Going barefoot - sensitive and sore on left fore, possible bruise?

[_Puzzle]

Just a bit of background: I decided to take my 10 year old Warmblood gelding barefoot, after thinking about it and researching for 4 years (fear and uncertainty kept me from doing it earlier) - his shoes where pulled 3 weeks ago and he has had an initial trim then as the frogs where quite overgrown and he had some infection that we had to get to. He had his second trim yesterday. He has a sheared heel as well as a bacterial infection in the left fore, both coming right nicely. His previous farrier trimmed his toes very short and his heels where quite high, especially in the back hooves. The frogs in three hooves where quite overgrown. I switched to a pro-barefoot farrier.
He was fine for more than two weeks, but felt a bit sensitive on Saturday and didn’t quite want to turn to the left. On Sunday he was only happy walking on grass, same on Monday. I had the trimmer come out yesterday to see what’s going on. He assessed and mentioned that it could be because his hooves have grown quite a bit over the past few weeks, that his heels and frogs are learning to take weight again and work correctly after being in shoes for 6.5 years. The farrier did say that he may have bruised, but he couldn’t quite see anything relating to a bruise.
My horse looked a lot more comfortable moving away from the trim. He is happy to turn in both directions on grass. I am present when the trims happen, the farrier has not touched the toes to allow the callous to develop, but he said he has been trimming more frog than he would ever

I went this morning and took some pics - from what I can tell it looks like a bruise on his one heel bulb that I can’t remember was there yesterday, as seen in the pic. I am waiting for the farrier to get back to me, but in the meantime I would like to know if anyone else had this happen to their horses, whether this does look to be a bruise and what can be done to relieve it.

As a side-note, we are in South Africa, had unusually heavy rainfalls recently, the going in his paddock is firm but with short grass. He is out most of the day, but stabled at night. I am making adjustments to his diet, in the process of balancing his minerals and so on. He gets a slow feeder net so he doesn’t guzzle all his hay in an hour.

As another side-note - I really don’t want to get into a shod vs barefoot debate. I’ve been getting a lot of knowledge from this site, hence joining and being part of the community! [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10091036}[/ATTACH]

[walkinthewalk]

Sometimes when a horse comes up lame from taking shoes off, it can be due to strain on the tendons from having so much heel taken in one strike.

That may not be your case, I am just saying too often people throw the hooves under the bus when the soreness really isn’t coming from the hooves---- it’s coming from the legs trying to make the adjustment.

[Scribbler]

So what is going on with that frog? It seems unusually narrow and there is a giant frog commissure where I would expect frog. How do his other feet compare?

I see what you are identifying as a bruise, and really the hoof has no hoof buttress at all on that side, as well as no frog so that fits.

I would be curious to see the other foot to compare and also side and rear shots on this foot to fully understand the hoof imbalance. I see one heel is forward run and the frog appears to have migrated in that direction.

I successfully keep my horse barefoot but I use boots strategically. I want my horse to not just be sound on our sand gravel trail system but to actively stride out in her biggest trot. Typically later in the trim cycle she is perfectly comfortable all speeds all footings but right after trims she is a bit selective. And trimmer doesn’t take off a lot, just evens out wall wear patterns and bars.

Anyhow I would put boots on your guy for riding until his feet remodel to a more correct shape.

My mare had a visible heel bruise once, from chipped ice on packed snow. It didn’t resolve until my trimmer took off some uneven layers at the heel, and after that took over a week to resolve. I used hoof boots to handwalk and didn’t ride.

I do see something uneven on your horses hoof by the wall by the bruise, could that be contributing pressure?

[_Puzzle]

I discussed the change in his whole body with the farrier yesterday and he agrees that my horse is most definitely feeling the change, I put him on a herbal anti-inflammatory to help with these changes and he’ll be getting more frequent bodywork. His heels where sky high, especially the back and even with a bit of a trim, the heels are opening up and coming down, that must feel different to him.

I will be looking at getting boots, choices are a bit limited in SA, but we now have a supplier for Scoot Boots, I’ve heard a lot of good reviews on them.

The frog on his left fore has never actually looked great - the pic was taken while his hoof was a bit wet and the products used to treat the sheared heel and the bacterial infection is making the frog a bit unclear. It has been narrower than that before, even all shrivelled up (I nearly had a heart attack that time) His hooves are looking so much better than when he had shoes on, i unfortunately don’t have before pics anymore due to a malfunctioning SD card in my phone. The biggest concern was the high heels and his frogs are still quite overgrown, but I’m sure it will take a while for everything to get sorted, can’t do too much in one go.

