Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 3, case #3

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 # 3

Jensen

trimmed from 2004 until 2023 with interruptions

I knew Jensen since he was a weanling. He was one of the PMU (Pregnant Mare Urine) foals coming to Nova Scotia from out west in 2003. I started trimming him around yearling age until he was placed. At some point he was returned back to the rescue farm. I happened to be there when he unloaded from the trailer. I remember it was raining and going towards dark. Jensen recognized me immediately and communicated with me about his hooves. He was visibly in distress. I trimmed him right away and realized his hooves had contracted while he was away.

Eventually, Jensen was placed again. I travelled long distances for work and was able to follow and trim him until May of 2012. Another farrier was hired at the place where Jensen lived. Then another farrier was doing the trimming and again another one. “The last farrier didn’t seem too bad at first but one day he said he could not do this horse. Jensen would not stand. He could not do anything. He could not do it. And he left,” Jensen’s owner reports.

Note: several times throughout Jensen’s life the mimicking of natural wear patterns (including, but not as a “stand-alone trick”, the rasping or sanding the inside and around the back of the heels as well as a genuine mustang roll all the way around) was not provided. The fundamental problem, the undeveloped back of the foot, was not addressed by the other professionals.

Sometime in 2014 Jensen showed physical problems. His owner says: “He laid down a lot and did not move as much. There was less running. Although he never lost his appetite he gradually lost weight and body mass.”

When I was called in October of 2015 Jensen had been seen by several veterinarians. The last one recommended to put Jensen to sleep immediately. His owners were heart broken when they phoned me up. I will never forget, it was Thanksgiving Sunday when I took the day off to visit Jensen. I was shocked by his looks! Jensen had wasted away muscle and body mass. He was only skin and bones.

And three years prior, one of the last times I had trimmed him, I rode him around the paddock!

After the initial shock I realized that Jensen’s stance had changed. His hind end was very weak. He was not able to stand on his hind feet much. He was weaving back and forth, shifting his weight from one hind foot to the other. Oftentimes he would bend the foot over to rest on the front of the hoof capsule. He clearly avoided to put weight on the back of the feet. I asked if the vets had looked under the hooves. No, they had not.

I followed my gut feeling and offered to trim Jensen that day. I badly wanted to see his hooves. Not only were the frogs and bulbs bruised and dark blue but there were also dark purple bruises around all eight tips of the false heels (or ingrown toe nails). Jensen never had any form of shoes attached to his hooves but his feet had contracted again severely since I last saw him. His hind hooves had the form crushed of pop cans.

So, Jensen had extreme bruises on all four hooves and non of the professionals noticed anything. Because of the severe stage I found Jensen in that day I did not take any photos. But his owners acknowledged the dark purple bruises I described above.

This was eight years ago. I was Jensen’s trimmer again ever since. A round-trip from my home was 430 kilometres and the distance truly a challenge. I implemented a detour in one of my regular long-distance trips so I was able to trim Jensen every six weeks. On each of my visits Jensen also had a Reiki session with me. Eventually his owner learned the basics of Jim Masterson’s “Bladder Meridian Technique”. There was a lot of tension to be released from all over Jensen’s body.

Jensen had a strong will to survive. His owner spread out his hay in tiny portions religiously to make him move. Jensen acted like a vacuum cleaner eating up his hay and moving to the next small pile. He was determined to live.

Towards the end of the trimming cycle Jensen would suck in his belly. The flared tips of the false heels (ingrown toe nails) were pinching in again. Jensen was smart to help himself. He figured out if he would step into his run-in shelter and position his hind legs over the beam at the entrance, he could put his hind toes on the beam and let the back of the foot dangle. He used this beam so hard that it got worn down completely in two spots.

The beam was completely worn in two places by his hind hooves

Jensen would also bend the hinds over as described earlier (he stopped doing this between 2020 and 2022). He saved himself to put weight on the ingrown toe nails as much as possible.

Now, as Jensen’s hooves grew so did the flared tips of the false heels and they were hurting him. He was also swinging his hind legs out like a pendulum from the hip. His muscles were tired. We knew a shorter trimming cycle would be helpful but due to the distance I could not come out sooner than six weeks. I got my client involved. She filed the inside of the heels (the flared tips of the false heels or ingrown toe nails) one over the other day. At some point in time Jensen exchanged the false heels with true heels. He began to fill out the central sulcus of his frogs, built bulbs and internal structures. Hoof mass shifted around the digit. Jensen’s hooves settled further under the bone column of the legs. He was less pigeon toed in the front and did not square or bull-nose the toes of his hind hooves anymore. He was able to place the hinds further under his body and distribute his weight more evenly. All four hooves increased in mass due to 4th dimensional healing changes.

Jensen lived a happy retirement life with a mini horse as companion in a beautiful dry paddock with 24/7 freedom to roam on firm and rocky grounds. My client took many videos showing Jensen rolling, then jumping up, kicking his heels and galloping off. What a sight!

“And also, if it wasn’t for you this boy wouldn’t be here today. I am more than grateful, I can’t even say how grateful I am, that you came back into his life.” Kathy W., April 2023.

A process that should have happened in the first weeks of his life, Jensen’s frogs and bulbs were just filling in after the central sulcus opened up (a bit earlier in the hinds than the fronts) and the bruising began to fade away from the center outward in March of 2023.

Left front in March 2023 — bruising fading away from the center of the bulbs outward

Jensen’s hind hooves went through an amazing transformation. When I came back in 2015 they looked like crushed pop cans. Jensen had worn down and bull nosed his own toes because he could not put weight on the back of the feet. The bulbs of the right hind were completely atrophied and of a rubber like tissue.

In 2015 I found the right hind bulbs completely atrophied and of a rubber like tissue.

Right hind in 2017 — *Jensen* had worn down and bull nosed his own toes because he could not put weight on the back of the feet

Right hind in 2020 — I allowed the toe to grow back in while I helped *Jensen* to heal the back of the foot

Right hind in October 2022 — the texture of the bulbs changed, the center of the foot opened up and was in the process of filling out.

The healing journey of Jensen’s left hind hoof was interesting to observe. In March of 2017, on a clear winter day, the bruised tissue in his hoof appeared as blue as my old blue sweater (note the bruising on the sole as well). The photo from 2017 also shows how crooked he used to hold the hoof (avoiding to put weight on the lateral heel). The second photo is from January 2020. The third and fourth photo are from November 2022.

Jensen was laid to rest in the fall of 2023 due to breathing issues.

Thank you for the teaching. ♥

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 28, 2025horse, horses, nhc, natural hoof care, natural horse care, lessonsfromthewild, the natural trim, barhuf, barhufpflege, foal, foal hoof, Fohlenhuf, Hufprobleme, hoof problems

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