looks yellowish in color.

The toes on the hind feet are very important to the horse's movement. Hind feet almost always land heel-first, due to the zig-zag arrangement of the hind leg joints. However, forward-flared hind toes cause a late breakover of the hind legs. The horse cannot move in collection because there is not enough time for the hind legs to reach all the way forward.

For the horse to carry the rider's weight effectively, the hind toes should be backed up to the white line (yellowish color), especially in a horse whose heels tend to run under and toes tend to grow forward. Long-backed horses will also need an early breakover so that they can reach the hind feet well forward under their weight.

The two most common wall cracks are toe cracks and quarter cracks.

A toe crack is usually at or near the center line of the toe. It is caused by "corners" or "bulges" in the outline of the toe, at about 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock from the center. The mechanical force of the ground pushing against these corners, pulls the tubules (hair-like material that is the wall is made of) apart, resulting in a crack.

To stop a toe crack, you need to trim the outline or footprint of the hoof to an even, round curve so that there are no "corners" sticking out for the ground to push on. With your eye just in front of the shoulder, look down on the hoof. The outline of the foot should be as round as the coronet. DO NOT try to fix the crack by flattening the wall at the crack. This only makes the "corners" more prominent.

A quarter crack is caused by mechanical stresses in a contracted heel. Normally, the wall at the heels slopes outward like the rest of the wall. The wall of a contracted heel slopes inward. Where the wall changes from an outward slope to an inward slope, the tubules are under great strain and will pull apart, resulting in a crack.

Contracted heels most often occur on a foot with a forward-flared toe. To stop a quarter crack, you need to de-contract the heels. The most effective ways to do this are:

1) Back up the forward-flared toe, as described above

2) If there is a fungus infection, treat the fungus (see More Topics page). As the frog grows wider it will push the heels farther apart.

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How often do you need to trim?

The answer to this question will vary widely, because horses in different situations wear their feet differently. See also the "Schedule" page on www.ironfreehoof.com.

On one end of the scale, I have heard of horses that live on many acres of dry, partly rocky ground, and go for long trail rides several times a week, that need a trim maybe once a year.

On the other end of the scale, my insulin resistant horse lived in a 1/4 acre paddock and never got enough work to wear her feet much. I had to trim at two weeks most of the year, three weeks in the winter when they grew slower. When I let her feet go an extra week, they started to flare.

A transitioning hoof needs to be trimmed when the toe wall has grown to the level of the sole, to prevent flaring of the still-weak white line. A horse that has regained concavity and is getting a maintenance trim can probably be left till the toe wall is 1/8 inch (3mm) longer than the sole.

Some horses wear the toe enough that it rarely needs a trim; in that case, trim when the quarters need it, to prevent flares and cracks from developing there.

If the wall keeps flaring, trim more frequently and consider the grass issue (insulin resistance). A horse will not go "sound on gravel" until the white line is completely tight. In the UK and eastern US, grass laminitis is the major concern in trimming your horse. See www.safergrass.org

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Photos of a "white line strategy" trim

Johan de Kock of South Africa sent this nice series of photos, showing how to trim when the white line is stretched (= when there is a flare). Most of the comments are Johan's; I have edited them in places for clarity.

When the wall is flared and the white line is stretched (those are the same thing), the coffin bone is not firmly attached inside the hoof capsule, and settles down onto the sole corium, causing "transition" soreness. This shows up most often as the horse going "sore on gravel."

The "white line strategy" that Pete Ramey figured out, which I have outlined above and which Johan shows here, gives the wall a chance to grow a new, tight laminar (white line) connection so that the coffin bone will become firmly attached inside the hoof capsule. When this is accomplished, the horse will be able to walk on gravel without pain, and may no longer need boots while riding -- depending on climate and terrain.

In areas with a wet climate or wet season, where the ground is soft and damp, the water-softened walls flare very easily and it is a constant struggle to keep them from flaring. Even a few days of extra growth can be enough to cause new flares -- and the loss of several weeks' work. You will have to discover for yourself, when to trim again to prevent this re-flaring. Horses in wet climates may need to ride with boots nearly all the time if they live on pasture but are ridden on gravel roads or rocky trails.
 

The photos are mostly of Dane's Left Fore, to show you what flare looks like AND what tighter laminae (white line) looks like.  This is the hoof untouched, I just picked it up and took the picture.

 

Next I have picked the hoof and cleaned it with a wire brush. Can you see how stretched the white line is? [It makes a ditch or furrow just outside the sole. You can see the laminae on the inside of the wall - M.] Can you also see that there is "dead" (chalky, crackly) sole in the seat-of-corn?  [On the left side, the heel is filled-in with some "dead" sole which must be scraped out to find the true level of the sole, to guide us in trimming the length of the heel on that side. Note that the heel at the left is farther forward than the right -- a good clue that the left heel is longer - M.]

