This 5 year old mini found her way here recently, her history is unknown. She is severely foundered and was having difficulty walking, and spent most of her time laying down. She doesn't appear to have the typical metabolic syndrome "look" to her, I suspect she has foundered from lack of trimming. Although this trim is significant, I will be trimming her again in a week or so to adjust a few more angles, lower some of the heels a bit more and double check the hoof balance. This was a big change for her and she was very sore so I had to work quickly and didn't get a chance to really make the trim complete. After the trim she is moving well, though still a little bit stiffly. She will have 24/7 turnout on the track with the herd, and I suspect the stiffness is more body related due to the angle changes and will subside quickly. 

This is a maintenance trim on Jack, our IR school pony. He is trimmed every 4-6 weeks so there is usually little distortion and just a bit of excess length.

Because he is IR, we diligently manage his weight and he rarely if ever gets grazing time (always with a muzzle). He lives out 24/7 on our Paddock Paradise track system.

​Please excuse the sometimes less then perfect video angles, trimming while filming with my GoPro on my head is a bit of an art lol.

The pics below are from Odin's initial shoe pull and trim. We applied composite shoes to his fronts to provide artificial concavity due to his flat soles. You can see the long leveraging toe, flat sole and low, crushed heels.

I opted to set the breakover far back under the composite shoe in order to reduce the leverage on the new growth just below and coronary band.

Today I pulled the composite shoes and after the trim applied Glue on Easyshoe Performance shoes.
The focus was on bringing the toes back to relieve the leverage on the hoof wall as well as to allow the heels to come in at a steeper angle in order to bring the weight bearing surface back underneath the horse.
Read through the comments on the individual pictures for a more in-depth explanation.

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

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. 

The photo above shows Ruby when she arrived in late March, the video below was shot July 15, 2018.