Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 25, case #25

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

Quarter cracks; wall cracks

Case # 25

Jet

trimmed from May 2012 until present in 2025

Jet is a registered solid Paint Horse from Manitoba. My client bought him when he was two years old. Eventually, he was trained in western.

“Jet and I became buddies when he was two years old. We were green

partners...green horse, green rider. Some people advised against this

green horse, green rider thing but it worked for us, we had lessons twice a

week; we learned together. We also participated in horse clinics, reining

competitions, and everyone remarked on how smooth he was to ride.

Around the age of seven, I noticed Jet seemed to (as I phrased it) snap, crackle,

and pop when he walked and he wasn’t as smooth to ride, also his backups

started to be difficult for him. Jet would be lame more than not so; I stopped

entering competitions and clinics because I didn’t know when he would be

lame. Vertical lines started to appear on his hoofs, then eventually they

began to split so, I had to stop shoeing him; there was no way to attach the

shoes. I had the same farrier for twelve years, since the beginning, but he

could not seem to give me any answers to what was going on. I took Jet to

the vet for a complete exam and X-rays, I was told he had caudal heel pain

syndrome and there wasn’t anything that could be done, I was told that I

should put him down, I was devastated, and I refused to accept that. I

reached out to a very good horsey friend, she suggested to call Gudrun.

And I’m so glad I did. It has been quite a journey but thanks to Gudrun’s care Jet is now sound and we

are enjoying our smooth riding times together.”

I was contacted when Jet was twelve years old. He had lameness issues especially after every trim. He also had no forward drive when ridden. He was holding himself strenuously with his muscles. His entire body was over muscled. A young boy at a horse clinic, my client attended with Jet, expressed it perfectly when he said: “Jet looks like he has play dough patched all over his body”. Jet tucked the fronts behind the vertical and kept his shoulders pulled-up (hiding the withers). He walked over the toe on all four (avoiding to put weight on the back of the hooves). He had injured all toe walls. The hind hooves appeared to be petite in size. He placed the hinds very narrow based. With the weight on the toes, he placed his hinds out of the body line with the result that the bump was always higher than the withers.

Jet’s hooves were cracked. Especially his right front hoof was cracked severely all over and up into the hairline. The medial wall of the right front was bruised.

The left hind hoof had a quarter crack. Both hinds had a crack in the toe (biggest pressure point from loading the toe), both hinds toeing out.

The back of Jet’s hooves were atrophied and the flared tips of the false heels were hurting him. His hooves were not in line with the bone column; the fronts were twisted and the hinds warped; there was a lot of stress on his tendons and ligaments as well as his joints (especially the fetlock joints in both hinds). Both hinds did not have that natural bend in the pastern.

There was a lot of bruising. The hinds were bruised in the toe walls; the sole of the left front was extremely bruised (dark blue/grey, almost black, which later lightened up). In the right front both false heels were bruised and there was soft tissue bruising above the frog (above the hairline) in the center.

However and despite all of this, for the last thirteen years since I started him, Jet is ridden without hoof protection and without any lameness issues. His entire muscle mass changed over time. He is no longer camping out with the hinds. His bump is in align with the withers.

My client took pictures religiously after every trim. I reviewed over 2,000 (two thousand) photos from Jet’s hooves and body. So I was able to put together a chronological timeline from Jet’s healing journey:

-- bulbs opened up in 2013 (preparing for the increase in mass)

-- the left hind had a big bruise in the centre of the frog/bulbs; in 2016 true heel emerged about one inch from further back on the lateral side; Jet was now able to put weight on the lateral heel and straighten from the turned-out-stance; the variant capsule angle-of-growth finalized in the back; the quarter crack in the left hind was closed by 2014.

The quarter crack in the left hind closed by December 2014

-- bulbs opened up further in 2017/2018; significant increase of mass in the bulbs and digital cushions

-- the natural arch in the quarter appeared in all four hooves in 2017/2018

The natural arch appeared in the quarters — right front post-trim December 2017

-- in 2018 true heel on the lateral side emerged from further back in the left front; bruising in bulbs faded away; sole bruising began to fade away

-- in August of 2020, the hooves did some crazy chipping and breaking away as the new and divergent hooves took over – releasing the old and imbalanced

Left hind pre-trim August 2020 — clearly to be seen the “dead” corner in the back of the foot and the unreleased “false” heel

also in 2020 the sole bruising in the left front was a lot less;

Jet worked through the injury in the toe wall (the hoof shifted back under the bone column even more via divergent hooves); the left front was less pigeon-toed as well; bulbs increased significantly in mass;

-- in 2022, after ten years, we could see and feel the withers! Also, his bump was not higher than the withers anymore.

-- in March 2023 the left front experienced another huge increase in mass; the heel bulbs emerged again from further back placing the foot even further under the bone column.

-- as hoof mass shifted around the digit everything else straightened out; by the end of 2023 Jet had beautiful thick bulbs.

Right front post-trim October 2023 — note there is hardly any bruising in the sole left over

-- in 2024 the right hind and the right front still show tiny scars in the bulbs. They are from the injury of the flared tips of the false heels (the reason he avoided to put weight on the heels).

Right hind post-trim June 2023 showing the scar in the medial heel bulb

Summary: The caudal heel pain syndrome was diagnosed on the unfinished back of the hooves; the quarter crack in the left hind occurred from the unfinished back of the foot; the rest of the cracks in Jet’s hooves were injuries from toe loading based on the unfinished back of the foot (the right front for example always grew out healthy then cracked from the first inch down); based on the lack of true heel support Jet was forced on his toes and has worn the toes short in all four hooves and he avoided to put weight on the back of his feet also because the flared tips of the false heels were pinching in to the soft tissue (scars in the medial bulb of the right hind as well as of the right front); the tips of the flared false heels and the bars were bruised in the right hind; injury to the toe walls (cracks) from overloading the toes; the toe wall in both hinds was bruised from toe loading.

Looking back at thirteen years of healing, it was not a straight forward thing. Once Jet stopped wearing his toes with the new support from the back of the hooves it was about allowing the toes to grow back in and then let them get shorter naturally via divergent hooves (always letting the healing angle guide me). It was about increase in hoof mass; shifting hoof horn around the digit; shifting hoof horn further under the bone column; finalizing the variant capsule angle-of-growth in the back; building digital cushions; getting the horse away from standing behind the vertical in the front and camping out in the hind; healing of bruising; releasing of traumatized tissue and releasing of ossification (both hinds were frozen and I can now wiggle the hooves). Both hinds ended up with a beautiful bend in the pastern. Jet can back up freely without any hesitation.

Jet is now twenty-five years old and still healing. He is still healing from a mistake taken place in the first few hours of his life.

Jet lives outside 24/7 in a huge paddock field with other horses. There has been no change in diet, environment or trim in the past thirteen years.

Gudrun BuchhoferJuly 10, 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