Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 2; case #2

Author: Gudrun Buchhofer

Dedicated to all the horses suffering because of an unfinished foundation — their hooves.

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.

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

Hoof contraction

Case # 2 Angel (name changed)

trimmed from 2009 – 2020

The Paint Horse was born in 2005. Angel had metal shoes put on at the age of four. The farrier refused to come back because the horse had climbed the stall walls while he was shoeing him. I was Angel’s trimmer for the next eleven years from 2009 onward until he was re-homed due to my client’s health issues.

Based on the unfinished back of the foot and the ingrown tips of the false heels I was confronted with pathological wear patterns in Angel's hooves. He braced himself on the lateral wall and toe of his front feet. Both front hooves had wall separation and stress cracks in the wall on the lateral side. The water line and the outer outside wall of his front hooves were very thin. The bulbs and frogs were atrophied. When they began to fill out the heels appeared contracted. This lasted almost ten years because Angel was still bracing (and wearing down the lateral side/toe). Around the nine-year-mark there was a visible breakthrough in the development of the frogs and bulbs.

His hind hooves were equally atrophied but injured differently and healed differently. They were equally thin in the water line and outer outside wall and atrophied in the frogs and bulbs to begin with. They were deformed because he braced on the medial side. But since he shifted from camping out with his hinds to a healthier stance the internal structures got stronger and thicker. The hinds also changed shape and turned out beautiful allover (cover photo blog # 2).

Angel had extreme muscle tension in the front legs and frankly all-over his body for quite some time. His conformation was affected as he was standing behind the vertical in the front, camping out in the hind and holding his head high (his mouth always tight).

By helping the back of his hooves to heal I was able to get Angel away from standing behind the vertical in the front little by little. His hooves supported the bone column more and more, one divergent hoof at a time. At the beginning of 2019 his stance finally changed (front and hind).

In 2017 he was still bracing on the lateral side of the left front (big blue bruise on the lateral wall). The hinds were narrow based and toed out — the right hind toed out more.

Nine years after my first trim significant development of the bulbs happened from Dec/2017 – Dec/2018. The entire shape of his hooves had changed by that time. His stance changed by 2019.

My last lateral view on the left front hoof from April 2020 shows that he was bringing the foot back even more under the bone column with the next divergent hoof. That was after eleven years of healing! The hind hooves of course were equally involved in the healing journey. One of the previous photos shows how distorted his right hind (counter partner of the left front) used to be. The deformation happened because he put the weight on the medial half of the foot and turned the hoof outwards. The fundamental cause for him doing so was based on an enforced decision he had to make in the first weeks of his life due to the unfinished back of the foot.

Despite the amount of healing his hooves had to do Angel was trail ridden over rocks and shale on his bare feet without any hoof protection. Parts of the year he was out on the trail daily.

Angel and his owners will always be in my heart. I am grateful for an amazing time of trust and friendship. ♥

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 BuchhoferMay 27, 2025horse, horses, nhc, natural hoof care, lessonsfromthewild, the natural trim, natural horse care, barhuf, barhufpflege, foal, Hufprobleme, FohlenhufComment

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