Nicky
Guess how old he
is...
(There are great shots of a hoof that's had milt laminitis at the end of the article.)
6/2005 Thirty year old Arab cross
Nicky has lived a great life,
all of it barefoot.
He's lived almost all of those
30 years with Millie Ravano,
who provides two environments
for him. He has a private paddock
with shaded loafing areas, and
he's also free to roam the yard
with Millie's other animal friends.
I was contacted in May 2005
by Millie. Her farrier was providing
a good "pasture trim",
essentially nippering the wall
so that it was slightly longer
than the sole and rasping the
edges lightly to remove any
edges that would snag.
Nick's feet were well balanced,
however just 3 weeks after his
last trim, his hoof wall was
flared, distorted under the
weight of 1000 pound Nicky.
As his hoof wall flared, the
lamina spread apart which allowed
bacteria to gather in the superficial
cracks. These cracks concerned
Millie, who worried that they
may deepen and spread. She felt
a mustang type trim would be
a better option.
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Nicky... young
at 30 years old. |
1/2009 - Nicky and Millie were two of my favorite clients... Nicky was a bit crotchety and demanding, a great communicator and extremely smart. Millie, in her late 60's, loved to interpret his needs and accommodate him. We spend most of our time laughing... it was a sweet time.
Then Millie got cancer. I forget what year it was (late 2006, I believe)... I came by one day and she chuckled as she told me the news... it wasn't unexpected, she'd smoked most of her life and assumed that cancer would be how she would go... we spent a lot of time talking that day, and I stopped by every week for several weeks, seeing how she was doing, laughing about her "preparations" and... just listening. She was fun, full of life and laughter. She had so much joy in her that cancer couldn't choke it off.
Nicky sensed something was up, and grew moodier as time went on. Millie had prepared everything, wrote long lists for her husband (who lived in a second small house on the same property) so that he would know how to care for Nicky, the 20 something pet hen, the small parrot...
I had to go out of town for a week, and before I knew it, three weeks had gone by.
I called Millie's house, and her husband answered. "This is Linda, is Millie there?".... a pause....
She was gone. I don't know what happened to Nicky... he was so tied to Millie that I imagine he followed her soon after. A delightful couple... I miss them. |
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Great Legs
The first thing I noticed about
Nick were his great legs! Millie
told me how old he was, more
than 30,and I shook my head,
amazed.
Part of the reason Nicks legs
look so wonderful is the fact
that he's never had shoes, so
the stresses of imbalance and
concussion haven't left behind
the wind puffs, inflamed joints,
ring bone and side bone that
we usually see on horses this
old.
The other reason is that he's
been very lightly used. Millie
didn't start riding him until
a few years ago, and their riding
is done at home.
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Above: Even
slight wall flair causes distortion
and crevasses for bacteria.
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Three weeks after a "pasture"
trim, Nick had more than 1/4
inch of wall below his sole.
From her reading reading on
barefoot horses, Millie had
learned that horses support
their weigh on their soles as
well as the walls, and the logic
of this increased her concern
with Nick's long wall and superficial
cracks.
Nick's feet weren't horrible,
but Millie knew they could be
better.
I drew lines on Nicks feet,
showing Millie that he was well
balanced laterally. Most of
his sole had become loose and
powdery in it's attempts to
shed. When a horse with balanced
feet walks on his sole, the
combination of wall contraction
and expansion and the sole grinding
against the footing rubs old
sole off and polishes the viable
sole into a shiny callous.
Nicks heels also started to
become slightly under run as
they lengthened.
Under run heels are easy to
fix, particularly in the early
stages. A heel is called "under run"
when the horse stops walking
on the bottom of the heel and
begins to walk on the back of
the heel wall. |
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Many people feel that under run
heels are "too short"
because, as they stretch towards
the toes, the heels become progressively
weaker and are flattened by
the weight of the horse. This
flattening allows the heel bulbs
to remain close to the ground
where they need to be, but the
center of balance is transferred
farther forward as a result.
Hoof wall is meant to bear
vertical weight and resist lateral
pressure.
With under run heels, we ask
it to to bear lateral weight
(as the horse begins to walk
on the back of the hoof wall)
and resist vertical pressure
(when sheering occurs as the
horse weights and un-weights
each foot).
To "fix" an under run
heel, shorten the heel with
a hoof knife by moving the heel
buttress (the part of the hoof
the horse should walk on) to
the back of the foot where it
belongs. Done correctly, an
under run heel can be fixed in
four to six weeks.
Hooves are living tissue, very
similar to skin or human nails.
The hoof wall is composed of
tubules and lamina connected
in a way that allows them to
move as the hoof expands and
contracts, as the hoof is weighted
and un weighted.
This flexible structure also
allows the fibers to shift in
a vertical direction. Irregular
growth, wear or trimming results
in curved growth rings and coronet
bands.
A hoof *isn't* like a chunk
of dried wood, unable to change.
The hoof actively attempts to
shed worn out or unnecessary
material, such as hoof wall
that extends beyond the level
of the sole, the old sole and
worn out frog.
The hoof wall that surrounds
the hoof capsule is still very
malleable and able to change.
