Gravel crunching feet, what?!

I have barely touched the feet since mid-April when the trimmer last came out. Just make sure they are clean and treated for thrush as those heels begin to open and build more. Even the back feet and frogs have improved this way! Just a little maintenance rasping for the toes/wall has been all that is needed. At the end of May, I began walking Shorty barefoot over our gravel/pavement driveway 10-20 mins almost everyday as he was getting more comfortable! This has basically helped self trim his feet so I find I have to do very little. No they don’t look perfect or polished, but I think that’s the problem with people’s expectations! Some horses can still move on short trimmed pretty cut feet. Mine cannot and he is not alone! My hoof care and rehab groups have been littered lately with all kinds of people around the world concerned with horses being sore or even lame after professional trims. These feet are becoming strong and functional with better movement and virtually no trim. He is breaking off weak wall quickly which is good, growth has been quite fast, and hoping to reach a better connected wall soon! Look at this difference though! Here is March some days after a 4 week cycle trim from a barefoot trimmer, VS June with minimal trimming and self trimming since then. Look at those frogs! Shorty is moving so much better and happier and that’s all that is important!

10 months gone!!

We are still observing soreness since after the trim in mid March. It seems it affected his right front way more than I ever thought as I was SURE he would be back to where he was in 6 weeks. Not the case!! In many ways he has been worse!! The only thing that makes sense is the heels were brought down way too much in that one instance and it really shocked the tendons and ligaments. Everyone knows it’s way easier to cut something off than it is to grow it back, so the only thing we can do now is grow the heel back more under and higher. I believe this week is 8 weeks since the March trim and I have taken it upon myself to learn to rasp the toes myself because honestly that is probably all he will need for a while as he grows his feet back to where they are comfortable. I think there is definitely progress!!

I got so sad seeing him continue to be so lame that I wanted to replace my Soft Ride boots that have a wedge in them to raise the heels. His boots are so ripped up and too small I couldn’t get them on anymore. I decided on Easyboot Clouds. We are loving them! The wedge pad is about 2-3 degrees and is very neat bc it will crush overtime as the horse doesn’t need them. You can buy replacement pads if needed. This has really helped!! His right pastern  (the problem foot) had gone back to feeling thickened and angry but just 3 days of wearing these Clouds 23/7 it is feeling so much better! Also moving better. With the physical improvements also happening I am hopeful he can get back to where he was, even better to continue his rehab. This was a major set back and critical learning experience.

Pictures!!

Right

Left

Left

Above are recent sole views and a caudal view. These are huge! This blog does not have any better pictures than this since I began taking pictures of his feet. The sulcus is open (Especially on the left foot which is still quite a bit ahead of the right) and are beginning to fill in all the way through the back of the foot where the frog stay should be. We still don’t have a frog stay but we are leaving the butt crack club of contracted heels slowly but surly!

Above show where we were in April and still very very sore. I took the May pics today and was pleasantly surprised to see a more even hairline (does not drop down so much in the heels) and the heel looks to be growing back and down again like it wants. It was doing this before months ago but my observation is that trim was just simply too much off in one go. The white stuff is Toe Jam hoof clay I put on the cracked hoof wall to prevent infection. I do hope where that last bruise is coming down has better hoof wall connection above. Growth rings are still present around the heel area and will hopefully grow out further along in rehab.

Here I really see the difference in the hairline (It’s straighter)  and it looks like the heel is already more underneath him.

To end, just a recent pic of the best boy doing his walking in padded Scoot Boots! 

8 Month Update - barefoot navicular syndrome rehab 4.0

Eight months is a long time to wait. It’s a long time to do anything really. But I do see the fruits of our efforts every week, every month! I see that this is the way. The way to a longer lasting, healthy, happy horse. It’s not temporary, it’s not degenerative, he continues to improve! I just went back and looked through the hoof pictures I have posted here over the years. I am terrified! Knowing all that I know now, and all that I have learned about hoof care, I am embarrassed to even have allowed my horse to have such poor feet. But I know I have to cut myself some slack because it was 100% due to pure ignorance...and apparently lack of knowledgeable guidance from all professionals I sought help from at the time.  But hey, it’s been a great education for me and has sparked a passion for hoof care.

