Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 50, case # 50

CHAPTER 1 Atrophy, the fundamental cause for most all hoof pathology and upper body injuries

Fault in the conformation – standing under/standing out, x-legs

I found the underlying issue for most all conformational faults to be atrophy of the back of the foot.

Case # 50

Rosa

under my hoof care wings from 2005 until present October 2025

Rosa was born in 2003 on a PMU (pregnant mare urine) farm out west and came to Nova Scotia as a rescue foal. I have known Rosa ever since. When she had settled at her forever home I was asked to care for her hooves. Based on her stance (standing under with the fronts and hinds like a mountain goat) Rosa had extreme difficulties to pick up her hooves for trimming. She braced extremely with her hinds (with the toes and medial sides). She was also toeing out with the hinds and toeing in with the fronts. Her belly muscles on the right side were enlarged due to inter abdominal pressure. We did not have a sling or chute available for trimming. Rosa was sedated by a veterinarian for a trim once but even under sedation I could only do very little. And for the first and only time in my entire trimming career I actually gave up. I gave up trimming Rosa!

February 2017 — still standing under after twelve years

I came out to the farm every six weeks to trim the other horses. Rosa knew exactly what I was doing there and one day I had an idea. I asked my client to stand in front of Rosa and reward her with treats for lifting up a foot. That day I was able to touch the bottom of all four hooves with my hoof rasp. From then on Rosa learned to trust herself. She picked up her hooves for a few seconds for the reward. She got better and better. To the day Rosa insists on her treats for trimming. She does not do anything without but she deserves all the treats in the world for trusting.

All four of Rosa's hooves had weak internal structures and were contracted (a good example that hooves can contract without any form of shoes attached to them). Her fundamental problem was the atrophy of the back of her hooves. Her mountain-goat-stance was based on an enforced decision when she was very little. The stance was not her conformation.

June 2018 — slowing coming out of the fault of standing under

August 2018 — Her belly muscles on the right side were still enlarged due to inter abdominal pressure. Coming out from the conformational fault of standing under front and hind was also hard on her shoulder and neck muscles.

Rosa's entire body went through healing changes as the back of the hooves healed and the feet positioned themselves under the bone column more and more. Rosa also changed bearing the weight in the hinds which resulted in a more balanced and straight position (and no longer toed out). She also did not toe in with the fronts as much as she used to do.

Hooves in healing mode is a body in motion. Over the course of the last five years ossification around the coffin bone in both hinds must have broken into pieces and left the body through the blood stream (there was no abscess). For some time now I can wiggle both hind hoof capsules. They were "frozen" before. Rosa had to get used to her (now freed) joint function and train herself how to walk and to back-up with a joint function she never experienced before. It actually took quite some time for her to get through this process. In 2024 Rosa abscessed around both hocks.

May 2024 — *Rosa* abscessed around both hocks

July 2024 — *Rosa* abscessed around both hocks

As well over the last five years the digital cushions in all four hooves increased in mass and the central sulcus of the frogs filled out.

Rosa was never trained or ridden. She lives on a beautiful old farm in the company of other horses. Her environment has not changed in all those years. The horses have 24/7 freedom with access to a run-in shelter with a clean concrete floor. I am positive that the firm and abrasive floor in the shelter (without any bedding) helped Rosa a lot with her healing. Not that concrete is a natural floor but it is better in my opinion than standing on any bedding to my experience. The owner also offered rubber mats in the shelter but the horses prefer to stand on the concrete part. The horses’ diet is good quality first cut hay. The horses have access to an unfertilized overgrown old field in the high summer time and they get Redmond salt as supplement. Rosa never had any vaccinations or chemical dewormers.

June 2025 — for the first time in her life *Rosa* was able to lock her fronts into a natural resting position. She is freed from the conformational fault of standing under with her fronts and hinds.

photos: Gudrun Buchhofer

Stay tuned for the upcoming cases (under my care for up to 20 years) in this blog series as a replacement for the unpublished part III: Mission Impossible of my trilogy Hoof, Body & Soul.

What did all my client horses over the last 20+ years have in common? They needed to heal from atrophy of the back of the foot as well as other atrophied hoof structures.

Q: Why do we need to change the upbringing of our baby horses and donkeys? A: To prevent senseless suffering.

