Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 82, case # 82

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

Body & Soul

Case # 82

Scotia

trimmed by me from June 2012 until present 2026

Scotia was born in 2006. He was bought from the breeder by his first owners when he was six months old. The Canadian stallion was under the Natural Trim from young on. He was trimmed by his owners who were certified by Jaime Jackson as well.

Rolling back: when I took over the trimming in 2012 Scotia had been gelded and moved to a new home. It was obvious to me that the back of Scotia’s hooves were underdeveloped and atrophied and had to do further healing. The white line was atrophied and partially warped. Frogs and bulbs were bruised to some extend from overcompensating. The hooves were not serving the body. The hooves were not under the bone column of the legs. The front hooves were “boxy”. Scotia used to square his toes on all four. He turned out the right hind hoof and counter balanced with both fronts. Although he was trail ridden daily at that time, by 2015 Scotia showed weak gluteal giving a flat, hollow appearance. Above the right hind hoof I discovered a scar on the lateral side above the hairline. The entire area of the medial bulb and frog was a big fat bruise. Again, there was the possibility for injuries from the ingrown, sharp and flared tips of the “false” heels and a reason for him to keep the hoof turned out. Note: as a two-year-old he had an under-bite and held his lips tight.

January 2015 — *Scotia* showed weak gluteal giving a flat, hollow appearance; he turned out the right hind to avoid weight bearing on the lateral heel

My task was to get the hoof capsules to complement the variant capsule angle-of-growth in the back. This would position the hoof under the bone column of the leg. It took many years and divergent hooves to get this job accomplished. Scotia delivers a wonderful example how the hoof organizes itself over the course of years of healing with consistency in the trimmer’s handwriting following the genuine Natural Trim. In 2023 we noticed a change with the under-bite and improvement in the glutes!

In the prime time of the human-horse-relationship Scotia was trail ridden almost daily on a crusher dust trail and over river rocks. Scotia was also driven in a cart over pavement. His lifetime Scotia is entirely barefoot without any form of hoof protection.

Scotia and his buddy Nolly live in a gorgeous paradise in the woods with a crusher dusted paddock. They enjoy 24/7 freedom. The horses are on hay only. There is no green grass in their lives, no commercially mixed feeds, no vaccinations or chemical de-wormers. They get their teeth checked annually. They are on a 12-week-trimming schedule since 2020 (6-week- schedule in previous years).

Scotia and Nolly moved to a new home in 2025. They are able to continue their life with 24/7 freedom in a natural environment and the company of a third horse.

Left front…

Right front…

Right hind…

Right hind pre-trim February 2023 — the new layer of frog coming in shows how much of a shift of horn has taken place; bulbs are increasing in mass

Right hind pre-trim November 2023 — still slightly imbalanced medio-laterally; the level of the new heel height is visible on the lateral side with the next divergent hoof growing in

Left hind…

Left hind pre-trim November 2023 — the central sulcus of the frog is pretty much filled

Left hind post-trim June 2023 — there is a lot more hoof mass in the back of the foot since 2015

Left hind pre-trim November 2023 — twelve weeks after the last trim

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 BuchhoferMarch 29, 2026Hufprobleme, 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