This is your horse's sole? FALSE!
Hello my South East horse lovers! I hope you are appreciating all the rain...and maybe the drop in temperature. As I trim these now naturally soaked feet, and assuage my clients fears that their feet are falling apart, it occurs to me some education is in order.
Here in Georgia we encounter some pretty distinct issues when it comes to hoof-care. Our pasture horses endure conditions unique to the region. We have hot summers, yes...but that is coupled with cool dewy nights and intermittent rain showers or epic storms. It's not uncommon to have long spells of high dry temps exchanged with wet cool ones. This can play havoc when it comes to holding our horse's hooves together.
This climate, in a normal year, has us fighting cracks, fissures, and thrush. But this summer has brought a whole new look, and new concerns about our horses feet. This summer was HOT HOT HOT and DDDDRRRRRYYY! We went 3 months with NO RAIN! And the aftermath is quite interesting.
This picture above might have this horse owner concerned (Note: this is one of the better looking feet). As we track the progress of our horses feet, this foot looks far flatter than prevoious trims. However...this is not the true hoof, this soul is False.
Throughout the year, our horses will naturally shed their souls and frogs. As they rebuild these ares of their foot, they shed off what is no longer needed. This shedding is primarily affected by the time of year (growth rate of the foot) and weather conditions. Usually this process happens gradually, well at least more discreetly. However, this year, things look a little different.
Having suffered trimming all Hot Dry summer long and watching these frogs and soles build up I knew the rain would come and the shedding would begin...and it would be epic.
In this picture you can see some warning signs of what lies beneath. First red flag...the bars continue all the way to the apex (or front tip) of the frog. If you follow the boundaries of the frog, those 'bars' are creating a deep ravine all the way around. This gives the general observer the illusion the foot has flattened out and lost some concavity. Owners get concerned the foot is reverting its progress.
Lets see what happens when we excavate this foot....
FALSE SOLE
As you can see, we lose a lot of what originally looked like real sole! Keep in mind, I didn't cut into this foot. I used my knife to get under the edges of false sole and pry it up, then scraped away the powdery material.
This really is more of an excavation more than a re-shaping. I am looking for the powdery material that indicates false sole. When you get close to the real sole, it will look waxy.
Notice the distance between the red and blue lines...she had about 1/4 inch of false sole. Yes, this does need to shed, but for the purposes of trimming, we need this out of the way so we can see the true depth and shape of the sole. If we don't have this information, our heel height and angles will not be true..doing a disservice to the horse and slowing our recovery of a healthy/balanced foot.
FROGS
As confusing as the False Sole is, the frogs can be baffling. Take a look.
On the surface they look wide, flat, and healthy...what we are looking for right?
She has some obvious things to address in the central sulcus (the butt-crack in the back of the foot), but many people who study barefoot trimming online or in books, might mistake this for a healthy, intact sole.
If you look at the second picture above you will notice a distinct line along the side of the frog. This is a good indication that the frog should have shed along this line but the environment didn't allow it.
I put my knife along that line in the rear of the frog and found the separation line.
After that?
Just PULL
You can see there isn't any blood or torn material. Healthy Frogs have a very plastic/waxy appearance and are somewhat shiny when you cut them. You can see the powdery appearance that was left after this old frog was removed.
However if you look at the first picture where the frog is peeled back you can see some thrush hiding under that frog. Thrush will hide under the false sole as well. Even if you are treating for thrush, often the medicines can't breech these deep sealed areas. I have found rotted feet under these soles and frogs, though the client was treating them and they looked relatively well...or at least on the mend.
Leaving high frogs like this can cause discomfort in the feet and later body pain due to altered gaits. Incidentally, Bars can pose the same problem if they are overgrown. Never mind the risks of hidden thrush.
I realized when writing this post that I don't have any after pictures of this horses foot when the trim was complete :-( This happens as I get so wrapped up in doing the work that I forget to take pictures.
