Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 31, case #31

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

Navicular syndrome

Case # 28

Stamp

trimmed from 2008 until 2015

“In July of 2008, I made the decision to stop competing with my horse Stamp in barrel racing because he was sore. After my vet told me he had navicular I was devastated because he was only four years old at the time! I couldn’t accept this so I took him to the Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island for a second opinion only to have them tell me the same thing. They told me that corrective shoeing and medication would probably allow me to continue to race for a couple of years and then maybe he would be a candidate for nerve blocking followed by an early retirement or he could be euthanized. This was not an option for me! I love my horse too much to see him suffer like that. That is when I started to research about natural hoof trimming. I called PEI to see what they thought about it and they told me to “stick to corrective shoeing”. I didn’t listen!! I found Gudrun Buchhofer’s (AANHCP certified Natural Hoof Care Practitioner) brochure and called her immediately. She told me she would help Stamp.

Against everyone’s advice, I went with the barefoot trim for Stamp. I decided to give it a try for a full year before I made any other decision. I’m not going to lie; the first couple of months were really tough. He had some abscesses and he was extremely sore barefoot. So, I used hoof boots on walks to get him through this stage. Sure enough, four months later I was back in the saddle. I wasn’t sure at this point if I could race him because everyone told me he could never run as well barefoot. Well, this summer we proved them wrong. Not only did he run just as hard as he did in previous years; he improved. This summer was the first summer I’ve had him that he was completely sound for the whole show season. He competed in almost every exhibition in the Dodge barrels and did great. I went from being the most skeptical person in the horse industry to the biggest fan of Natural Hoof Care. Gudrun is amazing at what she does and she truly wants to help the animals. In my opinion, she saved my horse. It has been more than two years since he went barefoot and he continues to show improvements. And he has never had any more lameness issues. It not only improved his hooves but also his entire body.”

Karen H. & Going Postal (AKA Stamp), June 2010

(Client of AANHCP CP Gudrun Buchhofer, Nova Scotia, Canada)

Photo: Gudrun Buchhofer — left front pre-trim shows how he maintained his mustang roll

Stamp achieved triple championship in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2010. I was Stamp’s trimmer until July 2015. In 2015 he competed at the American Quarter Horse Congress in the United States. He still raced in 2018, ten years after the initial diagnose of navicular syndrome.

Sadly, Stamp had to be euthanized due to cancer in both of his eyes at the young age of fourteen. ♥

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 BuchhoferJuly 31, 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