I will post more pics soon.

[IPEsq]

Can you take a side pic? It’s hard to tell between the color of his foot and the medication what his frog exactly looks like. The heels are still long/forward I think especially on that bruised side, but it might help to see from the side since the structures are a little unclear on this solar view. If that heel is still pretty run forward, he could have easily bruised the bulb on something or even maybe it’s an overreach injury. If it’s an overreach injury, you can protect with one of those harder shell bell boots or overreach boots in turnout. If it’s because the foot is still unbalanced, then a full boot might be needed when he’s outside.

I’m not convinced the heel bruise being on the right side of a foot (which foot is this?) would cause a horse to not want to turn left. In the left turn, the inside of the right front will bear the most weight. No matter which foot this is, it’s not going to be a right front medial bruise. Or a left front lateral.

[_Puzzle]

[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10091538}[/ATTACH] Left fore side

[_Puzzle]

[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10091541}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10091542}[/ATTACH] Right fore - side pic not so great, Puzzle was late for breakfast and trying to walk over me

[_Puzzle]

[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10091545}[/ATTACH]Left hind
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10091546}[/ATTACH] Right hind

[Scribbler]

Well, these 2 other feet look a lot better. Though the frog is actually oversized and the heel bulbs are displacing the hoof heels. But presumably your farrier is working on opening up the heels.

So that left front foot is really the anomaly. That makes me wonder why that foot is so distorted relative to the other feet.

How does the horse stand and move? I am wondering if there is something in the leg or pastern configuration that is making him land unevenly on that foot? Does he toe in or out or have a club foot on that side?

It would be useful to see front and side shots of the front legs from the elbows down with horse standing square in front. Including a straight on shot of both front feet from the chest down so we can see how he points his feet.

Something is making this foot distort so much and my guess is it’s higher up the leg.

[JB]

It is usually in the shod horse’s best interest to improve the quality of the foot before removing shoes. It’s not always a bad thing to “hide” issues with shoes, if the shoes allow you to improve the trim, keep the horse comfortable (enough) to move out well and often, so that by the time you decide to take shoes off, the feet are much healthier and in a much better position to not have the protection and ground-clearance that shoes provide.

The last pictures look like a prolapsed frog, which means a weak/unhealthy back of the foot, and it can take quite a long time to make improvements to that

It would be a great idea to get xrays at this point, just to see where things are inside.

[kiwichick]

im no barefoot (or any sort of foot) expert, but there is something going on with the heels in that first pic, if you ignore everything else and look at where the heel is, it appears to be very underrun on one side of the foot, and im guessing thats why the frog looks quite atrophied.
One of my horses has a scar or something on a heel and we are waiting to see if the wall will grow down (unsure at this stage if its a abscess blow out or a perm scar) its causing issues, he has nothing to support that side of the hind leg and it keeps me awake at night. I have him sports massaged every month currently to try and relieve any strain its causing further up.
We have been working on this for months now (since he arrived in Aug) and its still a waiting game, though farrier said on last visit the foot quality has improved and finally its stopped crumbling away. Its a long game.
I cant answer why the hoof looks like that or what you can do about it, but im not surprised he is lame. Also if the lameness shows when that is the outside hoof (ie not taking the weight, but doing the most rotation) it might be sore further up. My horse has issues further up from his unsupported heel too.

[Scribbler]

@kiwichick

im no barefoot (or any sort of foot) expert, but there is something going on with the heels in that first pic, if you ignore everything else and look at where the heel is, it appears to be very underrun on one side of the foot, and im guessing thats why the frog looks quite atrophied.
One of my horses has a scar or something on a heel and we are waiting to see if the wall will grow down (unsure at this stage if its a abscess blow out or a perm scar) its causing issues, he has nothing to support that side of the hind leg and it keeps me awake at night. I have him sports massaged every month currently to try and relieve any strain its causing further up.
We have been working on this for months now (since he arrived in Aug) and its still a waiting game, though farrier said on last visit the foot quality has improved and finally its stopped crumbling away. Its a long game.
I cant answer why the hoof looks like that or what you can do about it, but im not surprised he is lame. Also if the lameness shows when that is the outside hoof (ie not taking the weight, but doing the most rotation) it might be sore further up. My horse has issues further up from his unsupported heel too.

Yes. I think that’s why the OP referred to sheared heels, meaning really out of alignment.

[puzzle]

Hi other puzzle! I have no advice on this topic that hasn’t been touched upon (maybe back in shoes temporarily, hoof boots…). Mostly I just wanted to say that we’re clearly twinning ;)!

