Hoof, Body & Soul, Part III: Mission Impossible, unedited, by Gudrun Buchhofer. Blog 88, case # 88

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

Body & Soul

Case # 88

Quarter Horse

Note: The horses from my last two cases (case # 88 and 89) of this blog series (a replacement for part III: Mission Impossible of my trilogy “Hoof, Body & Soul”) were born three years apart, came from the same breeder and have different parents. They live at the same home, in the same environment, are on the same diet and they have been trimmed by the same professional barefoot trimmer from the time they were weanlings. They never had any form of shoes attached to their feet. What stayed unnoticed was the atrophy in the back of all hooves. In both cases it was not the horse's conformation. In my humble opinion: their bodies "broke down" on unfinished hooves.

The Quarter Horse gelding clearly expressed that something was profoundly wrong with him at the age of five. He started bucking and frankly scared his owner. Eventually he was taken out of training and riding. I met and started trimming him at the age of ten in December 2020.

Notes from my first assessment: wearing down toe walls in both fronts; “paddling” over the toe with both fronts; camping out with the hinds and standing on his tiptoes (wearing down his toe walls as well); hind hooves deformed; weak fetlocks; distorted pasterns; atrophy of the back of the hooves; atrophied bulb corium (white skin); bruised soles; bruised outer outside walls (blue does not exist as a hoof colour; blue is bruising); oversized chest muscles; weak croup; tight behind the shoulder blades; tension in the tail bone (reflecting in the poor quality of his tail hair).

Over the course of the next four years he developed thick heel/frog bulbs (emerging from further back via divergent hooves) as well as internal structures. Around August 2023 the frogs/bulbs opened up in the centre to accommodate increase in mass. The support from hoof to bone column got better and better. Hoof mass shifted around the coffin bones and the hooves balanced in all directions. The gelding's mane flipped a couple times during the healing (expressing the involvement of the nuchal ligament). He had a couple massages but the exposure to crusher dusted paddocks brought a clear break through in his healing.

The gelding is now ridden, jumped by young girls, out for fun trail rides and as well a trusted lesson horse. He is happy in his body and his mind. Sadly, well sad for me but I am happy for them, my client family moved out of the country.

December 2020 — camping out of the body line with the hinds

August 2024 — the next divergent hoof is bringing the fronts further under the bone column; the variant capsule angle-of-growth is completing in the left hind; the natural arch is forming in the quarter

Fronts October 2024 — half way in, hoof horn is shifting around the coffin bones with the next two divergent hooves coming down from the hairline

Left hind October 2024 — bruising is fading away; looking closely we can see some purple = a surgeon once explained to me that, when bruised blood vessels heal, the colour goes from dark blue/grey, over purple, pink and then into white. Remember: every horn tubule is equipped with it’s own blood vessel.

Left hind October 2024 — the natural arch is forming in the quarters

Left front mid-trim December 2020 — he has worn his toe wall

Left front pre-trim January 2021 — the heel bulbs are atrophied = white skin

Left front pre-trim June 2023 — exposing the long shank of the “false” heel on the lateral side; repair work is happening at the lateral bulb

Left front post-trim August 2023 — frog/bulbs open up in the center for expansion

Left front pre-trim October 2023 — further expansion and increase in soft tissue and internal structures

Right front pre-trim January 2021 — the heel bulbs are atrophied = white skin

Left hind pre-trim January 2021 — the heel bulbs are atrophied = white skin

Left hind mid-trim August 2024 — the coffin bone is in a healthier position due to the increase of internal structures; I can remove some more sole horn around the tip of the frog

Right hind pre-trim January 2021 — the heel bulbs are atrophied = white skin

Right hind pre-trim November 2023 — six weeks after the last trim

Right hind post-trim July 2024 — the lateral bar-heel triangle is repairing after an abscess; bulbs are further increasing in mass

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 BuchhoferApril 11, 2026Hufprobleme, horse, hoof problems, horses, foal, Fohlenhuf, foal hoof, barhuf, barhufpflege, nhc, natural horse care, natural hoof care, donkeys, donkey hoof, lessonsfromthewild

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