In the picture of Nicks hoof
on the left , I drew lines showing
the distortion caused by the
wall being longer in the "quarters"
- the sides of the wall.
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Above: Flexible hoof wall
responds to pressure from excess
wall length in the "quarters"
by pressing wall tubules upward.
The curved "quarters"
in the above picture relax and
straighten within hours of removing
excess length. The downward
direction of the lines at the
rear of the hoof are telltale
signs that the heel is beginning
to collapse towards the front,
a condition called "under run
heel" |
Domestic horses usually wear
the toe and heel faster than
the quarters because they don't
travel 20 to 30 miles over loose
dirt and rock like wild horses
do. Quarter flare is common
in barefoot horses with pasture
trims and shod horses. Horses
with Mustang type trims wear
this area more effectively because
their wall develops a gentle
scoop conformation in the quarters
that allows loose rock to escape
to the sides, which abrades
the wall in the quarters.
Excess wall length in the quarters
flares the wall outward at the
ground. It simultaneously exerts
upward pressure that can cause
a flare in the coronet band.
When the wall is trimmed to
the correct length in the quarters,
the flare in the wall and coronet
band smooth out in hours.
Another indication of excess
wall length is "white line
separation". As the wall
becomes too long, the weight
of the horse bends the wall
away from the hoof, tearing
or stretching the attachment,
the white line.
A good analogy would be a person
with long nails trying to use
the tips of their fingers to
support their weight. The long
nails aren't made to support
weight, so they bend. If a person
was forced to support their
weight on long nails, the nails
would bend and the bending would
pry the nail away from the cuticle. |
Above:
Trimming excess wall reveals
a "stretched" white
line in the quarters which
appears as dark scallops between
the sole and the wall. The
White Line is a layer of connective
tissue that secures the wall
to the inner hoof capsule.
Sometimes the force that causes
white line separation also
causes bruising.
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Sound painful? It is! Particularly
when the excess wall is in the
toe region; the horses attempt
to "roll over" a long
flared toe pry at the white line
in an unshod hoof, and exert a
wrenching force on the entire
hoof in a shod horse.
As I shorten the
all in the quarters by nippering
off excess and rasping it to
the level of the sole, we begin
to see distortion in the white
line. The distortion occurs
as the long wall flares and
bends outward under the weigh
of the horse, and as the lateral
stress skews the unsupported
wall as weight shifts above
it.
After trimming
off excess wall, I beveled or
rounded the edges of the wall...
and forgot to take pictures!
Next month I'll show Nicks finished
hoof. |
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Second trim
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These are pictured from Nick's
2nd trim at 6 weeks. Nick
mostly strolls around his
equine paradise, so his feet
don't get a lot of wear compared
to some horses.
Something has changed, though;
his paddock has had gravel
added to it around his shelter
and loafing area in preparation
for winter, and his feet look
great as a result.
It's a perfect time for a
trim. As you can see in the
pictures below, the wall is
still tightly attached to the
hoof . If we had waited a
week or two longer to trim,
his wall would begin to flair
slightly at the base and the
attachment would weaken, resulting
in a stretched
white line like we had
in the setup trim.
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This trim was simple on all
four feet. The bars are slightly
laid over, but I try not to
touch the bars unless they look
like they are presenting a problem.
The resulting trim, below has
a generous bevel on a 1/8 inch
of wall. |
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December 23, 2005 |
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When I went by to trim Nicki, his owner was a bit on the blue side... Nick's hay had changed, and while he had been eating fine but had loose bowels, and had gotten grumpier.
He hadn't had a temperature and every thing else looked normal, but she wasn't having any luck getting his stools to firm up.
Millie had called the vet, tried probiotics and had gotten him the type of hay he had before.
When I looked at the soles of his feet, he had crescent shaped sole ridges in the toe. I felt for heat in the wall and a pulse, and everything looked normal. We took pictures and I suggested she call her er vet to get his advice.
1/2009 - It is so interesting to go back and reread old articles, because what perplexed me in the past is so obvious now.
Nicky had access to a bit of pasture, his hay changed and he had a mild bout on laminitis.
Note the white line separation in the picture to the left... that is a metabolic reaction of some sort, usually a reaction to a diet change to a feed that is too rich.
The crescent shaped bump on the sole? At the time, all of the horses I trimmed had well attached walls and shorter toes that were in line with the coffin bone... this was a toe callous that became visible when his wall connection relaxed.
The sole is like a leather sling attached to the bottom of the coffin bone and attached at the wall along its perimeter. If something occurs to jeopardize the normally tight attachment, the wall "relaxes",and P3 (the coffin bone) is released to press down against the sole.
Mild laminitis like this is more likely to happen in older horses, and is much more likely to occur in the spring and fall, when horses ACTH hormone levels rise seasonally.
Most horses experiencing metabolically triggered mild laminitis have access to growing grass, which has higher sugar levels when it has been below 40 degrees at night. Mild laminitis can easily be brought on by rich hay, oat and barley hay, grains or high carb pelleted feeds. It can also be triggered by mineral imbalances such as excessive iron or a copper deficiency. |
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