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Hoofcare & Information for Barefoot Soundness

Linda Cowles Hoof Care - Serving the greater SF Bay Area and Northern California

Claire Vale, New Zealand
From the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/barefoothorsecare/files/

This is how I do dissections that result in the hoof wall coming off in one piece, and the sole and frog in another, leaving behind the coriums on the bone.

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/barefoothorsecare/lst?.dir=/Claire% 27s+dissection+photos&.src=gr&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//briefcase.y ahoo.com/ shows an example of a finished dissection I did last summer.

Tools

• cadaver leg
• small sharp straight bladed knife (like a little veggie peeling knife)
• nippers
• something long and blunt to help lever the wall off
• A vice (to keep the leg still) is a definite bonus
• Gloves (rubber ones and / or leather) are also nice
• A secluded place where your neighbors can't see what you're doing and report you to the police is also desirable

Process

1) Defrost the leg and give it a scrub to get all the blood and grunge off. Wrap the end and trim the hoof if you want (you might want to leave trimming 'til after step 2 if it's dried out).

2) Soak the hoof for as long as you can, preferably for a day or more, preferably in warm-ish water. The longer you soak, and the warmer the water, the easier it is to pull things apart (do it long enough, and I hear the entire hoof capsule will simply pull off in your hands, but things might be getting a bit smelly by then <G>).

3) Using the little sharp knife, make a cut through the white line all around the hoof from heel to heel (i.e. cut down into it to separate the sole from the wall). Angle the knife to match the angle of the hoof wall so you're cutting into the white line, not the wall or sole. Make sure you don't slip and cut yourself! You only want to go as deep as the sole is, leaving the insensitive and sensitive laminae attached.

4) Using nippers, make vertical cuts in the heels to separate the wall from the heel area - I usually try to do these cuts at the point where the heel turns around into the bar.

5) Time for brute force and ignorance. Once you've cut through the heel, use the nippers to grab the heel and peel back the wall, separating the insensitive and sensitive laminae. I try to get one side of the nipper blade into the vertical cut, and then lightly 'grab' the wall and peel back. You will find it much easier if you can have the leg in a vice to do this - even with someone holding on in a death grip it will still turn otherwise (and it's a @#$% hard job to do by yourself).

6) Continue to peel back the wall from each heel, using the nippers or whatever you can find to hold onto the wall. You should try to avoid putting any little cuts into the wall or over levering in one spot as the wall will crack if you're not careful (I would probably avoid doing a dissection like this on a hoof with bad cracks). The long blunt lever thing (the handle of my shoe pullers works pretty well for this) can be used to jam down into the gap between wall and coffin bone and lever off as well. If it really doesn't want to come apart you can cut through the laminae with the little sharp knife instead of pulling them apart. Sometimes the coronet has a really strong hold too and you might need to cut down from the top of the wall, but I've found in most cases it comes apart more easily than the laminae.

7) Once you've finally got the hoof wall off, stop and take a break - you probably really need it by now! A nice cold drink is in order.

8) Now on to the sole and frog. You may need to use something (little sharp knife or blunt lever thingy) to wedge in between the sole and the corium, or you might just be able to get a really good grip on the edge of the sole and peel it off. It will peel back down into the collateral grooves, and if you're lucky the insensitive frog will also peel off from the sensitive frog. Sometimes I've had layers of insensitive frog left behind. Pull it off and backwards, and you'll have the sole complete with bars and (hopefully) frog. You may need to cut this off at the heel bulbs.

9) Give everything a rinse.

10) Voila - a 'flip top' hoof! You can fit it back together fairly easily and if you've done a tidy job it looks like nothing has been done. If you've managed to pry the layers apart without having to cut them, you will be able to see the sensitive coriums and laminae quite well. The sole, for instance, has a sensitive corium that has lots and lots of little finger-like papillae sticking out (the bits that produce the sole), and the sole has corresponding holes that the papillae fit into. The first time I took one of these to a study day, the people I was talking to thought it was a whole hoof - when I started talking about what's inside and pulled off the wall and sole they were dead impressed <G>.

Claire New Zealand