Dixie is an 11 year QH mare, who has suffered with this toe crack for several years. Her current owner purchased her in the spring of 2000 and had been working with a vet and corrective farrier for 8 months without significant progress. She decided to try a different approach and brought her here to OKSNHC for rehab in January 2021.

The album below shows the before photos and first trim results. There are captions on some photos to explain important points.
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My plan this trim was to further reduce the long toe and just see how the new growth is coming in. It has only been a couple of weeks since the last trim so not a ton of new growth, but overall I am happy with the progress. Today I opted to cast only and when these wear off in 1-2 weeks I will soak again to treat that crack for fungus and bacteria and likely apply casting and composite shoes again, though she seemed just as comfortable in the casting alone without the composites. 
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This was the first trim that I was able to lower the heels and quarters to a normal level as I planned to apply composite shoes to create the "artificial concavity" that I have been achieving by leaving them high. Her sole is still very flat, though there is concavity starting to form. The crack on the FR is also starting to grow down from the coronary band closed. This is extremely exciting as this mare has had this crack for 5 years! Overall, there is about an 3/4 of an inch of tighter new growth at the coronary band since I began to trim her on  January 23 2021. I applied composite shoes, packed with Artimud, and plan to leave them on until early April. She was off at the trot before the trim and slightly worse after after. I believe this is due both the shorter trim to accommodate the composites, and to corium inflammation due to the flat sole.  In a few days I will take more video to see if  the inflammation has subsided with the composites applied.

Overall Dixie has been doing well, but I felt like there was too much pressure on the crack, causing it to continue up into the new growth, just superficially, I trimmed her toe back and for the first time was able to remove the excess heel and quarter that I had been leaving to give her artificial concavity. I applied a glue on Easyshoe Performance, and wrapped in 1/2 a roll of 3M casting to further secure the glue. I also packed the Easyshoe with a soft sole packing. She is moving very sound in this set up. You can see on the glue application that I set the shoe right back to where I wanted her breakover to be. This is extremely important in reducing the leverage on the toe crack. If the shoe is set too far forward as seen in the picture above, the leverage on the crack would be increased causing it to continue to split. 

It's  a bittersweet moment for us here at OKSNHC as Dixie gets ready to go home! Just over 6 months have passed, and Dixie has grown in almost an entirely new hoof! The crack is almost grown out, likely just one more trim will see that through. Dixie's home is about 2.5 hours from me, so one of my students will now be taking over her care along side her owner.

The small vertical crack you can see just above the trimmed area is superficial and will also grow out within the next couple of trims. Over the next 6 months, with proper trimming I expect Dixie to be able to grow in an even better connected hoof wall. You can see the marker lines I drew in the after trim pic showing the various levels of wall angle deviation. These angles are based on hoof leverage and reducing this leverage was my entire goal during this rehab resulting in being bale to grow out the crack.

For over 5 years Dixie suffered with that crack, being worked on by some very experienced and knowledgeable farriers. Clearly from the before picture you can see that they tried everything they knew. Shoes to hold the crack together, glue to help keep it together... I have always and will always maintain, it's not a shod vs barefoot debate, its the trim under the shoe or without the shoe that counts.

Throughout the rehab Dixie had highs and lows. There were some moments she required a composite shoe or hoof cast to be comfortable, and now 6 months later she is sound barefoot. Her transition is not entirely complete, she will require hoof boots for trail riding on rocky ground until she can build more callous and get used to the terrain, but in the paddock, pasture and arena she is 100% sound barefoot. 

This photo is a great illustration of trimming a tall vertical bar in order to allow downward expansion of the hoof during the peak impact phase of loading.

I like to trim the tall vertical bar to ramp downwards from just in front of the heel surface along the natural concavity of the sole.

[The natural function of the hoof to dissipate impact energy works like this:

First the heels and frog strike the ground. This allows the digital cushion to absorb the brunt of the impact because it is made up of elastic fiber-rich dynamic tissues. These tissues are able to compress and store energy under load.

The hoof then rolls over onto the solar surface allowing the digital cushion to further compress and the natural arch of the hoof to expand downward. This includes the expansion of both the heels and the collateral grooves.

The hoof then breaks over at the toe, allowing the digital cushion to use this stored energy to drive recoil back to a resting state.]

