Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 5, case #5

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

Deformed hooves /crooked feet / wry feet / twisted hooves / slipper feet / folded hooves / flared hooves

Case # 5

Cutie

trimmed from 2005 - 2023

Cutie, my friend’s mini gelding, was under my hoof care wings for eighteen years. The unfinished back of his feet were the foundational problem for him to lean on the lateral sides of both hinds and the right front as well as on the medial side of the left front. He had wall separation from warping in certain places. His atrophied bulbs were a challenge. I think his soles were atrophied as well. In eighteen years I never touched his soles with a knife. I only used my sole rasp on the bars and the tip of the the toe area to re-establish concavity (to leave the water line the most distal part of the hoof capsule) whenever I was able to shorten the hoof a couple millimeters from underneath. The soles have been entirely dark blue/black in the beginning. So I can safely assume that the sole coria were bruised.

Left hind in 2018. The hoof had wall separation on the lateral side, the tips of the heels flared longer and pinching in the soft tissue. The bruising of the sole corium began to fade away inward.

With 4th dimensional healing changes at work (and the shifting of hoof horn around the coffin bone one divergent hoof at a time) it took those eighteen years to straighten Cutie's crooked hind feet and to change his stance.

Left hind in 2022 — with the divergent hoof close to the ground the hoof is adding horn on the lateral side. The time of leaning on the lateral side is over. Also, the toe is coming in shorter with a steeper angle with the divergent hoof.

For about sixteen years Cutie would always tip over when I tried to put his right hind on the mini hoof stand under his belly. In the end he was able to do it.

Three of Cutie’s legs (right front and both hinds) travelled to the right; most likely he was bent to the right in his mother’s womb (the natural crookedness he would have been born with). Lack of movement and lack of firm and abrasive grounds after birth forced him to counterbalance with the left front and deal with his unfinished hooves at a very young age. He had no chance to develop the back of his hooves and to straighten his body.

His owner spread out hay in the woods daily in tiny amounts.

Cutie lived outside with 24/7 freedom to munch his hay on a crusher dusted paddock and to roam the woods he so loved. His owner spread out hay in the woods daily in tiny amounts. Cutie spent the last years by himself after his companion mare died and it was amazing to witness that he connected with deer and other animals living in his woods.

Cutie coming down his track for trimming

My last photo from *Cutie* in July 2023.

Cutie crossed the rainbow bridge in August 2023 in his thirties.

Thank you for the teaching little man. ♥

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 30, 2025horse, horses, nhc, natural hoof care, lessonsfromthewild, the natural trim, natural horse care, 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