Montana - Founder Case Study

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.

​January 27 2021

​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.

Feb 24 2021

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.

You can see the connected new growth coming down much farther in the Feb 24 picture. The heel is also moving back, shifting the weight bearing surface farther underneath the hoof towards a more correct position. This also alters the angle of the pastern to be more upright and closer to "correct".

​March 26 Trim

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. 

April 15 Trim

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.

May 14 2021

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.