Diet has not changed since I last updated months ago. However, I did take out MSM. I had to go without it for a while due to a lost shipment and actually noticed Shorty was surprisingly not as jumpy about certain things. I put him back on it when it came in, and noticed a clear change back to being more spooky. I have heard of this before and for whatever reason now believe from this accidental trial that he is better off and more at ease without MSM.  

Okay so what has happened in the last few months?

The heels have been opening up and expanding like crazy. After the casting, he still wasn’t quite as comfortable on his bare feet and I was booting him a lot. We moved to Easy Shoe Performance glue ons for several weeks and he did well! We pretty much stuck to this until he could be turned out barefoot, which was right after this cycle in November.

Here is progress of the left front foot, which is now the stronger foot. It had started out as the more lame foot. Not anymore! Just wow, look at that much stronger heel! He is landing heel first at the walk AND trot on both feet. Very exciting. 

Sole pics next:

March, here is where we are now::

This is some substantial improvement! Way better hoof wall connection from improved diet 

Such an interesting difference here with how the heel is growing more underneath the foot. Better alignment. 

This is where we are now in March. I will say after this trim, he was quite sore for over 2 weeks :( So many people find success in sticking to a shorter trim cycle, but in Shorty’s case it seems like he is not so appreciative getting trimmed so often. He does the best at 4 weeks and more of growth, so the plan is not to touch up anything this time unless really needed. One thing is for sure, this horse has never gone without routine 4, 5, 6 week farrier visits....which actually might have been problematic for him this entire time. People just seem to take too much off for his liking. Who knew trying to do right by your horse might have also been part of the problem. 

11 Week Update!

Today marks 11 weeks since shoes have been pulled. Diet has been 0.8 pounds of alfalfa pellets fed twice daily, mixed with Arizona Copper Complete from Horsetech, flaxseed, MSM, salt, and 1/4c of soaked beet pulp to mix it all in.

He’s really doing great! 4 weeks ago he got his first trim and cleanup by our new trimmer. He had just shed all his sole and frogs so he seemed to be a little thin soled. We used hoof armor and decided to do a rim cast with equicast. He was quite comfortable this way! We did let him move and run a bit in the arena not long after and he looked sound! Buuut a little ouchy the next day. He came back around fine, but that was good info to have. Unfortunately the RF cast came off pretty soon, so we went back to booting. He moves so well in his boots and I believe it will speed things up the more comfortable he is! He walks super confident barefoot on concrete as well as over the gravel driveway, and just recently seems to be turning well barefoot. He will usually always show soreness on a turn and historically this has been a constant problem. So when that improves, things are really looking up.

Six Week Update

There have been a lot of good changes since the shoes came off July 13th. Shorty is walking flat and heel first on flat concrete! Still a bit careful/compensating when turning in a tight circle, and still slightly off on LF, but in the last 2 weeks I have also stopped giving him Equiox. It’s about time to order more and I have enough left to start him back on it if needed, but I thought since he’s not being worked and he’s now comfortable enough to turn out barefoot, that it is important not to hide anything or make us think we were making more progress than we actually are. I also want HIM to know where he’s at in case he gets a little frisky and hopefully doesn’t over do it!

For the record, I am following diet and rehab done by Rockley Farm in Europe. It is owned by Nic Barker and she’s done amazing things for horses with compromised feet. I also follow on Facebook the Barefoot Method for Navicular, and Pete Ramey’s Hoof Rehab group. (Edit March 2020: Hoof Rehab is now ‘Hoof Care and Rehabilitation’)

Here are some photos of our progress:

Sole and frog have developed quite a bit. The frog has widened and the central sulcus crack gets filled with Red Horse Artimud to prevent infection and stuff getting packed in there.

