JJ's unusual problem

A fairly un-common hoof problem is something referred to as a "bull-nosed" hoof. What is it? It is a situation in which the toe of the hoof grows long but not flared out in front. It pulls the sole down toward the ground and in effect raises the toe of the coffin bone higher than the back (which is the opposite of normal). The result is a bulge in the hoof wall when viewed from the side. So instead of the wall being straight, it is arched. Although I wish it were a clearer picture the photo at left shows a bull-nosed foot.

Anyone who knows Lauren knows that she advocates preserving sole at all times. The one and only scenario where sole needs to be removed is with a bull-nosed hoof. It is necessary in order to start to bring the toe of the coffin bone into correct alignment. This is balanced by leaving a little extra heel and frog to support the back of the hoof.

The worst part about a bull-nosed hoof is what it does to the horse's body. Think about it. Imagine walking on just your heels with your toes raised. Eventually that is gonna hurt everywhere.

The photo above is of JJ's left hind foot when he first arrived at the Nexus Center. What was particularly interesting about JJ is that he had bull-nosed hooves on all four feet. Usually you only see it on hind feet. Poor JJ, who was only 4 years old, was in such pain it was hard to watch sometimes. And it wasn't just foot pain... it was all over body pain. The way he flinched when you rubbed on his hindquarters was a tell tale sign.

Today, JJ has filled out, his muscling has changed, and he can now gallop soundly on hard rocky terrain! Recently he was seen hacking out on our trails relaxed and happy wearing just a halter.

Barefoot Spotlight: Pagni

Pagni is a 3 year old Friesian who has been barefoot from birth. That fact, paired with the beautiful trim done on him by Lauren as well as the nutrition he gets has given me a sound and safe fellow. Pictures don't do justice of our driveway, it is 3/4 - 1 inch size gravel and as you can see in these videos, doesn't cause any problems for Pagni. At the end of our driveway, which is 1/4 mile long we have pavement. I love the security knowing that he won't slip on the road and can just as easily go back to crush and run gravel a little ways further down the road. Basically there is nothing this horse can't do barefoot! Thanks ladies!!!

Calm and confident is how we like it

This is Charlie, he is a 7 year old TWH who is at the Nexus Center for training. His owners, Jim and Donna Dehaas, are relatively new to horses and just happened to find me after an online search for trainers in the area. They stopped by our hoof clinic and really liked what they saw. Not only from a hoof care prospective but also from a training perspective.

They'd been told that Charlie had to be shod. It was a real relief to discover that that wasn't exactly true. So when he arrived at the farm to start his training with me the first order of the day was to remove the shoes he had on his feet.

We'd known that Charlie had already presented some challenges for the Dehaas' when handling his feet. So we knew that we were going to take things very slowly. If we got all the shoes off that day it would be a bonus. We'd take the time it took to ensure a good experience for all. When Jim mentioned that the farrier had to sedate Charlie for shoeing, because he'd already kicked the living daylights out of the guy, we did raise our eyebrows a bit. Ok that meant we'd go even slower. Slow as Charlie needed us to go.

I spent a good hour with Charlie just getting to know him, get him relaxed, and feeling OK about being handled. I introduced clicker training to him so that we'd have a sure fire way to let Charlie know he was OK and doing the right thing. I paid extra attention to being able to handle his feet safely.

The time came when I looked at Lauren and said, OK well let's give this a try. So she brought over the shoe pulling tools and set about getting the front shoes off. I was standing ready to click & treat the whole process. Step by step the shoes were removed and the front feet trimmed.

Knowing how much of a problem the back feet had been we fully expected to quit if we needed to and resume the shoe pulling process another day if need be. But we didn't need to. Charlie stood like a champ for the whole procedure. Now where was the camera when you needed it? What a pretty picture it would have been to see Charlie standing with his back foot resting softly in the hoof stand cradle while Lauren removed the nails.

When it was all over Jim laughed and said, I couldn't even imagine this taking place without a circus! But there Charlie was as relaxed and happy as a horse could be.

That is the way we like it!! Charlie agrees.

Barefoot Spotlight: Dylan

This is the first in a continuing series. Often times the response to barefoot is, "well, I ride my horses so they need to be shod." We'd like to put a spotlight on horses who are being worked soundly and barefoot on roads, gravel and trails. If these horses can do it, then surely folks who ride and compete mainly in arenas with easy footing, such as dressage or hunter/jumpers, can do it! The truth is these people are out there 'doing it', too. And discovering their horses move better and are more confident. If you would like your barefoot performance horse spotlighted here, please send me photos and a brief bio.

This is Dylan - a Dales pony/Clydesdale cross - at The National Drive in October at the Kentucky Horse Park. Over 400 pleasure drivers from around the country and Canada come for a week of visiting and driving at leisure to enjoy a most wonderful setting with old and new friends. Dylan was such an interest to so many people - he is only 15.1 hands, but looks just like the Budweiser Clydesdales - that he was dubbed "Bud Light". His beautiful bare feet prompted lots of wonderful comments as well. I love how this picture shows them off. Of course, they wanted to know if we slipped on the roads or if he shied away from gravel, etc. And the answer was always "NO". He is extremely surefooted and always sound!

Hoof clinic -- HUGE success!

Over the weekend of March 7 & 8, 2009, a group of enthusiastic learners gathered at the Nexus Center for two jam packed days of lecture, demo and hands on trimming practice.

