Contracted Heels

QUESTION: 

Hi, My 16 year old mare was continually shod for at least 10 years. Now she
is barefoot. I'm doing a barefoot trim a la Pete Ramey. Her feet look good
except her front heels, especially the inside heels are inside the vertical.
They tended toward this the whole 10 years I've owned her. Shoeing seemed to
keep the heels out. Once I had then taken off they curled back under. They
squeeze the frog too. I am wondering if over time the coffin bone will
expand back out? I am trimmming hoof walls to just above live sole and
taking off flares. I'm not attempting to correct the contraction any other
way. Should I be expecting to see decontraction or not at her age? Thanks,
Sid

DR. TOM'S ANSWER:

We all know we're in the real world when we have these kinds of hoof
deformities to contend with. Sometimes there is severe enough damage to the
hooves and coffin bones that we will not expect to see a large improvement
in hoof form. We live at a time on this Earth where we have to deal with
rehabilitation from the effects of nailing steel on to horses feet. As much
as we want to prevent this kind of damage, we have to deal with it since
shoeing is still so common a practice.

The heels can be trimmed in a way to align the triangles in the back of the
hoof capsule, bringing a balance to what the horse has right now, and
improve on it, though it is beyond the scope of this forum to go in to depth
on this. I believe Martha Olivo has the best approach to this kind of
trimming right now--perhaps you could attend one of her classes in the
future. You can learn more about her and her schedule at
www.marthaolivo.com.

It is always a challenge working on these kinds of hoof deformities, and
even experienced barefoot trimmers will tell you there are no guarantees of
success. As far as shoeing and getting expansion, I've yet to see it, and I
have lots of opportunities to watch master farriers "claim" to be able to
promote expansion with various shoeing techniques. All of these techniques
disrespect the physiology of the hoof and all of these techniques have
failed miserable in their attempts that I have witnessed over the past few
years...the hooves only get worse.

The coffin bone can remodel to a certain extent, but the stimulus for this
needs to be there. I have horses on a range environment traveling 10 to 15
miles per day that end up doing very well and are very sound, yet they still
have fairly contracted feet. I would say your horse will be more
comfortable in the long run if you remain diligent with proper trimming and
attention to natural lifestyle, but realize that we really do need to
prevent this kind of damage. Many of these horses with this degree of
contraction will not ever have nice, sound feet again...their level of
performance will be forever more limited...we must prevent this degree of
deformation. As much as we would like to do sometimes, we are dealing with
living creatures here, so we can't replace parts at will like we can with
our four-wheelers and trucks.

I would recommend giving the best you have available to your horses: the
best trimming, environment, movement...essentially a natural lifestyle.
Only then will their nature come through and provide them, and you, with
honest horse power.

NOTES FROM GWEN ON TRIMMING:

Decontracting heels can be a timely event even in the best of conditions. Given the correct parameters of the hooves into which new horn can grow decontraction CAN and DOES happen - even for an older horse. From a trimming point-of-view one wants to be sure that the point of weight bearing is balanced in the hoof. If the weight is shifted either too far forward or too far back within the hoof, the incorrect values will affect the contraction of the heels as you're seeing now. As Dr. Tom mentioned, the correct natural environment and lifestyle needs to partner with the trim to provide the adequate surroundings for correction. Learn the correct hoof form until the image of one is embedded in your brain. Educate yourself on the aspects of the natural trim so you will be able to quickly assess what needs tweaking here and there. 

:)  --Gwen