The solar arch on the bottom of the hoof allows this downward expansion to happen without restriction. We also have to consider is the horses willingness to weight the hoof during this phase of the stride. If we leave the bar high and vertical, when the hoof rolls over onto the solar surface the bar can act as a pressure point and cause excess pressure on the DDFT and navicular bone. This can then alter the horse's stride and cause them to land laterally or toe first. Altered landings can cause the impact energy to have to be absorbed by the horse's joints and muscles and lead to further issues.
It is important to recognize that over trimming, just like under trimming the bars, can also have negative implications to the hoof. The bar makes up half of the collateral groove and the frog makes up the other half. If we trim the bar too low, the grooves will become shallow and reduce the natural concavity that the hoof needs in order to expand downward. Over trimming the bar can also thin the bar and lead to sensitivity of the bar's corium.

Bar trimming is probably one of the most contentious issues between different methods of barefoot trimming.

Personally I like to keep it simple: trim where needed, don't where it's not and most importantly, do no harm.
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Overlaid or embedded bars grow out laterally over the sole. They often tend to grow over and into the sole creating bruising and sometimes abscessing.

The above picture on the left shows vertical bars and the right shows embedded bar.

Embedded bars are difficult to deal with and left unchecked can lead to bruising, discomfort and abscessing. Embedded bars show up more as a lump overtop of the sole and need to be trimmed so that they aren't causing a pressure point during peak impact. This is easier said then done as they often become ingrown into the sole and have to be trimmed out little by little in order to avoid over thinning the bar/sole junction and causing sensitivity to the bar's corium.

I generally trim embedded bars down to match the natural concavity of the sole, but no lower. I trim frequently and let the sole push them out gradually.

Some horse's are more sensitive and the bar tends to fold over more often then others. In these sensitive horses the bar can bruise and cause discomfort so I tend to trim it more often. I have a mare with PPID and no matter what I do her bars fold over and abscess if left for 4 - 6 weeks. I manage her with bi-weekly trimming just to keep the bars in check and she manages well.

​The following short video shows the difference between trimming vertical and embedded bars.

​Inevitably this time of year I get panicked calls or texts from owners asking about bruising in the white line. When horses are walking in snow and their hooves are relatively clean the bright reddish purple bruising can look quite alarming.

While this bruising can be a sign of something more serious, it is usually just caused by walking on frozen uneven ground.

Most of our domestic horses live in soft dirt paddocks or pastures and during our winters here in Western Canada, the ground will go through periods of thawing and freezing, creating soft mud one day and hard frozen lumpy ground the next. The horses adapt well and can move about awkwardly on the frozen uneven ground, but often they will take a misstep here or there and that can result in bruising of the white line as shown in the picture. This type of bruising is generally is isolated to just one hoof and doesn't generally cause soreness or lead to anything worse, but it can be alarming if you don't know the cause.

What if it's more serious? If you are seeing this bruising when the ground is not frozen and hard, or it is present in both front hooves or all four hooves equally, it could be a sign of repeated toe first landings or even laminitis (caused by metabolic conditions). 

The hoof functions as a shock absorber to the rest of the body, and to work this way the horse must land heel first where all of the shock absorbing structures are located. When there is a breakdown of hoof integrity in the rear of the hoof, horses will compensate by landing toe first. As there are no shock absorbing structures in the front half of the hoof, the impact can create this bruising among other more serious complications. You can use your cell phone to take video of your horse moving at a walk and a trot and play it back in slow motion to determine how they are landing. Occasional toe first landings are normal, such as when a horse is unmotivated or travelling uphill, but repeated toe first landings on soft surfaces such as a sand arena or pasture are a red flag and should be discussed with your vet and farrier.

Laminitis can also cause this bruising and horses with metabolic conditions are at a greater risk of suffering complications during wintertime. Here in Western Canada, it is common among horse owners to try and "fatten their horses up" leading up to wintertime with the belief that they will stay warmer during our cold winter months if they have a little extra "padding". While this is true, often we ride significantly less in the winter leading to a more sedentary day to day life for the horse. This increased weight and feed regimen can lead to an obese horse in a very short timeframe and can lead to laminitis. While I am certainly not advocating for under feeding your horse during winter, I recommend you watch their weight closely and manage it as you would throughout the rest of the year. Metabolic horses are a challenge to care for and keeping an eye on the integrity of the white line can be beneficial in preventing and becoming aware of hoof issues that can lead to laminitis. Bruising can be an indication of laminitic events, even if not enough to trigger full blown laminitis. A stretched white line is an indication of a loss of hoof wall connection and should be discussed with your vet and farrier.