3 Primary Goals of Barefoot Trimming

Untrimmed, Naturally Worn Bare Foot

Barefoot trimming involves many factors that must be employed for it to be a successful venture. Some primary components are environment, husbandry, hoof health, and expectations. As a hoof care provider, you may only have control over 1 or possibly 2 of those components. The hoof care needs and ultimately the hoof health of the horse is your primary focus in most cases. Although you may be able to offer advice to the horse owner regarding husbandry issues like feed, conditioning, environmental conditions, or expectations, you really only have control over the feet. In many cases, even that bit of control may be shared with the owner or others involved in the overall care of the horse. It is for that reason that you need to have some specific goals in mind so that your contribution offers the horse the best possible chance to live a happy and sound life in managed barefoot care.

The three primary goals of barefoot trimming are protection, support, and balance. In all actuality, the same goals are in place in any approach to hoof care, whether it be shoeing or barefoot. However, we will only focus on barefoot hoof care in this article.

PROTECTION

When we talk about protection, we are basically addressing the protection of the coffin bone inside of the hoof capsule. In general, the structures that are responsible for protecting the coffin bone are the sole and the hoof wall. The sole offers protection from the bottom or ground surface. The hoof wall offers protection from the bottom by way of the ground clearance it can offer to the sole and also offers protection for the coffin bone from impact to the front or sides of the foot. It is through a combination of the health of these two structures that will often determine the capabilities of a horse to successfully be barefoot or not. From a trimming standpoint, these are also the two structures that are often addressed differently from one environment to another. Meaning, that in certain climates or regions of the world, more sole and/or wall protection is necessary than it would be in a different region. The sole and wall are also the components of a protocol or set of hoof care guidelines that needs to be somewhat flexible and adaptable to a wide variety of environments. For example, the E.L.P.O. Barefoot Trimming Protocol offers a road map to get from point A to point B. However, the success or failure of implementing the guidelines is largely determined by the choices you make when it comes to exfoliating the sole and then trimming the wall with respect to that sole. Obviously, you could opt to take the ultra-conservative approach regardless of the environment, and never remove any sole material in the toe region and leave ¼” of wall clearance above the sole. In most of your cases, you would likely not have sore horses or horses that could not walk off comfortably across the gravel driveway. However, in most environments you will eventually end up with massive distortions and imbalances because neither you nor the environment is facilitating the real maintenance needs of the foot. Therefore, it is up to you as a hoof care provider to figure out where that protection equilibrium is for each horse in your care. Hopefully, some of this advice will help you make those decisions.

1. First of all, you must be able to recognize what you are starting with. This means that you should always run hoof testers over the sole prior to starting your exfoliation. In doing so, you will not only get an idea of any sensitivity to sole contact that the horse may have, but you will also gain an appreciation for the density, texture or “give” of the sole material. You may run into a situation where the sole seems to be rock hard, but the slight bit of flexing of the entire sole from the pressure of the hoof tester yields a pain response. On the other hand, you could get no pain response from your hoof testers, but the sole is very soft and spongy even with the slightest amount of pressure being applied. Even within the same environments you can and will get a variety of different hoof tester results, so make this a standard part of your trimming procedure and you will have fewer problems in the long run.

2. It is important to recognize how much length of wall (beyond the level of the sole) that you have before you start trimming. In the high plains of Colorado, the ground during most of the year is very hard and does not yield to the foot. Therefore, if the horse has a moderate amount of room to roam, the hoof wall is often worn down to the level of the sole in the toe region. Considering that fact, most horses require very little sole exfoliation in the front half of the foot. In many of these feet, even the slightest amount of sole removal can be disastrous because there is no wall available to take over the role of protection once any amount of sole is removed. The same is true in an extremely wet environment where feet can get severely flared out and the sole sinks to the same level as the wall. In these cases, if you remove the cracked and flared hoof wall, you will virtually have a negative or zero sole/wall clearance. If you then remove any sole material at that time, the horse is likely to be off, and in many cases suffer from what you’ve done. The only saving grace for horses in this situation is that the ground is often soft, wet, and non-intrusive to the foot, so they may remain comfortable enough as long as they don’t have to travel on any hard or abrasive terrain on their way to the softer ground. The takeaway here is that if you do not have any protective wall material before you begin your trim, it may limit the amount of sole material (if any) that you can safely remove, even if it is chalky, exfoliating material.