 

Here is the side view of the Right Fore [this photo was clearer than the Left]. Can you see where the top part of the wall is tightly attached to the coffin bone. The flare begins about halfway down the toe; from here to the ground, the white line is stretched.

 

If I now draw a line [on the photo] following the upper part of the toe wall, all the way to the ground, it will indicate to me how much flare there is. I have drawn the line just inside the edge of the hoofwall so that you can see where the laminae are tight, and where the flare begins.  Dane grows more well-connected wall every time there is new growth. The old, flared growth keeps growing down towards the ground. However, flare is still flare and the flared area must be backed-up. [Notice the overgrown heel. A horse's heel grows forward as it grows longer -- hooves don't grow straight down! This is not an "underslung" heel because, looking at the sole view, the heel is not contracted - M.]

 

I have trimmed the wall flat, all the way around, to sole level. When I touch the edge of the sole, I stop. Notice how far back the heel buttresses have moved.  [The "white line" shows clearly here as a thick, dirty line. The part that looks white is the "water line" or un-pigmented inner layer of hoof wall - M.] [Using the trim shown above, we would not trim the wall flat and would not touch even the edge of the sole with the rasp. Johan has done this to show the stretched white line. We also would not trim the heels to the level of the sole until the foot had regained concavity - M.]

 

Look at how stretched the white line is, especially around the toe.  [Bracket shows the width of the stretched white line. Arrows point to where Johan's rasp, shortening the wall, has barely touched the edge of the sole.  - M.]

 

To show the mustang roll, I will do half the hoof, so you can see the difference. Where the white line is stretched, I rasp at about 45 degrees to the sole, going all the way to the edge of the sole. [Arrow points to part of the white line which is not stretched. Notice it is clean and has a yellowish color - M.]

 

Maybe this picture will give you a better idea as to how I have removed the wall and white line right up to the sole. [Arrow points to edge of the sole - M.]

 

Here is the trimmed side, with the mustang roll done. [I drew a white line, following the upper part of the hoof wall, showing where the wall will grow to after the flare is gone. Notice that it meets the present edge of the sole, the same spot where Johan has ended his mustang roll. The green line shows where the lower part of the wall is flared. The pink curve outlines Johan's very nice mustang roll on this half of the foot; the other side has not been beveled yet - M.]

 

And just so you can see the difference in length (and to give you a better idea of how I do the mustang roll), I took this one from the front. [Both sides are trimmed to the same wall length on the bottom of the foot. The difference that you see is entirely due to beveling the wall with a mustang roll. Does this give you a better idea why an unbeveled wall starts to flare again? - M.]

 

After that I did the other half as well. Notice the white line in the left heel starting to show, that's where I stop trimming the heel. The quarters are still flared, but I was happy with them like that for the night, as it was going to be dark soon and I still had to take pictures and feed pigs  :-)  I'll finish tomorrow when I work the flares down from the outside. [Arrows point to a thin dirt line between the bars and the sole, indicating the bars are a little overgrown. Using a hoof knife, we can trim the bars and the overgrown sole beside them until there is no more dirt line; that is the correct length of the bars - M.]

 

Here it is what it looks like from the outside once the mustang roll is done. [White line shows where the side wall will be when the flare has grown out. All the wall outside this line is flared. Pink line shows Johan's vertical cut, removing flare at the bottom of the wall only. Note that the vertical cut meets the ground where the new wall will eventually be.  In this way we prevent the wall from contacting the ground, and constantly re-flaring, until the new white line connection has grown down from the coronet all the way to the ground - M.]

 

Next day, finishing the flare.  You need a way of checking how much flare there is, how much you have taken off and whether it's correct now. Hold the rasp on its side against the hoofwall, and look if you can see between the rasp and the wall. You can see, here, that the top part is straight and then the bottom bends outwards. That bottom part is flare and IT MUST GO!!! [Note that Dane lives in a very dry climate, and the flare has grown down a lot since he was de-shod. In my wet climate, I would not remove this remaining flare. - M.

 

Checking the quarter for flaring, again using the rasp for a straight-edge. It's a little difficult to hold the foot and the rasp, and take the picture at the same time :-) but you can see the quarter is flared just a little.

 

Rasp the outside of the hoof till the flare is gone. Again check with the rasp, now the flare is gone and the rasp fits right against the toe wall. [Note: on a foundered foot with extreme flaring, or a foot living in a wet climate, we would not do this step because we don't want to weaken the wall. We only do the vertical cut shown above.

 

On the photo I have marked the dorsal hoofwall (toe wall), drawing just inside the wall so you can see the straight toe.  [Now the entire toe matches the growth angle of the upper hoofwall below the coronet. The white line (laminae) inside the lower wall is still stretched, the flare is still "in there," but the excess wall has been removed so that the hoof can break over well. Now the wall will not re-flare because there is no ground contact in front of the breakover. Again, a horse in a wet climate can lose its concavity (go flat-soled) if we straighten the flared toe wall like this. - M.]