Misty, Before and After                                                  by Gwenyth Browning Jones Santagate

After the farrier left, I noticed Misty to be a bit off. I figured it was just because of the trim. The next day she was worse and within a week's time Misty was very clearly in moderate to severe pain in her right fore hoof. The following week she was completely 3-legged lame. No weight at all could be born on that foot. I cleaned, I rasped, I fed her White Willow bark - all of which helped but not enough. Finally, after over a month of seeing Misty (and Dorian, too!) hobble around in pain, I began to look for someone who was familiar with Jaime Jackson's and Hiltrud Strasser's method of trimming horse's hooves. I found a woman in Jamestown, RI who not only was/is well skilled at the Strasser trim but offered to come here to teach me how to trim my own guys. She arrived on Friday, October 20th and promptly examined both Dorian and Misty. We decided to work with those two that day. They had both "trim foundered" ... Misty was doing a bit better than she was a month prior because I had gotten a bit more aggressive with my trimming. But, again, not aggressive enough. She definitely had "White Line Disease" of which I had inquired to my farrier. Dorian's heels were so long and his bars so prominent that his sole actually bled when we trimmed in front of the bar on his left fore. Misty's bars, too, were unacceptably long. In fact, ALL my horses had been left with long heels and bars.

I learned that the bars of the hoof grow INTO the interior of the hooves and ends in a very sharp point, much like the point of a knife. When the bars are left untrimmed, they begin to put a horrific amount of painful pressure inside the hooves. This is evident by a "wavy" hairline on the coronary band. What sometimes is diagnosed as "Navicular" is nothing more than the bars of the hooves are way too long and in need of drastic trimming. Obviously, the dirt in Misty's white line didn't belong there and it wasn't "OK" as the previous farrier had assured. Excessively long heels cause the coffin bone to become more perpendicular to the ground instead of parallel. This affects the tendons  in the leg and then a whole domino effect is in place causing the horse to feel pain and become lame. No hoof; no horse? Absolutely!

Dorian was diagnosed from the previous farrier as having "Thrush" even though I am meticulous about checking and cleaning hooves. I never saw nor smelled any indication of thrush in his frog. He had a split in each of his frogs/heels that was growing deeper and deeper into this hooves. I was told to pack these splits with Sugardine and bandage his hooves. I did this only to see him exhibit increasing pain. There were days when he refused to walk.

Upon examination by the Strasser trimmer, she promptly told me he didn't have thrush but his heels were so contracted they had squashed the bulbs together causing the flesh to rip and split. This was treated by opening cuts in his heels after trimming. (Misty's hooves, also, were contracted; especially the "Club" hoof.) The results were immediate in both Dorian AND Misty. Misty has been 100% SOUND for two weeks now, beginning the morning after the Strasser trim. Dorian is about 98% ... better every day. His sole bled and oozed for about 2 hours following the trim but then cleared right up.

I worked on the ponies a few days later and they, too, are running around again. All horses' heels are expanding; the frogs are nicely coming in contact with the ground and all my guys are happy 'ponies' once again.

The series of photos show the "before" and "after" of Misty's trim. The full body shot shows her standing square - no pointing and no founder stance!