Institute for Barefoot Equine Management Ltd
In it for the horse!
6yo with very contracted feet. I cropped the toes off so we can just focus on the heels and bulbs. Note the distorted bulb line, the central sulcus pushed very high and narrow, and the medio-lateral heel angles very shallow. On the right, greatly improved hoof morphology and a horse with a much better loading pattern and muscle tone. Done over 24 trims.
This dissection shows how the collateral groove is distorted upwards into the hoof (yellow line left). In relation to that you can see how long and incorrectly proportioned the bar is. The green line shows how the bar should run and where the bottom of the collateral groove should be. The yellow line is too close to the DDFT and the Navicular Bone and the full bar blocks the horn movement in that area. The result: horse with heel pain. Barefoot trimming should work towards the green line to get the horse comfortable again. This means one has to trim for change, not maintenance in a case like this.
On the left the front hooves of a 3yo pony. Very significantly distorted feet and an uncomfortable pony. On the right, the same fronts about a year later. Much improved hooves and the comfortable pony is now going to pony club. It’s very easy to forget what the starting point was.