[_Puzzle]

I should probably have mentioned it before, but I didn’t think about it - he has a slightly boxier left foot, one theory is that this may have been caused by quite a traumatic injury he sustained when he was about 1, where another horse took a chunk of muscle out over his ribcage. It’s healed, but there’s still a “hole” where the muscle should have been. He also toes out a bit with both front legs, and we have found that he tends to land on the inside of his front legs, this makes sense to me. He threw a splint on each front leg, on the inside about two months ago (both where active for 2 days, then went cold) and this was after we’ve been jumping quite high.

Farrier said his main concern other than getting the sheared heel right are those high and contracted heels, which is definitely coming down and opening up - im assuming this is why the frogs are still quite big, they where long “looking for ground” when the shoes came off, the farrier trimmed what he could (opened up some infection at that) and said the horse also needs to work his heels and bring those structures into play again. He is working on it as we go.

I do feel the bruise, coupled with an already more sensitive hoof from the sheared heel, probably put him over the edge with regards to sensitivity. He was fine for more than two weeks, the day before I could start feeling something is up he worked beautifully on grass, I was quite amazed actually.

He is happy to turn to the right funny enough, but the days leading up to the bruise showing up the left wasn’t so nice to turn to. He is happier already to turn left. I also wonder if he may have an abscess developing. He’ll be off for a bit to let things heal. We’re also treating the sheared heel and infection aggressively, he gets sole hardener and I’ll get boots too. I think a body work session this week still will be a good idea.

I’ll try get decent pics when I go to the stables later day (I’m quite a few hours ahead of you guys)

[_Puzzle]

@puzzle

Hi other puzzle! I have no advice on this topic that hasn’t been touched upon (maybe back in shoes temporarily, hoof boots…). Mostly I just wanted to say that we’re clearly twinning ;)!

Puzzles are the best!

[Scribbler]

@*Puzzle*

I should probably have mentioned it before, but I didn’t think about it - he has a slightly boxier left foot, one theory is that this may have been caused by quite a traumatic injury he sustained when he was about 1, where another horse took a chunk of muscle out over his ribcage. It’s healed, but there’s still a “hole” where the muscle should have been. He also toes out a bit with both front legs, and we have found that he tends to land on the inside of his front legs, this makes sense to me. He threw a splint on each front leg, on the inside about two months ago (both where active for 2 days, then went cold) and this was after we’ve been jumping quite high.

Farrier said his main concern other than getting the sheared heel right are those high and contracted heels, which is definitely coming down and opening up - im assuming this is why the frogs are still quite big, they where long “looking for ground” when the shoes came off, the farrier trimmed what he could (opened up some infection at that) and said the horse also needs to work his heels and bring those structures into play again. He is working on it as we go.

I do feel the bruise, coupled with an already more sensitive hoof from the sheared heel, probably put him over the edge with regards to sensitivity. He was fine for more than two weeks, the day before I could start feeling something is up he worked beautifully on grass, I was quite amazed actually.

He is happy to turn to the right funny enough, but the days leading up to the bruise showing up the left wasn’t so nice to turn to. He is happier already to turn left. I also wonder if he may have an abscess developing. He’ll be off for a bit to let things heal. We’re also treating the sheared heel and infection aggressively, he gets sole hardener and I’ll get boots too. I think a body work session this week still will be a good idea.

I’ll try get decent pics when I go to the stables later day (I’m quite a few hours ahead of you guys)

Ok, interesting! Would you say he had a club foot on the front left? And does he toe out the same on both front feet, or different amounts? And what in his leg conformation is causing this?

You can’t trim a foot to track correctly if the leg conformation above it is wonky but perhaps you can balance the foot a bit.

[TWH_Girl]

@JB

It is usually in the shod horse’s best interest to improve the quality of the foot before removing shoes. It’s not always a bad thing to “hide” issues with shoes, if the shoes allow you to improve the trim, keep the horse comfortable (enough) to move out well and often, so that by the time you decide to take shoes off, the feet are much healthier and in a much better position to not have the protection and ground-clearance that shoes provide.

The last pictures look like a prolapsed frog, which means a weak/unhealthy back of the foot, and it can take quite a long time to make improvements to that

It would be a great idea to get xrays at this point, just to see where things are inside.

Agree with this. And I would put the shoes back on for now. And get a good (new) farrier. Not impressed with one so far.

[Dressagelvr]

I would urge you to put shoes back on this horse and not force him to suffer through pain in a quest for “barefoot glory”. There are lots of horses who for one or more of many reasons simply cannot live barefoot.