Applied Equine Podiatry - by Estella Ray, DAEP

15/01/2025

In June, this mare suffered an acute stone bruise that manifested into a subsolar abscess. It took 2 weeks for the infection to travel up and burst at the coronary band.
6.5 months later, that same hole has now grown all the way out, and finally reached the ground on her most recent trim.

Up until this point, the hole had been left open; a choice I made knowing that the hoof had keratanized the exposed area underneath, and that the horse had remained sound throughout the grow-out after the initial acute lameness. I treated it with Silvetrasol once a week, and left it alone to find its way to the bottom.

Last night, while trimming the sole, the hole through to the wall finally appeared, showing a keyhole window, not something you see every day! This also exposed the stretch and deviation of the golden line in the toe area, and showed how much the toe wall grew dorsal (forward) to accommodate the inflammation that had been present.

I have marked one of the pictures to show where the golden line should be in dotted orange, (mirroring the shape of the coffin bone in dotted purple) and where it deviated to in the toe in dotted red.

I have rebalanced the foot to its correct perimeters, and have applied a small SoleMate orthotic to fill the void left behind, and have then wrapped the foot with Perfect Hoof Wear to protect it from undue wear that might cause unnecessary chipping of the toe edge. These two materials will provide even stimulus up the wall for the next 2 trim cycles until the problem is fully gone.

18/09/2024

These aren’t staged photos in terms of his position. I just try to take photo records when I see them at their best and their worst in the ups and downs of life. There is just a hoof trim and 9 days between these images.
This is one of my personal horses, and the horse that brought me to AEP because of his very complicated feet. To this day, if I don’t keep up on his trims to the 3-4 week mark, he backslides and starts looking terrible in his body.
The balance of their foundation can make all the difference between a comfortable horse that can hold a better posture and one that can’t.

11/09/2024

Just 12 weeks (3 trim cycles) between this fully detached heel from an abscess blow out in the bars, that I excised down to the remaining attached healthy horn, and treated with a temporary Solemate orthotic to provide stimulus and ground contact under Perfect Hoof Wear wraps.
During this time, the horse was never lame on this foot, and continued in flat work and easy trails.

02/09/2024

One of my Perfect Hoof Wear applications “out in the field” as it were! Thanks to the owner for this great photo!
I’m loving the beautiful definition of the frog and collateral grooves receiving stimulus from this awesome product.
The 7 small anchors were placed to help slow down wear on this active eventing horse. They are in the material and barely scratch the hoof capsule.

02/09/2024

Little before and after from the other day!

16/08/2024

This product is revolutionary. Many horses under my care have already benefitted so much from it, with stabilized frogs filling in in the central sulcus, better cartilage development, increased wall and heel growth, etc.

PERFECT HOOF WEAR POLY HOOF WRAPS

The Non-Cast / No Glue Alternatives

Perfect Hoof Wear (PHW) is a non-cast, 100% polyester multidirectional fabric tape impregnated with a unique water activated polyurethane resin that remains slick allowing for a smooth application. Wraps measure 2"x 4 Yards (5cm x3.65m). Each comes in a hermetically sealed foil pouch stamped with a lot number and expiration date. PHW poly wraps have a 2 year shelf life, when stored following manufactures recommendations. Each wrap is supplied with (3) proprietary stainless steel anchors. Anchors eliminate the need for messy expensive glues. Set up time is about 4 minutes, giving you sufficient time to apply. It sets up without producing excessive heat, becoming only warm to the touch. Once the resin begins to set there is no need for gloves, making for a very clean application. Trimming of the wrap is easy, with no need to rasp the finished application. When used for added protection the application is as easy as trim, wrap, ride.

Proven Results

With tens of thousands of Perfect Hoof Wear being sold over the past 10 years, the results speak for themselves.

Performance
PHW unlike fiberglass or fiberglass composite type casting tapes, PHW remains flexible after curing and possesses elastic potential that closely mimics the hoof capsule. PHW essentially becomes an exoskeleton.
PHW Shortens Recovery Times, providing dynamic stability, while supporting correct circulation and lymphatic function.

PHW stimulates hoof wall growth by allowing for three dimensional distortion. As much as 200% increase over normal growth rate has been seen. We frequently receive testimonials stating complete dorsal wall growth in just 7 months.

PHW will not promote bacterial growth.

PHW Enhances Performance with its low rebound characteristics effectively dispersing the energies created upon impact protecting the internal foot.

PHW is impervious to mud and water. It is excellent for use in wet environments, where glue-on applications often fail.

PHW is applied using proprietary stainless-steel anchors, eliminating the need for expensive and often unreliable glues.

This system is time proven, having been used in the application of tens of thousands of poly wraps over the past 10 years.

PHW anchor system allows you to treat the hoof topically without having to worry about glue failure.

PHW is radiolucent. No need to remove PHW when taking x-rays.

PHW has excellent wear characteristics, often lasting 4 to 5 weeks when used for rehabilitation.

