Hoof Sole Issue - Coreen, please read (pics included)

[halfmoonfino]

About two and a half weeks ago I noticed chalkiness in Pitty back hind feet. He is barefoot, and I've been trimming him myself for over a year. Anyway, I scraped out the white, chalky junk and was left with a small "hole" in the sole. Over the course of a few days, these chalky parts, which turned into small "holes" continued to erupt on both hind feet, although the left hind is worse. First of all, I have no idea what these are or wha tcaused them. I've never seen anything like it on Pitty or any other horse. The weird part is, Pitty has no heat, swelling, foul odor, lameness, tenderness or anything that might be associated with infection or other problems. I tried letting nature run its course, but nothing has changed. No more have erupted, and the ones there have not improved. His feet look very dry in the back, and there are small cracks, so I treated them with a moisture balancer called Absorbine Hooflex. There has been a slight improvement, but not to what I would like it to be. His front two feet are lovely, smooth, and beautiful. His back feet have never had this problem before. I was wondering if anyone could shed light on this odd problem. I have included photos, which were taken today, a little over a week after his last trim. If you have any ideas on what might cause this and how it can be treated, let me know!

Right hind:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d100/halfmoonfino/DSC08092.jpg

Left hind:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d100/halfmoonfino/DSC08093.jpg

Left hind - closeup:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d100/halfmoonfino/DSC08095.jpg

[GeorgeGuns]

No worries!! He's self wearing some false sole. As long as there is no black stuff under the bits that have chunked off, everything is fine. When I see a clean sole doing this, I know that its the final step in naturalizing the sole, and developing strong concavity. Often the sole compacts like this as a false sole while its trying to callous. Then as good thickness takes over under that, it starts bumping off. It also tells me that the sole has been left alone a little too much - but that's WAY better than paring it too much! What you will see in the next several weeks is that these areas will become chalky, as the sole underneath gets strong enough to be active. Not every horse develops a calloused sole uniformly, and this is yet to be understood fully, it just happens. One theory is that there may have been some sole bruising - not enough to make a horse blatantly sore, but enough to cause some uneven areas in the sole, yet the whole sole reacts by creating a false sole.

Looking at the whole sole, I can see that another reason is evident: Pitty's coffin bone is retracting into the hoof, and that is exactly what we want. He still as evidence of sole being quasi-bars next to the front protion of his frogs, and when that is ready to leave be taken off it will look dry and flaky. Right now he is using that as support to help shove that coffin bone back up where it belongs.
Looking at the tip of the frog, and the sole directly ahead and near it, I can see that there is a hair of a groove about 1/16-1/8 inch deep. Normally I would take this down with my knife to make it agree with the "dirt line" level at the apex of the frog, but in Pitty's case I'd leave it a while - its not flaky and looks like he is using it to finish his transition to a natural hoof.

The only thing I can see that needs doing to these hooves, along with what you are already doing, is rasping the heels so that they are just 1/16 inch above the sole level after you remove the chalky stuff. This will get the heels back a little more, and will speed up the false sole shedding process by getting that last little percent of heel function up and running. Other than that these look like nice healthy hooves and you are doing a GREAT JOB!

If you haven't got it yet, get Pete Ramey's book Making Natural Hoofcare Work for You - www.hoofrehab.com. This is one of the best books yet, and its very easy to understand. Great pics in there too!

[GeorgeGuns]

Oh - if you do find some black stuff between the false sole and the new sole, gently pare it out without taking new sole underneath, and hit it with either betadine (Iodine 7%) or Dr Naylor's Blue Kote.

And if you uncover some bruised looking areas and he is not sore, keep in mind these are OLD, and don't worry about them. Fresh bruises are very red, old ones are not so brilliant in color, duller.

[Blameitonbrio]

Ooohhhh Lana! Since you are right down the street from us, don't you want to come trim some other Paso feet? 8-) Good job!

[halfmoonfino]

Thank you Coreen! I suspected it might be the sole "shedding" but wasn't sure. And I do have Pete's book; got it last year for my bday! Pitty's feet grow crazy fast, and I guess I didn't trim down the heels enough last week. I'll work on that tomorrow morning. Before I took off the shoes his feet were in pretty rough shape, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a false sole being created. So I guess I need to let nature run its course, and trim down the heels some more.

He still as evidence of sole being quasi-bars next to the front protion of his frogs Can you explain that to me in greater detail? I hadn't heard the term "quasi-bars", but I'll go look it up in Pete's book too...

So the coffin bone retracting is a good thing? Yay! Thanks for all your help, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't caused a problem in his foot. I'd be way upset about that!

OH and I also noticed when this "shedding" started that his sole began to change colors. Up until a few weeks ago his sole on the left hind foot had been dark, and now it is going white. I guess the false sole was dark or else it was infection. Weird!

Any idea why his front feet are hard, slick, and gorgeous and his back feet are trailing behind? Could it be that his back feet were in worse shape from the get-go?

[GeorgeGuns]

"quasi-bars" - I made that up, lol. I don't know how esle to call it. Pete does address it where he talks about the ridge of sole around the frog that some barefoot hunter-jumpers get, probably due to traction. I see a variation of that on a lot of horses that are transitioning. I think somewhere on Marjorie's site (www.barefoothorse.com) she talks about this, and that when she has tried to trim it back she gets blood so she leaves it and it doesn't do any harm. My perspective is that if its not easy to cut, the hoof probably needs it. I've noticed there are a few ways this "quasi-bar" forms. One is that the bars are overgrown, and actually fold into the sole and become part of it. Then the hoof actually uses it because there is often a laminitic event going on. Another is that it forms as blatant bar extension - this is very common in founders, while they are rehabilitating. It is very obviously a bar that goes up and around the toe. The third is that a horse just develops a very calloused area as part of the restructuring process, seems to happen in horses that are still developing a toe callous, or have had some flattening of the sole from prior trimming or shoeing, again its a support thing. The sole is trying to preserve itself so it can come back properly.
I find all this so freakin amazing...

Hind hooves are used differently, so they will transition differently. Now that I think of it, I have seen this cratering more in the rears than in fronts. Hmmmm. food for thought.