Montana is a paint mare that presented with a disconnected hoof wall, and both rotation and sinking of the coffin bone. She has an extremely flared hoof capsule and a very flat sole with zero concavity. Her owner repots that she is tender when ridden barefoot and "requires shoes or boots" when ridden to keep her sound.

​I opted for a conservative trim, steeply beveling the toe to reduce leverage, but leaving excess heel and quarters in order to provide some "false concavity".

On the bottom view you can see the bruising on the sole directly under the coffin bone from the lack of concavity and too much solar pressure. She has boots and pads to keep her comfortable for now and we will likely move to composite shoes for riding season in order to give her some long term comfort and “false concavity” to relieve that solar pressure.
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You can see the huge abscess she blew along the heel bulbs and frog as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if that starts to separate as it grows out.

Her owner reports that she has been moving really well and only required boots for a few days after the last trim and when riding. 

This trim was similar to the previous one in that I steeply beveled the toe to reduce leverage, though this time I did not leave excess heel and quarter height. The heels were starting to fold over and quarter was breaking away. 

You can see the connected hoof wall growth coming down farther from the coronary band as well. Overall I am very pleased with her progress thus far.

I am happy with the progress so far, the hoof wall connection is coming in and Montana has been moving well. The key here is keeping the leverage back so that it doesn't undermine the connection up higher. 

This trim was a couple of weeks early but because I was in her area with my students during the 6 day course I thought we would touch up her trim and use her as a case study to teach the students. Montana is still very comfortable and the connection is coming down the hoof wall. Her owner is still using boots for riding and is very pleased with her progress.

I got a call from Montana's owner that about 3 weeks post trim she came up lame that morning. We suspected abscessing and the owner soaked daily for about a week. Nothing presented but Montana came in and out of soundness during that time. When I arrived I could not see any sign of an abscess, and noticed that she was very tender in all 4 feet and having trouble walking on the gravel driveway. We concluded that possibly due to the recent rainfall (it had been a previously very dry period) and the wet ground perhaps the moisture had softened Montana's thin soles and we opted to apply Easyshoe Versa composite shoes to her fronts. The owner reported about three days later that Montana was very sound and she was able to ride her. 

My goal will still be to grow in healthy wall connection and allow the sole to thicken. We will likely keep using the composite shoes for the summer riding season with the hope that in the fall she will be able to transition back to barefoot and then hopefully next spring not require the use of composite shoes.

I purchased Flash in August of 2020 to be one of our school horses used during our trimming courses and because he had been diagnosed with Navicular Syndrome by the previous owner's Vet and I wanted to both help improve his condition and study him.

I am somewhat skeptical of the diagnosis as it was made without radiographs to confirm, and was only based on the Vet's opinion of how he was moving at the time. If you look at his initial photos and hoof conformation I struggle to understand how a diagnosis could have been made solely by assessing his movement with his hooves in that condition.

Either way I am moving forward under the assumption he may have Navicular Syndrome and treating him as I would treat any horse; with proper frequent trims, a good diet and turnout 24/7 on my track with my herd. 

Though it's not the best video to showcase his movement, you can see that he us kicking forward sand with his front hooves. This is due to toe first landings.

He is still pretty stiff through the body, and if landing flat, avoiding using his heels.

This is by far the best I have seen him moving. Still landing flat and with hesitation, but overall significantly improved from before. 

After this trim Flash was sounder then he has been since he arrived. I have also noticed a huge change in his behavior over the last month. He has finally settled into the herd and has started to approach me and ask for attention. Something he was never interested in before. After this trim I even rode him lightly in the arena for a few minutes, this was his first ride since we brought him home, and probably his first ride in over a year. 

I would still like to see him grow in more hoof wall connection as well as stronger digital cushions. As he grows in more wall connection I also expect that his concavity will increase and his soles will thicken, resulting in less bruising. 

Flash has been doing well, he has gone from unsound to sound on the track where he lives and sound in the sand arena. Because of his progress we have started riding him and I have found he is tender on rocks and hard surfaces. I wanted to try a composite application to see if we can build more sole thickness and continue to ride him. I glued on Easyshoe Performance Shoes, with a soft sole packing underneath and topped the application off with a thin layer of 3M casting. 

​The following video was from immediately after the composite application

The following video was from later in the evening on the same day of composite application

Watching Flash improve has been very emotional. He has gone from a very shut down horse to an in your pocket and really friendly guy. He is a favorite among the youth that I work with and has been sound enough to use in the program since the August 2021. He spend most of the summer in Easyshoe Versa Grip Lights glued on with the 11 finger tab system. This product packed with dental impression material both protected and stimulated the back of his hooves and caused his frog to grow in wider and thicker, as a result of the improving health of the digital cushion. 

Even though I was watching his soundness and comfort improve I was feeling a bit discouraged with the progress of his hooves until I put these pictures from the beginning of his journey along side the current hoof pictures. I can see that the overall angle of the hooves has changed dramatically and the heel is much farther back underneath the hoof. Also the entire back of the hoof has changed. The frog is wider, but the heel bulbs are also wider and more "full", with a much stronger digital cushion under there. 

While there is still improvement to be made I am much happier with Flash's progress having looked at how far he's come. 

What is breakover when talked about as a trimming landmark?

Breakover is trimmed at the forward most part of the hoof at the toe. It is the very last part of the hoof to be touching the ground as the horse breaks over and lifts the leg into the swing phase of the stride. It is usually trimmed as a bevel or roll into the hoof wall, but occasionally is trimmed back farther into the golden line or even the sole if the sole is very stretched forward.

How do you know where to set breakover? 

There are a couple of ways. This picture shows the angle of new growth at the coronary band and if we were to follow it all the way down, breakover should be where the hoof wall would be if it were well connected. Follow the green line down and it shows the beginning of where I trimmed breakover in line with that upper growth. 

Another way I determine breakover is by reading the sole’s concavity. Solar concavity mimics the coffin bone concavity, so following the concavity out until it plateaus is sometimes also an indicator of where breakover should be, but there are a few exceptions to this method. For instance a foundered horse will have very little to no concavity, and a horse with retained sole may not show the concavity properly. 

The following video is a good example of setting breakover on a healthy hoof based on solar concavity. This process would be somewhat similar on a foundered hoof or a hoof with a lack of concavity, but we must make sure not to trim too short as generally hooves with less concavity have a thin sole and a lack of hoof wall connection. In those cases I find trimming breakover according to the new growth at the coronary band more accurate.

The picture above shows breakover set at the edge of the sole along the top of the ridge of concavity. There is a little bit of excess sole at the tip of the frog, or just behind what we would call the toe callous, but if you could envision the concavity on either side wrapping around and meeting up underneath it, the bevel or breakover would be along that edge.

​In my opinion setting a proper breakover is probably the single most important part of the trim, and one of the main aspects of trimming that I find a lot of professionals get wrong.

I get asked about pulling shoes a lot and the following video shows two different techniques that I use. I use the same method for pulling composite shoes as well! I usually prefer to use a pair of old nippers or nail cutters and an old rasp.