Difficult questions

Here's a post that has been in my "draft" pile since I put up my most recent "celery" post last month, because it was just too difficult to finish(!)...I had lots of great comments in response to the original post as well as some fair challenges about the whole concept of "celery".

Generally, people liked the idea of horses being able to self-trim but weren't confident it was necessarily practical in their own situations (BTW, the photo was one I found on Google but I thought it could be perfectly captioned: "Celery scepticism!").

A comment from C voiced a general concern:

"I can't help worrying, though, about those owners who just can't do the work and how they get it right, particularly with rehabs. 

The barefoot horses with caudal hoof lameness that you've had seem to suggest that peripheral loading is to blame. If you can't get the work into the horse because of dark nights and work or school, then there's no option but to trim to stop the peripheral loading ..... or am I missing something?"

This is a tricky situation, for sure, because work on hard surfaces can be contra-indicated if horses are landing incorrectly.  In a healthy landing, you would expect to see a hoofprint like this, with plenty of weight taken by the heels and frogs and some by the sole and hoof wall. 

Peripheral loading (where the weight of the horse is mostly taken around the edge of the hoof, as if in a shoe, below) is not ideal but that in itself doesn't seem to be the biggest problem (at least with the horses I see).  

Far more problematic are horses who are landing toe first (whether shod or barefoot) because that tends to mean the whole shock-absorbing mechanism of the back of the foot is compromised.  


Once a horse is landing toe first there is extra strain on the DDFT; therefore increasing work is likely to be counter-productive as it also increases strain and the risk of injury and lameness - and the harder the surface and the faster the work, the greater the risk.

So the solution for these horses has to involve more than simply doing more roadwork - but we are back to the catch-22.

Most horses with caudal heel pain have that pain because some structure at the back of the foot (whether its internal soft tissue, frog, heels, fibrocartilage or a combination of these) is compromised, weak or inadequate.

In response to this pain, heels can become high as the horse shifts weight from a painful area but trimming heels lower isn't an analgesic and can only remove hoof wall; with many horses, lameness will become worse if the painful area is overloaded so trimming should be undertaken only with caution as backing up a toe or lowering an apparently high heel may put too much weight on an already compromised frog or digital cushion.

I really wish I could give a "magic wand" answer  - I wish it was simple and that I could just say "Yes, trim x then y and the biomechanics will be sorted and all will be well", but as you already know, that's not always possible.

There may well be a place for trimming sometimes, but it will only be a minor place because, as we are increasingly aware, the reality is more complicated.  Fitness, whether for muscles or for hooves is a product of correct work, correct nutrition, correct biomechanics, blood, sweat and tears...and there aren't always quick fixes available.