Results of Equine Podiatry
People keep asking me what a good foot should look like. The answer is that it depends on things like the breed and what kind of work the horse is doing, but you can see an example of a really nice foot here. Meanwhile, here's a quick photo gallery of the effects equine podiatry can have on hooves. If you want to see what barefoot horses are capable of, the EPA web site has a photo gallery here.
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This thoroughbred was flat footed and had a strong tendency to flaring in the hooves. After 6 months, the hooves are improving well and have gained a good degree of concavity. The horse is now able to cope with reasonable amounts of road work without shoes.
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This youngster's feet had been neglected and a serious imbalance had gone uncorrected. 12 months later, the foot is now straight. These photos nicely show that hoof shape is determined by environment far more than by conformation and can be improved.
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This foot had a tiny bit of damage to the coronary band which resulted in a weekness in the hoof.
A combination of poor trimming and rampant infections had resulted in a crack so deep the two sides moved independently of each other. After 6 months and lots of disinfectant, the crack has healed nicely. This horse now happily gallops along stony tracks without shoes or boots.
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This horse developed a serious infection of the white line which had eaten away the much of the heels and done quite a bit of damage to the wall as well. A combination of careful trimming and the consistent use of disinfectants resulted in all the damage growing out in just 4 months. Some subtle changes in diet are ensuring that the problem does not recur.
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This young mare had only been shod for a year. She has naturally good feet and was sound from the moment the shoes were pulled. The main thing the feet needed was conditioning - getting them used to being used on hard surfaces. She was ridden on roads from day one with the amount of hard ground work and the severity of the surfaces gradually increased over a period of a few weeks. After four months, she was up to pretty much anything her owner could throw at her. A year later, her feet are amongst the best I work with (the foot shown above scores 7.4 out of 10... which is a pretty good score in the UK). She routinely copes with lots of road work, riding at speed on stony mountain tracks, jumping and hunting.
This young hannovarian gelding had been shod for around a year but the owner was concerned that the feet were losing quality and wanted to try a barefoot approach. The horse was constantly pulling off the front shoes suggesting that the walls weren't holding nails well and the horse may have been uncomfortable. The feet were essentially in moderately good shape apart from superficial distortions and low level wall infections. He was rideable on soft ground straight after removal of shoes and was rideable for short distances (a few miles per week) on smooth tarmac/concrete within 6-8 weeks. Within 3 months he was sound on all surfaces. After 7 months (as per the photos here) his feet are now in very good shape and he is working well on all surfaces including a significant amount of road work.
This Welsh Section B pony was already 'sound' but plaited on the fronts and hinds. He showed some signs of dietary problems - in particular a degree of flaring that was not explained by his conformation. His initial score was 4.8 out of 10. Ten months later, he now has extremely good feet and scores 6.9 overall. As can be seen from the photos above of the right hind, the imbalances in the feet have fully corrected and he now has a straight action both in front and behind. The excessive flaring has totally disappeared and his hoof walls are straight from the coronary band to the ground. His owner had always worried about the lack of straightness in his action but is now thrilled with the way he moves.
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