Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 54, case # 54

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

Diagnosed stifle injury

Case # 54

Storm

trimmed from December 2012 until present 2025

Storm, a Sorrel Tobiano, was born in 2008. My client bought her in December 2012. Storm had done some jumping and barrel racing, trail riding and clinics in western riding.

A pre-purchase examination said: “Both front feet are turned out, left is mild right is moderate. Slight hoof imbalance in both front feet, this is likely due to her hoof balance, medial heel slightly pushed up left front, worse on right front. Low heel, long toe and thin sole both hind feet. Base-line trot in a straight line reveals that she travels slightly higher with her right hip. At walk, trot and canter on the lunge line mare appears to be sound at this point in time, she did appear to catch her right stifle a couple times during downward transitions. Bilateral medial front limb splints noted. These are not painful and do not appear active. They do not appear to interfere with the suspensory ligament at this point in time. I would recommend using brush boots on both fronts due to her toed out conformation.” There also was a concern of an over bite.

I trim Storm since December 2012 and these are my first notes:

Petite hooves; imbalanced; hooves were most likely exposed to unnatural footing at and after birth (shavings, rubber mats, wooden stall floors, accumulation of straw or hay, pasture etc.); atrophy of the back of the foot; weak internal structures; soft tissue bruising; the hooves were clearly not under the bone column of the legs. Early on in her life Storm made an enforced decision how to brace in order to stand and move. She was then locked in that decision. Assuming she curled up to the right in her mother’s womb, Storm turned out the right front and right hind (leaning on the lateral side of the right hind). The flared tip of the false heel was ingrown into the soft tissue on the medial side in the right hind. She avoided to put weight on the medial heel. Every time I picked up Storm's hind feet there was a snatch from the tendon in both legs. Storm placed the left hind far under her belly and braced the situation with her left front.

Over the years hoof horn shifted around the coffin bone in all four hooves. All four emerged from further back positioning the feet more under the bone column. All four hooves increased significantly in hoof mass. We witnessed 4th dimensional healing changes. Between 2018 and 2020 there was a lot of visible increase of internal structures/digital cushions. That was also the time when the natural arch in the quarters appeared (following life sole plane).

Post-trim July 2018 — note how she is placing the left hind

Storm's left front requires the longest time for the healing.

Left front pre-trim of my first trim November 2012

There was a breakthrough with the right hind when true heel emerged on the medial side following an abscess in October 2020. The internal structures, bulbs and frog increased in mass. The bruising in the heel bulb as well as on the sole (in front of the tip of the frog) lessened from that time onward. The tip of the medial heel is no longer flared; it no longer pinches into the internal structures. The entire wear pattern changed for this foot after the abscess.

Right hind pre-trim March 2020 — the wear pattern prior to the abscess in October: she was leaning on the lateral side (wearing it down).

Right hind post-trim May 2018: frog still atrophied; the tip of the medial heel is flared and bruised; the sole is bruised in front of the tip of the frog; the white line is atrophied.

Right hind post-trim January 2021: still healing through the abscess at the medial heel; the central sulcus of the frog is filled; the tip of the medial heel is less bruised and less flared; the outer outside wall is less bruised: the sole in front of the tip of the frog is less bruised; the overlaid bar peeled off on the lateral side = revealing that the bar is more straight now; the white line connection is healthy.

I trust that the firm and abrasive environment helped immense with Storm’s healing besides the mimicking of natural wear patterns. This includes the application of a genuine mustang roll with the water line to always be the most distal part of the hoof capsule.

Left hind pre-trim December 2022 — six weeks after the last trim

*Storm* at the age of six in 2014 — dropped fetlocks left hind and right front — photo: Bonnie Swinimer

*Storm* at the age of seventeen in October 2025 — the fetlocks are no longer dropped; the right hind foot is placed straight (no longer turning out) —photo: Bonnie Swinimer

Trimming Storm in February 2025 I found the medio/lateral balance of the right hind to be on the dime. All these years the hoof was always higher on the medial side because Storm used to lean on the lateral side of the hoof capsule.

Storm lives in the company of other horses outside 24/7 with access to a run-in shelter. The paddocks, arena and tracks are textured with crusher dust. The horses are on a fairly natural diet. They are offered first cut hay in slow feeding hay nets in several feeding spots, organic minerals and Himalayan or Redmond salt. There is no access to green grass pastures.

Storm is a happy horse and goes full tilt on the track.

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 25, 2025Hufprobleme, horse, hoof problems, horses, the natural trim, lessonsfromthewild, foal, Fohlenhuf, foal hoof, barhuf, barhufpflege, nhc, natural horse care, natural hoof care, donkeys, donkey hoof

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 tent 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. Photo credit: CKPhotography

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.

Image 1: Left front pre-trim July 2013

Image 2: Left front pre-trim July 2013

Image 3: Left front pre-trim December 2019 note the bruised soft tissue and the rubber like skin of the bulbs

Image 4: Left front pre-trim October 2024

Image 5: Left front lateral pre-trim July 2013

Image 6: 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