Saturday dawned warm and sunny. We began with Lauren leading a lecture about the hoof, how it operates and how to identify signs of ill health. The Horse Science freeze-dried hoof model really helped everyone to visualize what goes on inside the hoof.

"I just want to say what a fantastic job [Sharon] and Lauren did with the hoof care clinic. The material was professionally done and the presentation was awesome!" -- Kathy from TN.

Lauren also talked about how she trims. She uses a method commonly referred to as Trimming From The Top. After talking about the key points of the trim she demonstrated how to do it on one of our horses. Lauren made a point of discussing not just what to do but how to do it efficiently.

After lunch everyone got a chance to do some trimming for themselves under the watchful eyes of both Lauren and Sharon.

"...just wanted to thank you again for the wonderful week end of learning and sharing and fellowship." Tata from TN.

Sunday was similar in format to the previous day. In the Sunday morning lecture Lauren delved further into other important aspects of hoof care such as nutrition and how to encourage movement which is is so crucial to healing. She also talked about special trimming cases such as founder and navicular. After lunch was more trimming with all the participants getting to trim a whole horse by themselves (with a lot of help, of course.) We have a wide variety of types of feet at the Center so we were able to match participants with horses who have similar issues as the ones they have at home.

One particularly ambitious participant wanted to squeeze in some riding lessons with Sharon as well. So, while other folks were getting some trimming done she had a lesson on the lovely Tulsa on both Saturday and Sunday.

"I have to say those two lessons taught me more than I've learned in all the years that I rode when I was young. Thank you!!!!" -- Carol from NC.

What was most exciting to us was the fact that everyone went away feeling full of great information and confident that when they got home they could actually do the trim! That's "teaching a man to fish!" and what we're all about here.

Eradicating founder--Part trois

Meet Dandee. I was called by Dandee's owner Wilma in Nov. of '08. Wilma told me Dandee had foundered that Spring and diagnosed with Cushing's. The reason for her call is she was at the end of her rope seeing Dandee in such pain and so miserable. She was considering putting him down but wondered if I could take him and do something for him. Of course, we aren't a rescue (we're a rehab center) so the answer the second question was, no I couldn't take him but I could help him.

Wilma was doing everything the vet had prescribed. Dandee was dry lotted, and on Pergolide, but the prescription wasn't working. He in pain, lonely and grumpy. This was not the horse she had bought and worse she was now becoming afraid of his aggressive behavior. Wilma felt it was cruel to keep him this way.

I went to evaluate him and the condition of his feet were appalling. (Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures but trust me they were awful.) He is (another!) one of those horses whose wall did not grow longer than the sole, it just flared forward. The farrier would try his best to "shorten the toe" but all he would do was nip into his sole and this made Dandee VERY sore.

I trimmed Dandee as I do, which is from the top, and Dandee never looked back. He was totally sound after the trim and his owner was VERY happy. We also talked about alternatives to the expensive medications. I'm not a veterinarian but when an owner is being bankrupted by high medication costs with no visible results, then a change must occur. There are several herbal remedies available along with a good vitamin/mineral supplements that can make dramatic differences.

Dandee now is turned out with his herd mates and is totally sound. He has regained his former pleasant attitude and his hooves look and operate just as they should. We still need to grow in a more connected hoof wall, but the improvements are great. Dandee is even shedding this year! ( he did not last year)

Wilma wanted her story shared because she spent so much time and money and did not see any results. She was frustrated, her horse was miserable and her pocket book was empty. Now, she has her horse back and her wallet is recovering!

Understanding and eradicating founder

I met Doug Bruce for the first time several months ago at my clients H.F. Young's farm. He watched me trim H.F.'s Percheron mares and asked many questions about what I was doing. He told me he had a foundered horse and he was not sure if he was getting the right trim job for this horse. Then on February 21st Doug showed up again at H.F's and wanted me to look at his horse.

Duke is a 10 yr. old Halflinger gelding who has foundered every spring since he was 7 yr.s old. Duke has the type of hooves whose walls do not grow 'long' in the usual sense. Instead, they grow flared out and even with the sole. This is a problem for conventional farriers who trimmed the hoof by removing wall from the bottom with nippers. This invariably exacerbated the flaring and kept the hoof in the vicious cycle of stretching and separating that it was in. Worse, by trimming only from the bottom the horse lost precious sole material and the result was pain.

I trim "From the Top" which brings the toe back safely without removing any sole. By removing the leveraging forces that are pulling the wall away from the coffin bone Duke's foot has a chance of growing in properly and in a year he will have gorgeous healthy feet.

The side benefit is that by not removing any sole I did not cause Duke any pain during his trim. Doug said he had never seen Duke stand so well in all the years he had owned him. He'd always been a problem for the farrier but he was a perfect gentleman for me. Perhaps he was such a gentleman because I didn't hurt him. Hmmm? Now, Doug thinks these hooves now look great right now! And they do, for Day 1. Wait till he sees them in another few months, he won't believe his eyes. That's why I take pictures!

Of course, we are also implementing dietary changes and supplements to help support Duke's body since we know that founder is not just a trimming issue it is a metabolism issue.

Doug wanted us to tell his story because there are many other horses out there like Duke. Horses doomed to a life of misery because none of the professionals that owners rely on for health care know what to do to fix it. We'd like to show them there is a way, not just to cope, but to fix it! How can we as a community get on the radar with vets and farriers in order to help more horses live healthier, happier, more productive lives? Ideas welcome!