No Hoof No Horse Barefoot Trimming

04/27/2024

Alicia and I have worked hard on writing and illustrating this book for the Navicular horse owner. As a misunderstood issue, it causes much confusion when it comes to treatment and expected outcomes. This book explains in detail what it is, what it’s *NOT* and how to overcome the very misunderstood syndrome.

04/27/2024

New website is up and running!

Specializing in Hoof Rehabilitation, Performance Horses and Composite Shoes.Based in Santa Ynez, California Book Here Often small tweaks can lead to long lasting changes and comfort; especially for metabolic, endocrinopathic and navicular horses.If barefoot isn’t an option, then using flexible com...

08/07/2023

**Accepting new clients** for trims and composites

I specialize in creating the healthiest hoof possible while taking into account performance goals, diet, movement, posture, conformation and environment.

Often small tweaks can lead to long lasting changes and comfort; especially for metabolic, endocrinopathic and navicular horses.

If barefoot isn’t an option, then using flexible composite shoes to support hemodynamic function as well as provide shock absorption may be the next best thing.

TEXT: (530)360-8863
Based out of Santa Ynez

05/15/2021

Hoof boots - the OTHER nesting material 😂

01/19/2021

I see a lot of rehab horses, with owners that are hoping to bring their horse back into work after a period of time off due to lameness. In my experience, the "return-to-work" approach can be crucial in maintaining soundness long term - we can't just hop on our horse because he's "sound now" and gallop off into the sunset (although wouldn't that be nice?).

This is a conservative plan targeted to bringing horses back slowly from soft tissue damage, but that being said, I have had varying cases of pathologies using this as a guideline with great results. I always say, you probably won't regret moving too slow when bringing them back into work, but you certainly might regret moving too fast!

This might also be beneficial for horses that have hoof related lameness issues where diagnostics have been inconclusive, and obtaining an MRI hasn't been feasible. I find many of my "navicular" clients do well with this protocol. As always, involve your veterinarian, hoofcare provider, and other members of your rehab "team" when incorporating management changes for your horse.

Special thank you to Dr. Martina Neidhart for helping with the rehab timeline in this graphic - she has been great with chatting with me about various ways to rehab these kinds of cases, and how biomechanics come into play.

01/14/2021

We live in a world of instant gratification. If a website takes more than 2 seconds to load a picture, we think the WiFi is down. So I'm not surprised that this desire to have everything right away can shift to hooves.

When our horses are lame with a hoof related issue, many owners want something that will fix them right away. A pain med, an injection, a new shoeing package, a new farrier, a new vet. Anything that will take away the pain and allow them to continue life as usual, right?

But how often do we stop to think about the state their feet are in, and how long it took to get that way? Months, years? Maybe we can do something to allow them to become comfortable instantly, but are we getting to the root issue and addressing the health of the hoof itself? Are we allowing the hoof the time it needs to become healthy, the horse the time it needs to relearn proper biomechanics and proprioception, and the internal structures the time they need to strengthen?

Think about it this way. If you want to gain muscle and get stronger, do you expect one day at the gym will let you compete in a competition tomorrow? No! You can spend months working up slowly and strengthening different areas of your body, adjusting to aches and pains and noticing improvement as your muscles learn to handle more difficult tasks. The internal structures of the hoof take time to strengthen, too!

It can take 9 months to grow a healthy hoof capsule and internal structures, double that if the soft tissue has been damaged, and a myriad of factors influence this. Good mineral balancing, good diet, good movement, good environment, and good hoofcare, to name a few. We want the hoof to heal from the inside, out. Does this often delay our gratification and mean we have to patiently wait and watch for changes? Yes. Does this often mean the horse might need time off, or a change in diet, or a change in environment in order to get better results? Yes. But in turn, does this mean we often end up with a sounder horse that has strong feet for the long haul? Yes.

Distortion and pathology doesn't happen overnight, and 99% of the time can't be fixed overnight. If you're looking for the "quick fix," I encourage you to consider if that's the healthiest option, and the steps you might need to take to strengthen your horse's feet for long term soundness.

09/22/2020

Lately, I have heard about or seen horses that seem to have become footsore or uncomfortable "out of nowhere" this fall, even when previously fairly comfortable over various terrain.

If you've seen any soundness setbacks over the last few weeks, especially if your horse is over 8-10 years old, there are some things to consider:

Right now is the seasonal rise of ACTH, which started (in our hemisphere at least) around the end of July. This is normal for all horses- it signals their body to grow a winter coat, adapt for upcoming weather changes, etc.