Gudrun Buchhofer

Gudrun BuchhoferOctober 10, 2025Hufprobleme, horse, hoof problems, horses, the natural trim, nhc, natural horse care, natural hoof care, donkeys, donkey hoof, lessonsfromthewild, foal, foal hoof, Fohlenhuf, barhuf, barhufpflege

CHAPTER 1 Atrophy, the fundamental cause for most all hoof pathology and upper body injuries

Hoof contraction

Every foal hoof has long toes and high heels at birth (diving devices for a safe delivery). About half of the hoof capsule needs to be worn down after birth. This requires movement in a fairly natural environment beginning within the first hours after birth.

There is a lot out there in the trimmer world about fighting and treating thrush. But there is hardly any material there in the first place that could be eaten away by thrush. The back of the hoof is unfinished at birth. At the same time, as the hoof capsule needs to be worn down, proper stimulation of frogs, bulbs, walls, the white line, bars, internal structures need to happen. Otherwise structures will go in to atrophy. The activation of true heels also fails if those processes do not take place.

Atrophy of the frogs, bulbs and internal structures as well as lack of true heels are in direct relation to hoof contraction. Fixed metal shoes might contribute to further contraction but it is not the underlying cause. Over the years I dealt with many contracted hooves which never had any form of shoes attached to them. With or without shoes, the unreleased false heels can contract inwards in an atrophied foot. However, not every atrophied hoof contracts. It really depends on the enforced decision a foal makes very early on about how to compensate for the unfinished hoof.

Due to a failed reduction of the hoof capsule right after birth, combined with the unfinished back of the foot (true heels, bulbs, internal structures), a lot of foals tuck the front legs behind the vertical (enforced decision). The famous scenario of toe first landing is a result. Most horses have problems walking on their own bare feet in the front. Horses endure injuries from the unfinished back of the foot in the hinds as well but are able to compensate differently. Most horses toe out with the hinds (often turn out the entire hind leg) and use the medial half of the hoof capsule for weight loading. This is different from naturally asymmetric hind hooves. The front hooves usually need longer to heal than the hinds. The fundamental problem applies to fronts and hinds.

Case # 1 Ace

trimmed from July 2013 – December 2024

Quarter Horse Ace was born in June 2012 in western Canada. Ace was shipped across the country as a weanling. After his arrival on the east coast he was kept in a stall on wood shavings for quite a while. When I started trimming him in July of 2013 I found Ace stuck with his pasterns still stretched, weak fetlock joints, unfinished baby hooves with unreleased long shanks or false heels. (We can safely assume an unnatural environment at birth and lack of movement in the first months of his life.) There was complete atrophy of the frogs, bulbs, soles, bars and internal structures. The outside walls of the hoof capsules were severely bruised. Ace toed outwards with all four. His hooves were already deformed at such a young age. He further developed a broken back axis stance in the front and a crooked right hind pastern. He tended to lean on the side of the hoof capsules. Due to the lack of true heels, internal structures, frogs and bulbs the front hooves soon contracted. For quite some years, the soles and bars were protected by a hard (almost shell-like) layer of horn.

By 2020 Ace clearly entered an important phase of the healing journey. In April of 2021 the layer of shell-like horn turned into crumbly white sole horn which was then ready to be removed. Over the years Ace improved his stance and the bruising on the outer hoof walls as well as soft tissue bruising subsided. Compromised and compressed tissue was released through a few abscesses.

Ace is ridden barefoot since he was started under saddle. From 2021 onward this golden boy makes his young owner proud competing. In 2023 they took home a second place in barrel racing and a first place in pole bending.

Closing note: Ace lives in a herd in a large paddock without green grass pasture, over the summer months with 24/7 freedom to move and he is stalled overnight in the winter. Longer periods of standing (on wooden floor with shavings) caused set-backs in the healing. His hooves tend to re-contract and grow towards a wry-foot as Ace tends to lean on the side of his hoof capsules. In Ace's case hoof contraction was not caused by metal shoes as he never had any. Also it was not thrush eating away his frogs and bulbs as his hooves were in atrophy to begin with.

Left front pre-trim December 2019 note the bruised soft tissue and the rubber like skin of the bulbs

Left front lateral post-trim November 2023 — he still shortens his feet via divergent hooves; healthier bulbs emerging from further back bringing the hooves more under the bone column.

Photos: Gudrun Buchhofer

Stay tuned for the upcoming cases (under my care for up to 20 years) in this blog series as a replacement for the unpublished part III: Mission Impossible of my trilogy Hoof, Body & Soul.

What did all my client horses over the last 20+ years have in common? They needed to heal from atrophy of the back of the foot as well as other atrophied hoof structures.

Q: Why do we need to change the upbringing of our baby horses and donkeys? A: To prevent senseless suffering.

Gudrun Buchhofer