PHW is the perfect foundation for the application of performance horseshoes. A flexible horseshoe can be affixed by nailing or other means.

PHW is ideally suited to the creation of specialty orthotics and custom boots.

PHW is Economical eliminating the need to stock expensive glues, glue tips and glue guns.
PHW can effectively be used as a replacement for all glue-on applications.

PHW is excellent for protecting the hoof that has lost a shoe.

Keep a PHW in your saddle bag for emergencies.

06/08/2024

I call them hoof cookies! Did you know that exfoliation is a natural process in the equine foot that is governed by the same hormonal process that tells your horse’s keratin when it is time to shed their summer and winter coats? In feet with good balance, we will often see huge slabs of old exfoliated sole naturally shed out all at once after they stop receiving nourishment from their dermis.

02/08/2024

I really do love this work.
These transformations make me impossibly happy, especially when the horses just melt and their people say things like “she’s never released this much, ever” and “she sent one farrier jumping out of a window…what did you do? I’ve never seen her this calm.”
It’s such an honor when the horses feel better and want to work with me.

30/06/2024

If there is one silver lining to the heartbreak of seeing our equine friends in acute pain, it is that it gives us an opportunity to show our horses a much more focused and deeper level of attunement and commitment without any expectations or pressure that may come with normal daily life, training, and other activities.

With the timelessness of pain comes the permission to fully exist in the present, tend to their every need, appreciate and show up for them while they are silently distressed and at their most vulnerable. If on stall rest, away from the comfort, friendship, and safety of their herd for extended periods of time, it is a chance for the relationship with their human to grow and to show them that we can read their quiet signals and requests.

This is Guinevere, my personal saddle and driving horse. Quite simply, she is one of the great loves of my life.
2 weeks ago, we went on a ride where the trail turned out to be much harsher than I remembered from previous years, with soil eroded away, revealing some areas of larger sharp, partially embedded rocks. She did well traversing most of it, but towards the end, seemed to grow tender, so I got off and walked back to the trailer.
She seemed mostly fine after that, with very mild tenderness on gravel around the farm.

Fast forward 8 days, and we went on another ride on much nicer ground. She was excellent and didn’t take a single uncomfortable step the whole way.
The next day, she came up acutely lame, grade 3/4, and nearly unable to put weight on this left front foot.

I wasn’t too worried. I surmised that she obtained a significant bruise on the first ride that festered into a sub-solar abscess, and the second ride may have stimulated it in some way that the pocket of infection started pushing on the sensitive corium and nerves above.

For almost 6 days, I have nursed her along with the most tender TLC a horse mama and Applied Equine Podiatrist can provide, using animalintex poultices, Solemate pads, some soaking, and very gentle hand walking on soft surfaces, many hours of undemanding hang out time, a rotating cast of herd members to keep her company in the adjacent stall, hand grazing, cookies, attention, grooming. The problem is, my girl has excellent, super hard feet, with 15mm of sole depth, over 1/4” thick walls, and big, plump, healthy frogs.
A trauma abscess grown from within without an entry point has nowhere to easily go, so getting it to come out has proven extremely difficult.

Last night, the mom worry and self doubt crept in enough to call my vet to get radiographs and make sure it didn’t involve any acute bone trauma.
Today, we were able to confirm that her bones are just fine, and there is indeed an abscess in the toe right underneath the matrix of primary and terminal sole. Big relief! And I was spot on with my assessment.

So, here we are, continuing our treatment, and investing a lot of time hanging out with each other and being grateful that it isn’t worse.
I’ll probably update when it resolves.
Video in comments because fb won’t allow both in the same post.

Remember, no hoof, no horse.

18/06/2024

Balance is beautiful.

Those toe cracks will be gone in no time with the stabilizing help of DE Hoof Taps, and the newfound lack of flare on these 18 year old thoroughbred feet!

More exciting will be watching her caudal foot change. Her frog stays (bars) are the most deformed structure on these feet, indicating serious weakness and instability in her lateral ungular cartilages. I especially look forward to helping her strengthen these.

15/06/2024

Before and afters on an endurance horse that had had previous glue-ons.
Photos start with the left front and move around the horse counterclockwise, showing each before and after in three views.

15/06/2024

Addressing a fully detached heel and bar due to an abscess.

This is a serious destabilization of this horse’s caudal structure, and one that I wanted to hurry and help restabilize.

I removed all the detached wall horn along the same lines as the tubule growth, and cleaned the area thoroughly, and then applied a SoleMate orthotic, and then wrapped with Perfect Hoof Wear.
Together, these two products will support, stabilize, and correctly stimulate the area during every step as it regrows, while maintaining balance for the horse to stand and move on without too much loss of performance.

Her face when I removed the initial detached heel was pretty perplexed and funny, with an ear on it. She’s a sensitive girl, that had been on and off mildly lame during this unfortunate occurrence. She’s so much happier and comfortable now, and we will be working on building better heel structure so this doesn’t happen again.