Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 39, case #39

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

Dropped fetlocks

Case # 39

Carol

trimmed from November 2015 until present (2025)

Ex racehorse Carol is under my hoof care wings since November 2015. She was discarded from racing after an accidental injury to her left front. X-rays (which I have seen) were done in 2011 after my clients saved Carol off the track. The diagnose was something like "the pastern bone shuffled".

I never paid attention to the diagnose but looked at her hooves (her foundation). Most likely from an enforced decision after birth she braced on the medial heel and toe of the left front (using it as a crutch) and had worn the medial heel and toe short. Most likely from foal on she held the lower left front leg off to the side. The pastern never naturalized into that bow from being straight at birth. Most likely she was standing in a stall on bedding after birth and/or was exposed to unnatural grounds. The left front hoof remained petite in size with the back of the foot atrophied.

Obviously Carol had lameness issues with the left front before the accidental injury happened during her last race. She has white hair on her lower leg (front and back) which are scars from nerve pinning.

I simply mimicked natural wear patterns with my trim and allowed the hoof to tell the story. Since I do not work with x-rays I never asked for any. I ignored all pathology and respected the healing powers of nature. I took photos with every trim and tracked the healing development.

Initially Carol's left front fetlock was not dropped. It happened in 2017. Literally, something happened! The fetlock joint picked up function. Carol built huge amounts of ossification (possible soft tissue ossification but the joint was really hard in touch) around the joint for stabilization. The joint was completely padded. Based on the experience from my other cases, I assume the fetlock first dropped because of the still missing support from the back of the foot. The hoof did not complete the variant capsule angle-of-growth after birth. Needless to say that all four hooves did not finalize the back of the foot. Front and hind hooves did not support the bone column of the legs. Carol always held the left front forward.

June 2019 — *Carol* always held the left front forward, her hind hooves did not support the bone column of the legs.

It was quite a challenge to trim Carol's opposite diagonal pair, the right front and left hind. In the beginning she could hardly put weight on the left front. Hand feeding her with oats helped us through the worst. I allowed the previously snubbed toe to grow back in (basically back to the moment in time of birth as crazy as it sounds). In February 2023 the left front abscessed at the medial heel bulb. From there the center of the bulbs opened up and filled out with soft tissue.

Left front — abscess on the lateral heel bulb October 2024

One divergent hoof at a time the toe got shorter and steeper in angles. The left front increased significantly in hoof mass. Over the years all four hooves shifted more under the bone column, built internal structures, bulbs and frogs. It was never just about the one foot! Damaged and traumatized tissue was released through abscesses. Bruises faded away. The left front was dark in colour to begin with and is almost white by now. The hoof has previously been bruised severely. There were micro abscesses around the left front fetlock joint in July 2023. In October 2024 Carol abscessed directly from the bump in the front. The bump in the front clearly got smaller.

Left front October 2024 — *Carol* abscessed directly from the bump in the front

For about a year and a half now (after too many hours of stall confinement all her life) Carol is finally free to live outside 24/7 in a herd where she is bossing around the other horses. Freedom of movement is supporting her healing journey. Carol is twenty-two in 2025 and we will find out how far her left front will heal from here. I will update this case.

August 2025 — both hinds are supporting the bone column of the legs; she is no longer holding the left front foot forward

August 2025 — her hinds are a strong support now

Left front August 2025 — the hoof increased significantly in mass over the last ten years; with the next divergent hoof (in about one inch down from the hairline) she is placing the left front further under the bone column and finalizing the variant capsule angle-of-growth in the back; again, the hoof will be steeper in angle and shorter in toe length once that line has grown down to the ground.

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 BuchhoferAugust 29, 2025Hufprobleme, horse, hoof problems, horses, the natural trim, lessonsfromthewild, foal, Fohlenhuf, foal hoof, barhuf, barhufpflege, nhc, natural horse care, natural hoof care

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