Harmonious Hoof Care

15/04/2025

I love these beautiful bones! Do you know what a horses hoof bones look like?

The three phalanges at the end of the horses leg

Known as P1, P2 and P3 - top to bottom.

Also known as the long pastern bone, the short pastern bone and the coffin bone.

Or proximal phalanx, middle phalanx and distal phalanx.

And the distal phalanx is also known as the pedal bone.

Any more terms? Edit “Os Pedis “ shared by farrier and glue shoe manufacturer Jeff Newman!

No wonder there is confusion when we talk about anatomy!

The coffin bone is named as it’s like being inside a coffin, the coffin bone inside the hoof capsule.

Pedal bone-
AI says In anatomical terms, "pedal" refers to anything related to the foot or feet. It's often used to describe structures, muscles, or processes pertaining to the lower extremity. For example, the pedal artery is a blood vessel located in the foot.

Thanks my sponsors in the comments that help me fund my equine study and provide free information to all.

08/04/2025

As much as I’d love everything to be in my control… it’s not.

There are so many factors that go into a healthy hoof—things we can influence and things as a hoof care practitioner I simply can’t. I often find myself in conversations with colleagues about the horses that challenge us the most. More often than not, the struggles aren’t just about trimming or shoeing technique; they stem from compensation patterns, or long-standing imbalances that are beyond what we can change with a rasp or a shoe.

And hooves don’t exist in isolation. The entire body is connected.

Proprioception—the horse’s ability to know where it is in space. When one part is compromised, the rest must adapt.

🔹 Hoofcare: The feet are the foundation that everything else is stacked on. A compromised foundation affects the entire structure above it.

🔹 Bodywork: We need to give the body as many opportunities as possible to compensate. Restrictions in one area lead to compensations elsewhere, impacting movement and balance.

🔹 Dentistry: The brain sits on the shelf that is produced by the teeth. A horse’s dental alignment affects jaw mobility, posture, and neural input.

As Dr. Audrey DeClue puts it, “The foot only grows dependent on how the body controls the limb to land. The hoof only grows evenly if there is even pressure.” Hoof growth is a reflection of how the entire limb moves and bears weight, and the health of the body and limb attached to the hoof.

And as Tami Elkayam says, “Feet are an expression of the motion possibilities of the limb above. At some point, the foot shape will lock the motion possibilities of the limb above.” Over time, compensatory movement patterns can restrict what we are able to achieve in the feet if we aren’t being proactive.

At the end of the day, we only have an influence over the horse in front of us for a short period of time each cycle—often just 30 to 60 minutes. In a perfect world, we’d spend longer assessing a horse (statically and dynamically) and documenting progress than actually working on them. But that requires access to facilities where we could slow-motion video, analyze movement in real time, and (dare I say it) actually be paid for that time.

But we work with what we have, doing the best we can with the small window of opportunity we get. Because while we can’t control everything, we can make the most of what we have.

And then we add stress and inflammation into the mix. Whenever we have inflammation present it limits the ability of the body to function and heal. Instead of working with the body’s natural mechanics, we create further restrictions, pain, and imbalance.

A truly holistic approach means looking at the bigger picture, recognising these connections, and working to support the horse as a whole.

08/04/2025

A whole horse approach is so key!

This last weekend I taught a clinic at a local equine rescue.

It was a clinic focused on recognizing a healthy hoof, and factors that come into play when we noticed distortion or pathology in the feet.

We took slow motion videos to watch equine distal limb biomechanics to watch for compensation and potential pain points. We evaluated frog health, collateral groove depth, hoof pastern axis, estimated palmar and plantar angles, and checked for things like a healthy white line connection, health of the wall and sole, and more.

We were able to see some interesting cases like possible DSLD, an NPA case with thin soles, club feet and founder cases.

And the things that we kept coming back to were all the factors that affect hoof health that the hoofcare provider has no control over.

For each case, we were able to identify a few things to look into- whether tweaking the diet, mineral balancing, looking at bloodwork, looking at upper body issues, considering soft tissue damage, and so much more- that, if not addressed, make the hoofcare provider’s job more difficult.

