Here some more cases to illustrate how the hooves consistently change from more distortion and usually discomfort and short strides, to a significantly less distorted hoof leading to a lot more hoof comfort and stride quality.
Please note the different time frames on the examples. These can vary by quite some time due to this being a multi-factorial problem. The severity of the pathology is a key player here, but also the length the problem has been present for, how early in the horse’s life it became present, how well the boarding situation has been optimised to support the changes, and how often the horse gets trimmed.
The photos are typically taken at the beginning of a trimming appointment.
Left: with slight negative PA, curved coronet and underrun wall horn tubules.
Right: coronet much straighter, horn tubules nearly parallel, no negative PA angle.
Left shows severe coronet distortion and wall flares with a toe crack.
On the right with much relaxed coronet and flare grown out, leading to a strong laminar connection.
Severely contracted front hooves on the right. Curved coronet and wall horn tubules compressed forward. Very deep collateral grooves, horse couldn’t stand still on those hooves.
On the left much more relaxed hooves. Due to the severity, this horse took longer.
Left: Very flared to side and front, thin soles, struggled to stand still on these hooves, chronic bottom-up toe crack very wide and deep, bulbs distorted and bars pushed under frog.
Right: much better situation, toe crack is still present, but much smaller now, bars not so much under frog anymore, much freer in his body. Still has a bit more to change.
