Pictures

Hoof Pictures!

A basic maintenance trim:

A horse I work on for a local rescue Left front before a trim

Left Front after trim - I relieved the pressure on the toe to allow ease of break over and I always apply a "mustang roll" to the entire hoof wall if possible.

Left front before trim - this shot allows you to see the nice concavity the horse has on his own. Unless retained sole is present, I tend to not trim the sole and allow the horse to keep the needed callus he forms on his own.

Left front after trim - You can see how the bevel goes around the whole hoof wall. I tend to do as little frog trimming as possible to allow the callus the stay in tact.

Left front before trim

Left Front after trim

REHAB (and other misc.) PHOTOS

Draft cross before trim, September 2014

Same horse as above before second trim, October 2014. She had already put down more sole and her wall integrity had started to improve.

Same horse as the above 2 pictures before her third trim with me. Starting to widen in the heels, improved frog quality, sole thickening and she started to hold her shape of the rounded wall. November 2014

This is why dissections are important! During a dissection when the wall and sole were removed, the lamina peeled away and what we saw was a perfect picture of the circumflex artery that feeds the hoof! See how it intertwines with the coffin bone? These are the kinds of experiences that are possible with relentless study of the hoof and it's anatomy. The only way to be able to do my job effectively from the outside is to make sure I know what goes on INSIDE!

January 2013- June 2015: A Morab mare - chronic laminitis caused by Insulin Resistance.

RF - January 2013: RF Before her first trim with me. Barely walking, in soft ride boots all around. Laying down more than standing.

RF - April 2013: This owner was particularly diligent about following instructions and making the necessary changes to help her horse and it had great results. We did switch from Soft Rides to Easycare RX boots for this case.

RF - Januar 2013: before her first trim with me.

RF - April 2013 after 4 months of a 2-3 weeks trimming schedule. Her heels had widened significantly and came down about halfway from where they were. Her movement had improved dramatically and was able to walk and trot with little trouble and will even canter on occasion in turn out.

RF - October 2013. Her heels continued to widen and lower. At this point, she was barefoot for turnout and ridden lightly in Easycare Glove boots with pads.

RF - October 2013

Pandora's beautiful right hind hoof after her second trim. This is an excellent example of "passive" quarters. The sides of the hoof do not appear to be making ground contact but when the hoof flexes at the point that it is fully loaded, that is where the hoof will be able to expand and fill with blood. Once the hoof comes off the ground, the blood will flow back up the leg!

Mick Jagger has happy feet! His owner keeps up on the trimming herself and I just help her out with it from time to time. I LOVE helping my clients educate themselves on trimming so that they can either do some trimming themselves between my visits or just be aware of what is going on with their own horse's feet.

The underneath view of the hoof on the right.

A cadaver hoof I trimmed from my advanced trimming clinic with Ida Hammer.

Hoof from above after I trimmed it

This is a dressage horse who is actively competing but has some trouble with sensitivity on different surfaces. The blue part is Equipak CS which keeps fungus at bay, the gray cast is Equicast and the white rim is Superfast which is a heavy duty epoxy which helps the whole application be more sturdy.

This is what the equicast application looks like from the outside. Depending on the show circuit, Equicast is a way to keep your barefoot horse comfortable on different surfaces while showing!

It is semi-perminant with each application lasting from 2-4 weeks. Usually, I only recommend doing one or two rounds of this application back to back.

Tucker is the horse to the right and above. He is a rescued horse who after years of waiting for extended periods of time on cross ties, will happily "air tie" as long as you want him to!

December 2017 - This is going to be an ongoing case study for a mare at a rescue that I'm working on. She is a middle aged quarter horse who has been used hard for summer camps for many years. She has developed some low grade side bone and has very thin soles. For the winter, we opted to go with something that would keep her comfortable in turnout and while ridden lightly. I used felt in an Easycare Glove shell with the back cut out, glued on with Vettec adhere. So far, she is loving them!

Her RF is a mild club foot so she is a half size smaller on the right than the left. I also heat fit these boots to help keep her breakover back where we wanted it to be.