My goal is to educate owners on factors that affect hoof health so my job is easy. Or at least easier.

If a metabolic horse is on a high ESC/starch diet, you’ll likely never get ahead of excessive toe growth.

If a horse is living in a stall and getting little movement, you may struggle with a weaker frog and atrophied digital cushion, or upper body issues that affect hoof wear and balance.

If a horse does not receive adequate levels of copper and zinc in the diet, you may have chronic thrush, wall quality issues, and even things like chronic scratches or skin issues.

If the horse has something systemic going on or a diet not suitable for proper hoof quality, the heels may always crush, leading to underrun heels and low angles that the hoofcare provider just can’t fix.

It’s so common to blame the farrier, fire the farrier, or look at the feet and judge the farrier. Now of course, there is such a thing as a crappy hoofcare provider (sorry, had to say it- but just know for all you hoofcare pros, I’ll ALWAYS look for every other reason the feet may suck before ever placing blame on you!). But this post isn’t about crappy farriers so please don’t come at me about that in the comment section.

This post is saying to please consider all the factors that affect hoof health, and do all you can to address those, so you are presenting your hoofcare provider with the best building blocks, the best canvas to start with and work with.

I can’t even begin to tell you of the countless cases I’ve seen over the years where my trim didn’t change whatsoever, but the owner tweaked diet or management or got a diagnosis from bloodwork, and the feet absolutely transformed within the next few months- without my changing a thing.

So instead of blaming the hoofcare provider, start with providing the building blocks for a healthy foot.

You can see some of those building blocks at this webinar we did in 2020 on The Owner’s Role in Hoof Rehab:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKjGgoKnyw

And for all the ways that hoofcare pros CAN affect the feet, such as hoof balance, considering conformation and locomotion/biomechanics, and making decisions based on the horse and hoof presented to us, check out the video recording option for our SOLD OUT Humble Hoof Podiatry Clinic this fall with Celeste Lazaris, Ula Krzanowska, Dr. Jenny Hagen, and Pat Reilly:
https://thehumblehoof.com/product/october-25-26-2025-livestream/

06/04/2025

He makes it look too easy!

06/04/2025

Had an amazing weekend at Firenza Park Equine Services with Kathryn Christieson Somersby hoof mapping workshop. I got to catch up with Kathryn as well as Ray from Eaden Equine Wellness Centre The venue Rivendell Park was fantastic, the group was awesome, and we had the best teachers both human and horse!

My highlight was getting to trim a cow cadaver leg who I aptly named Daisy Bessie. Big lesson learned: trimming hooves isn’t something you should learn from tiktok, and is way harder than it looks. Safe to say I’m no Nate the Hoof Guy and won’t be offering cow trimming for now. What a great experience and it was fun trying to solar map a cow hoof! Learning never stops.

04/10/2024

A very timely resource as the spring grass really starts picking up after recent rain. Thanks for sharing Kat!

🥳🥳 FREE COURSE RELEASE 🥳🥳

Managing horses and ponies that struggle with their weight (especially through spring) can be really challenging and difficult for so many reasons. I’ve put together this resource as an easy starting point for people to be aware and educated about their options. This resource looks at the basics for diet, environment and exercise to manage these horses.

The course is FREE and will remain that way as it is so important to me that we are able to share this information openly to help horses. I would appreciate if you shared this resource in the hope that it can help just one horse or pony to avoid the horrendous pain of laminitis.

firenzapark.thinkific.com/courses/

10/09/2024

Another fantastic continuing education workshop, spending two days with Firenza Park Equine Services with Kathryn Christieson covering so much! Brushing up on lots of theory, anatomy, biomechanics and of course hoof mapping and trimming.

I absolutely love getting to spend time with such knowledgeable and passionate people like Kat and can’t wait to do more.

I can’t recommend these workshops enough to anyone interested in hooves from any level of knowledge, from horse owners to equine professionals. Thanks for a great weekend Kat!