3. Although these terms are often used in conjunction with each other, the depth of the sole and the thickness of the sole are not the same thing. Sole thickness is the amount of live or functional sole material that is generated from the sole corium. In layman’s terms, the sole thickness is usually recognized as the amount of functional sole material beneath the coffin bone. (Figure 1 & 2) The amount of sole thickness a foot has can be measured on radiographs. However, it is not always easy to know exactly how much sole thickness exists just from looking at a given foot. A good sole thickness could be as much as ¾” (22 mm), whereas poor sole thickness could be as little as ¼” (6mm). The more live sole thickness a horse has, the better chance they have of being comfortable barefoot, at least in theory. Horses with very little sole thickness will often have a more difficult time going barefoot.

On the other hand, the “depth of sole” is better described as the amount of sole buildup above the level of the true frog apex. The buildup of material can be live and functional, but in many cases, it represents an excess of exfoliating sole tissue that can be removed. Keep in mind that depending on the situation, a certain amount of extra sole buildup (and even some retained sole) can still be serving a functional purpose. If, for example, a horse is missing a good supportive wall in the toe-quarter region, the retained sole can offer some necessary protection for a while. However, in most cases, too much depth of sole or a retained sole can contribute to pathologies like negative plane PIII angles, or the proliferation of hoof capsule distortions that increase leverage on the DIP joint. Therefore, learning to recognize how much depth of sole you have is necessary to make appropriate decisions about the protective needs of the foot. As you know, locating the true frog apex is the key to determining the depth of sole.

4. When it comes time to actually start exfoliating the sole and trimming the wall, you have to make a decision based on all the observations and information you’ve gathered in the first 3 steps. Providing protection to the coffin bone is certainly a balancing act. If you take too much from one area, you must make sure you have (or leave) enough from the other area to keep the horse happy.

Example 1: Let’s say you have a horse with lots of extra sole material (meaning a lot of depth to the frog). The extra sole material is currently allowing the wall to grow long and forward, which is leading to extra leverage on the DIP joint. You know that the toe distortion needs to be dealt with, however, if you remove all that extra sole material and expose some “live” material that is not conditioned, the horse is likely to be sore. In this situation, the sole buildup is contributing to the distortion of the toe, so it needs to be removed. However, you are fortunate in this case to have plenty of hoof wall length to work with. Most horses you trim get by just fine with having 1/16” of wall above the sole, and many have the wall and sole equal in height. Yet, if you remove the necessary sole material to help this particular horse, and then trim the wall down to 1/16” above the level of the sole, the horse will most likely be uncomfortable. Fortunately, you have an opportunity with the additional wall length to leave EXTRA height above the level of the sole to balance out the protection that you have already taken away. In most cases 1/8” or slightly more is all the wall height that is needed to keep the horse comfortable. If you leave ¼” or more of wall height, you will probably have trouble with it breaking off and possibly causing a secondary problem, so be conservative, but not too conservative.

Example 2: Let’s say you have a horse that has the outer hoof wall chipped and rolled away around the front half of the foot. The inner part of the wall is at the level of the sole, but the outer part of the wall is ¼” below the level of the sole (similar to what is known as a mustang roll). If this horse happens to live in Colorado and is fairly sound when you start, then you probably should not touch the sole with a knife or even a rasp, especially if there is no real depth of sole. Removing the thin, hard, crust of sole material in these cases will often spell disaster. The “give-and-take” in this situation is that there is no wall, so you better leave all the sole. Keep in mind, however, that if this horse lives in a soft, grassy field in Louisiana, then the protection requirements would probably be different. It all comes down to knowing what protection that horse needs for its environment at that given point in time. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast guidelines that are foolproof for every horse in every environment throughout every day of the year. That is where experience comes into play and your experiences with the horses in your area will need to be your guide for filling in the gaps of any protocol you follow.

