Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 60, case # 60

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

Ringbone/sidebone/ossification/arthritis

Case # 60

trimmed from November 2021 until present November 2025

The seven-year-old Quarter Horse was diagnosed with side-bone and ring-bone in both hinds at the young age of three. The mare is untrained and has never been ridden. The atrophy in the back of all four hooves was unnoticed.

All four hooves needed to go on the same healing journey to finalize the back of the foot = building bulbs; internal structures; true heels; shifting the hoof further under the bone column and complementing the variant capsule angle-of-growth.

The mare used to have a very strange stance. She placed the fronts behind the vertical and braced with her hinds. She toed out with her hinds and basically dove the toes of her hind hooves straight into the ground. Needless to say she was very muscle tight.

June 2023 — the mare’s stance did not change much in the first two years

Left hind pre-trim of my first trim November 2021 — the heel/bar triangle on the medial side is interrupted, frog and bulbs are atrophied

Left hind pre-trim September 2023 — activities in the frog and bulbs; a new and divergent heel has emerged from further back on the lateral side

Left hind pre-trim July 2024 — the hoof is releasing a lot of the medio/lateral imbalance; I can remove overall hoof length

Left hind pre-trim July 2025 — again the heels have emerged from further back (more on the lateral side) = placing the hoof further under the bone column of the leg; I can remove overall hoof length

The frog and bulbs have developed, the left hind hoof is positioned more under the bone column. The medial heel/bar triangle is now intact. I can "wiggle" the (previously frozen) hoof capsule for quite some time.

Frontal view of the left hind during the various healing stages:

Left hind pre-trim of my first trim November 2021 — the mare literally dove the foot toe first into the ground; she had snubbed her own toe

Left hind pre-trim February 2023 — I allowed the previously snubbed toe to grow back; the hoof looked like a pop can

Left hind post-trim July 2024 — a divergent hoof is half way in increasing horn on the medial side (4th dimensional healing changes). This is placing the hoof more in line with the leg and showing how much off the previous hoof actually was. (Note: the hoof is NOT flaring out. The new hoof is growing inside the old. The new hoof does not take the old location with it. With the next trims I can safely remove the excess horn on the lateral side.

All four hooves are on the same healing path. All four hooves got bigger in size and proportion (increase in hoof mass). The fetlocks relaxed and slowly began functioning for the horse.

Left front November 2021 and onward showing the development in the bulbs

With each trim the hooves are releasing overall hoof length. Although the mare had pathologically shortened her toes (which I first allowed to grow back), the initial reduction of the hoof capsule after birth has not taken place. I trim the hooves down to just above live sole, cut a genuine mustang roll and set the hooves up for further healing over the course of the next six weeks.

Left front pre-trim October 2023 — the toe is still worn down slightly; medio-lateral imbalance is still present

Left front pre-trim July 2024 — the bulbs open up further

Left front pre-trim July 2025 — new and divergent heels have just emerged from further back, placing the hoof about 1/4 inch further under the bone column of the leg; overall hoof length can be shortened; medio-lateral imbalance has improved

The mare’s stance has changed positively in the last two years. The muscle tension is almost gone. She is carrying her neck better and has relaxed her abdominal muscles. There was no body work or massage done.

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 BuchhoferNovember 28, 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 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