This collage series is a first trimming after removing the shoes. This trim was done at a clinic that I did with the help of Nancy Ash and Ed McCoskey.  Ed did most of the trimming with his angle grinder.

Poco was walking and moving better by the hour.  He did have pulses after removing the shoes which was addressed with cooling water and bute.  But after all this excess material had been removed and his heel to toe was balanced he could articulate his joints correctly.

We found that after his trim his tall clubby like foot had ringbone in the pastern.  This will be watched to see how long it takes to de-mineralize.

What was wonderful is Poco was walking on crunching lava rock that was used for the driveways and around the woods the next day out of the large paddock and was more comfortable then the day before.

He continues to improve from damages of the founder and the long term horrible hoof care that was done to him.  His owner is learning to be the hoof care provider because with founders the hooves need to be rasped weekly to maintain the footprint and none wearing heels in many cases.

The owner had sent me two pictures of her horses hooves before coming to my clinic.  The first two collages are what I sent back to her explaining what

I was seeing.

The following collages are the shoe removal and the initial trim.  There was a tiny bit

more to do each day as the foot relaxed over the weekend.

The hooves were mapped to insure that we respected the internal structures with a flexible

guage and the footprint ring and other understandings of the hoof with regards to heel

height, tubule growth, disease.

The heel view below has a line to map the heel 1 1/8th and then added 1/4 more.  You

can see it is a bit of a diagonal and that is because the left side was taller in the shoe.

The second picture on the right shows the mapping with the flexible guage.  Note the

toe is lifted in this right foot because of the leverage and strain on the joints from this

capsule held like this.

The perpendicular line is one I draw to show the owners where the weighted heel is.

Doing this is helpful to show the owner where the weightbearing is after the trim which is

generally 1 1/2 inches back further.

The founder was extreme in the right and in the left hoof the laminar was made

larger in the wedge thickness with the FFS (forward foot syndrome)

Though the right foot with the tall heel and shape was horrific to see the left foot in

my opinion was the worst because of the extreme toe and collapsed heel structure.

You can see that just how far the footprint needed to be brought back.  There are two

X's at the toe above that show what was vertically removed and a bevel was placed

between the two arched lines. 

The top row you can see some slash marks for dating the months of growth and how this

foot had 4 to 5 months of additional toe jutting out from the actual toe.