SUPPORT

As always, it is important to evaluate the structures that are involved in providing support to the barefoot horse. Once again, the coffin bone (and therefore the bone column) is the structure we are trying to offer support to. The components of the foot that facilitate this support are the frog, bars, sole, and hoof wall. The hoof wall holds the coffin bone in place through its attachment via the lamina. The sole (primarily the pillars & sole callus) also helps hold the coffin bone up inside the hoof capsule. The formation of the bars helps to support and hold the lateral cartilages up, which in turn supports the back of the coffin bone. The frog acts as a primary support structure by influencing the soft tissue in the back of the foot (like the digital cushion) to hold the Navicular bone in place and lift the back of the coffin bone through the lateral cartilage matrix. Like the goal of Protection, there is a balance between all the primary support structures of the foot. If the hoof wall fails (like an underrun heel for example), and the bars fail (by curling and laying over), then the frog has to pick up the slack if the foot is going to remain functional. Unfortunately, the frog isn’t always capable of facilitating all the support needs in the back of the foot, so pathology often follows. For example, if the structures inside the foot that are influenced by the frog (like the digital cushion and lateral cartilages) are weak due to lack of development, then negative plane distal phalanx syndrome is likely to occur. Likewise, in cases of laminitis, when the lamina attachment becomes compromised and the support offered by the hoof wall fails, the bars often respond by growing strong, upright, and continue all the way around the frog apex. This forms a kind of inner hoof wall to offer support to the coffin bone.

It is apparent that the support structures of the foot work together as best as they can to get the job done. However, when 1 or more fails, the other structures have to take over and unfortunately, in time, they too begin to fail. From a barefoot management standpoint, when all the support structures are healthy and functioning properly, the likelihood of the horse being comfortable and striving in a barefoot condition is much more likely. In many cases where most of the support structures are failing or have failed in shod horses, just removing the shoes will usually help to restore some function to many of the support structures, especially the frog. Do keep in mind though that the quality and function of the support structures are extremely important for good hoof health, regardless of whether the foot is shod or barefoot. If hoof health is suffering, then whatever means are necessary to help restore function to the foot should be employed. Many times, a good shoeing program that jump-starts the restoration process is often helpful for yielding the best barefoot management results in the long run.

BALANCE

From an “importance” standpoint, the goals for balance are appropriately placed in the 3rd position when we talk about barefoot horses. The fact is that minor imbalances in barefoot horses are not as detrimental to the foot as poor protection and support. If a horse gets even a moderate amount of exercise on medium to hard terrain, they have the ability to fine-tune the balance of their own foot. When we talk about balance, we are really talking about equilibrium to the coffin joint (and the joints above) both statically (standing) and dynamically (in motion). As we look at most of the improvements made in the barefoot care of horses over the last 25 years, the biggest improvement in terms of balance is the reduction of leverage. Leverage affects the foot from both a dorsal/palmar (front to back) and a medial/lateral (side to side) standpoint. By simply dividing the ground surface mass in equal proportions around the center of articulation of the DIP joint (essentially the widest part of the foot), you will minimize the majority of excessive leverage forces on the internal structures of the foot. At the same time, if you prepare the hoof wall at an equal height from the functional sole on both sides of the foot, you will effectively equalize the balance of the coffin joint from side to side, since the sole is uniform in thickness on each side of the coffin bone. The specifics of how you get this done are covered in a well-developed hoof-trimming protocol like that offered by the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization. Notwithstanding, if you follow the guidelines for eliminating distortions through heel preparation and toe preparation, balance is easily accomplished. Again, if you are off slightly in a barefoot horse, the ramifications are not as detrimental as they would be if shoes were being applied. Once a shoe is applied to an unbalanced foot, the horse is stuck with that imbalance until the next shoeing period. With a barefoot horse, a simple 20-minute walk on a blacktop or concrete driveway a few days a week will likely eliminate most minor balance issues. However, major imbalances need to be addressed regardless of if the horse is shod or barefoot.

Conclusion for Goals of Barefoot Trimming

Ultimately, the whole package (Protection, Support & Balance) always needs to be employed in order to have a shot at achieving SUCCESS with barefoot horses! I would be weary of any person or method that claims ALL horses can or should go barefoot or be shod for that matter. There are just too many other factors that are out of your control which can impact the results you get from trying to provide a managed barefoot lifestyle. If you arm yourself with knowledge, use common sense, and always monitor your work with a critical eye, you will have many more happy and healthy horses. Good luck!

Helpful Links

Equine Lameness Prevention Organization - Hoofcare Information and Education

www.ShopEDSS.com - Purchase Physical Hoofcare Products

"Natural Balance Hoof Trimming" - Video On Demand available.

Hoof Care Today - hoofcare videos and information website

Recommended Youtube Channels - @edsshoofcare @hoofcaretv @hoofcaretoday @lamenessprevention