In horses with early PPID, ACTH levels can go unregulated and lead to issues. Sometimes the very first symptom of early PPID is unexplained footsoreness during the seasonal rise.

Vets might be hesitant to test ACTH levels this time of year due to this rise. Liphook in the UK has a range for "normal" ACTH levels each week during the year. With this information, we can see what might be a normal ACTH response to the seasonal rise and what might be abnormal and suggesting early PPID (see attached chart found from The Laminitis Site).

If your vet says to wait until the seasonal rise is over, I suggest asking them about doing the TRH stim test at that time, instead of just baseline ACTH. January through June is the lowest time for ACTH levels and this means some early PPID cases can be missed when tested in the spring.

IF YOUR WEATHER RIGHT NOW IS BELOW 45°F AT NIGHT AND WARM/SUNNY DURING THE DAY:
Your grass is SKY HIGH in sugar and can cause soreness or even full blown laminitis. Pull your horse off grass completely especially if you're noticing any signs of soreness.

For a podcast episode on the topic, see here:
https://thehumblehoof.libsyn.com/managing-the-metabolic-horse

09/04/2020

What angle would your horses feet be if they could choose?

We have discussed recently whether traditional farriery creates caudal hoof failure, whether caudal hoof failure means that many horses present with a lower angle hoof then they would optimally have and whether that creates a hoof Pastern axis that is broken back in the majority of horses.
One of my articles said the following..

“If you could somehow calculate the cumulative effect of the distortions and collapses that are present into an amount of reduced heel angle and height, there may be your answer. I would suggest it would be close or at least closer to aligned. Until we can calculate that, perhaps we should aim for as close to ideal as possible.
We cannot say that a broken back HPA is normal and acceptable if and when there are obvious distortions of the caudal structures, due to shoeing or otherwise. Show me a foot that has no caudal distortion and a therefore a good toe:heel ratio and for the most part ill show you a foot that has an HPA within an acceptable range.”

A few times I have expressed my theory into the importance of frog function in caudal hoof health and used the barefoot to explain my opinion of the flaws in traditional farriery.

These two examples sum it all up for me and this is something I see time and time again with similar results, but not as profound, when remaining in shoes but with the addition of frog support padding.
You can clearly see the change in angle of the hoof at the point of transition to barefoot.
This observation supports the findings of Clayton et al. (2011) and Malone and Davies (2019).

On these 2 cases I have allowed the “old” foot to grow out without rasping it back as I also believe that maintaining hoof wall integrity is an important factor in hoof rehabilitation.

These horses had no change in routine or management, so we must ask the question as an industry, what factors are at play here, we need to do the research and find a different way of protecting horses feet and optimising performance without compromising hoof morphology.

We must also again question our acceptance of poor alignment and it’s normalisation because very often, when given the chance, the hoof will become close too if not aligned through the re-engagement of the caudal hoof and trimming protocols that look after those same structures.
For further reading and viewing follow these links.

https://www.theequinedocumentalist.com/post/hoof-pastern-axis-influential-factors

https://youtu.be/bQzFsi0-318

08/25/2020

Some days are better than others. But the best days are the ones where you get to bottle feed a teeny pig and trim some cute donkeys!

I have many great clients, but Kate is one of the best!

08/11/2020

I’ve recently acquired a foundered Morgan mare that likely has EMS or PPID, so diet has been changed and boots (Easyboot trails) with a Sikaflex pad have been used up until today. I decided to demo a new composite shoe on the market, and use different glues to see which worked better in this environment. I also am using Scary Sticky Goat Tape to help keep on the Ossure casting material, which is what we’re glueing to. Using the casting material reduces prep time and means the glue doesn’t have to contact the hoof wall, eliminating possible wall thinning.

Wish us luck as we see how these hold up over 4-5 weeks!

07/07/2020

An old friend contacted me a few months ago about her ponies/horses hooves and what could be done better trimming wise. After seeing pictures (we’re across the US) and discussing diet, we decided that addressing that aspect would likely get her the best results. I tailored a feeding plan for each horse/pony depending on their individual needs (more/less calories, more work/less work, etc) and she implemented it ASAP.

What a HUGE change!!

You can see the exact moment when she changed this ponies feed. The tighter connection can be seen as plain as day.

If you’re waiting to add much needed minerals to your personal horses diets, don’t!

07/01/2020

Barefoot and sound in the Sierras ❤️ My 5 year old Fern was an obliging pack horse this weekend as we hiked to Jordan Hot Springs and back. It was a 3000 ft loss, then gain in 6 miles one way and she handled it like it was nothing!