Most exciting is how much wider his hoof is overall! I had thought this wouldn’t happen until he had grown out a new hoof capsule, but obviously without the limitations of a shoe, his hoof wall has expanded a lot while walking on the ground surface!

  

Here are still shots from a video this weekend to see how he’s landing. Definitely shows that he is no longer landing toe first, but I do think he will have even more confident heel landings and a longer stride as we continue to develop a stronger hoof. We haven’t even grown out all the nail holes yet! You can also see that he loads the outside hoof wall on the right front on landing, which can and should also improve to become more level with a healthier functioning foot.

Handsome Shorty, always willing to clean up the hay dropped from the last feeding! 😜

Summer 2019

I found another horse to ride this summer and I am grateful I did. With as well as Shorty did with the leather pads and equipak at the beginning of the cycle, we never expected him to go lame again and NEVER recover. I took my vets advice and was only working him/riding 3 days a week. He was doing really well and I remember having a nice ride WTC on grass on a Tuesday, then the next time I rode was the following Sunday. Rode in a freshly dragged arena, dressage work for about 30 mins. He was a bit hesitant picking up the canter I noticed but really wouldn’t have believed it was a soreness issue based on how well he’d been doing. Well, hacking out in the grass right after that ride, sure enough he is off on the LF.

Gave him some down time and when we were nearing towards 5 weeks of the cycle and he still wasn’t sound  I went  ahead and got us on the schedule to be reset. I asked if he would grind a breakover into the toe bc he is in flat keg shoes and he did.  But his thoughts were that he just got too long so he set the shoe back, shortened and rounded the toes more than ever. Leather pad and equipak. This seemed quite a big change but I mean if it worked, awesome. All I know is that while we were waiting for the left shoe while it was off, we walked and turned a bit and I didn’t notice any obvious soreness. As SOON as that shoe was nailed on though, he was ouchy! I don’t know if he got a close nail maybe because he had nailed one in and took it back out saying it wasn’t doing anything...? Ugh yeah that’s just what we need.

The shoes stayed on for 5 days and I had them pulled. He was BAD. Lame at the walk and I don’t think I have ever seen him THAT sore footed ever. It seemed to be both feet hurting. He was really bad without the shoes as well but luckily I have Softride boots that made him immediately more comfortable. Perhaps the equipak was ultimately too much pressure under the shoe. At first maybe it felt nice but over time and concussion from any movement it got to be too much and it was impossible for him to get away from it! Sometimes equipak can set very firm and it felt that way when we took it out. Even just 2 days later he was walking normal again in boots.

So this is where I feel very lucky that I have had another horse to ride. This horse is an experienced hunter who is a kick ride type that has been allowing me to get back into jumping! He has been really great in dealing with losing my rides with Shorty again.

Shorty is going to remain barefoot for the time being. While he is much more comfortable just 2 weeks out of shoes, he is landing  TOE FIRST barefoot and I fear he might have been trotting this way since March! I looked back at video....he had been doing so well  that I had forgotten to do this check and be mindful of it. Poor movement turns into worse movement which will turn into clinical lameness. So that’s 3 months of deteriorating movement and possible damage and it will take at least that much time if not more to reverse. The good thing is that he is consistently moving heel first in boots! So he does wear boots 24/7. We have about 1 million heel landings to go in order to come back from all those toe stabs he’s done this year. This is very much a rehabilitation much like I did in 2017, but this time at least his feet are in much better condition.

Diet! I am finally going to invest in the high quality mineral trace supplements that are suggested on both the ECIR group and the Barefoot Navicular Rehab group. I’ve already cut out grain per our vet, he’s been getting alfalfa pellets,  a multivitamin, and mid quality grass hay. I’ve seen these mineral products before but it seemed costly. I now see that you do get exactly what you pay for! Iron can be quite high in forage and water and a lot of feeds and supplements do not add enough Copper and Zinc for the correct balance to high Iron.. In fact some like Triple Crown add ADDITIONAL Iron!! Between Mega Cell AND Remission Shorty is getting around 300mg Zinc, and these formulas provide 500-800mg! Another example, Mega Cell vitamin supp is providing LESS  than 1g of Lysine. These have upwards 10g of Lysine! Most grains do provide a healthy amount of Lysine, but since he’s not on any, we’re depending on our vitamin/mineral supplement to do that. So, recommended choices are:

California Trace Plus
Horse Tech’s Arizona Copper Complete
K.I.S. Trace minerals

I am going with Horsetechs and they are sending me a free sample to try first! It has high amounts of Vitamin E so I can also stop what I’m currently buying for that.

