Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 66, case # 66

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

Body & Soul

Case # 66

Briscoe

trimmed from September 2018 until present 2025

“I bought Briscoe in the summer of 2012 after only intending to give his owners advice on how to safely re-home their cute little horse that had bucked everyone off. He had been passed around several times and was only about six years old. I wanted that to stop!

It was obvious immediately that he was uncomfortable having his hooves handled. Lifting a hoof even to pick it out was physically and mentally difficult for him and it took weeks of low-key attempts before he trusted that he could lift a hoof without me turning that into a big event. My hunch is his balance was never good and he was punished for this.

His hooves reflected a lack of care and so did his body. His front hooves were very flat and his hind hooves very clubby. Over time farrier after farrier, and vet after vet, said versions of "we can't fix this - he was born this way", and "he likely has neurological problems" when discussing his balance and lack of confidence in his body (which I knew were related).

He was boarded from 2012 until 2018. Over those years he had several periods of weight loss, energy loss (he spent a lot of time laying down looking dead), clear severe discomfort and muscle spasms. Like most owners I had him tested for 'everything'. Blood work and hair samples - the works. I was concerned about HYPP (Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis) given his conformation and likely breeding, Lyme disease is common in the part of Nova Scotia where he was from, there were several potential explanations but all came back negative.

His condition had deteriorated so severely in 2018, and I was out of vets and farriers, that I made the decision to euthanize him in the early summer. The week that was scheduled we ended up moving out of our suburban home to the country so I postponed it. We moved just up the road from a friend's farm so while we were preparing the property to bring horses home, I moved Briscoe to her place (this was where we were going to bury him) just to give him a chance to wander around outside of a boarding environment and to have him down the road where I could spend some time with him.

This friend was a client of Gudrun's and after meeting her at a BBQ right before moving Briscoe down, I gladly took her up on her offer to take a look at him. He was in terrible shape. I was mortified because as his owner how was this not my fault?

Four and a half years later and Briscoe has been a happy, confident guy at my home with his buddy Wilson. His weight has not been an issue since we started to address his hooves as the root cause of his condition and he's a much more alert and confident horse!”

Nicki D., March 2023.

September 2021 — In celebration of our third trimming anniversary I had the honour to be the first person riding him after all those years.

I am trimming Briscoe since September 2018 for over seven years now. In celebration of our third trimming anniversary I had the honour to be the first person riding him after all those years. I brought my saddle and rode Briscoe around the paddock. A very special moment!

Briscoe’s hooves had been stuck in infant stage. They never had a chance to experience the first initial reduction of the hoof capsule after birth, never had the opportunity to activate true heels, never were able to build internal structures, never completed the variant capsule angle-of-growth in the back of the foot. Briscoe's hooves simply had atrophied.

Fronts pre-trim of my first trim September 2018

My client made an interesting observation about Briscoe’s forehead in 2019. It looked like the plates of his skull shifted.

Briscoe lives with his buddy Wilson in a beautiful natural paddock with lots of rocks and partially textured areas. The horses are on a fairly natural diet with unlimited good quality first cut hay. They have no access to green grass pastures.

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 BuchhoferDecember 21, 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