Even a couple years ago I know a lot of it is diet diet diet, especially having a horse that is a high insulin responder. So no grain this time, no fresh grass, no trying to make a cheaper supplement work for us. We are going all out to give him his best chance to grow a new hoof from the inside out. Will be looking for heel first landings and caudal hoof development. There’s really nothing left to lose and he’s improved so much already from being crippled literally 2 weeks ago.  I have already spoken to a trimmer who believes the same and will not take him back to steel shoes as quickly as the others have. We’ll just have to see where this goes.

Managing Diet & Bruised Sole

I really love that I keep this blog. Between this and all the photos I have stored on my computer organized by year, I can go back and review periods of lameness, soundness, and what Shorty looked like during those times (body condition and hoof condition). There's no doubt most years he's off/sore during March. He's had bad looking feet/contracted heels most of the time we were at a certain barn with that farrier...never compromise on your farrier!! There's also no doubt that he has historically been lame when he is at a heavier weight, body score of 6-7, and also on 10+ hrs of pasture per day.

This year, I feel so irresponsible with letting him out on so much grass. You know you want the best for your horse and what horse doesn't love eating grass?! This Spring has been rough and the reality of it all is how much work can Shorty really handle after all we have been through. He's been very suitable for dressage, when he is sound. Any jump work requiring real air time and an actual front feet landing is surely out of the question for him.

Right now he is moving correctly and well, he's just been still showing some soreness on the left front foot. Once he was 100% sound beginning of April, we did try to give him up to 2 hours of turnout in a small paddock with grass. My barn owner did it very strategically beginning with 30 minutes each morning. But up to 2 hours he lost his soundness again and has really not gained it back as fast as the last time. He also sprung a shoe mid April around this time and the farrier came to fix it and we adopted permanent bell boots! We are now turned out on dirt ONLY. Took him off grain. He now gets two quarts of alfalfa pellets split into 2 feedings and 3 flakes of quality hay in a hay bag spread throughout the day.

In addition to his diet change, my plan has been to exercise him very lightly so that he at least gets exercise and loses weight! I think part of the problem is he has gained quite a bit of weight from February to March when he was eating SO much while turned out. So no matter how little grass he was getting, his body was just not able to metabolize it correctly at all.

He has successfully lost weight in the last few weeks and is looking more fit. As far as the left front foot goes, we did find an ouchy bruise on the toe of that foot underneath the shoe/pad at the end of this cycle just this week! Very likely has been part of why he's been so consistently off on that foot, but it’s impossible to say when it began to be an issue. That shoe was the sprung shoe that was reset April 17th and he was off on that foot on hard ground between that time and April 22nd. He was really moving well in the arena but just not sound on grass or anything harder. We did not do the same pads again and I am hesitant to know whether those pads caused the bruise or what. We've tried the Castle Impak pads for 2 cycles now. We did leather pads this time with equi pak underneath and we know he did well with leather pads last summer. I left him alone for about 48 hours after the shoe change and I hacked him out today. I am thrilled to say he felt just fine riding out on the grass! No complaints or bad steps going in either direction. So just like that he is sound. Should I be so lucky that it was just a bruise this time that can totally be fixed/healed!?

Riding April 22nd:

Can see the bruise at the toe here. His heels have totally moved back and opened up with our current farrier though! Frog has literally doubled in width. We were ALMOST able to go up a shoe size this time. He had to widen it quite a bit as his heels have spread every reset we have had.

This is what Shorty currently looks like. I think we are pretty close to an ideal weight. His coat is amazingly soft and shiny!