Brew 
"I have a TB with horrible hooves ... "
Jan 31 , 2009
This case is about Brew, an 18 year old 16.3 hand tall thoroughbred gelding who has some enormous but very cracked hooves. His owner, Lisa, said that he is never lame or anything but he has hooves that are constantly cracking, don't seem to grow, and brittle. She was concerned because of the fact they have a hard time getting a dependable farrier out to their place. So I plan on getting Brew's hooves back into shape over the next several months. I think he has a very kind eye.
First off, Brew is a character. He is friendly and likes to play games by knocking over the hoof stand and not picking up his hooves. He's not bad in the sense of being mean or anything...I think he's just an attention monger. Here are his before and after body pictures. The picture on the left is before. He's standing in an awkward way kind of camped up under himself in back. After the trim his entire body is much more balanced and he looks more relaxed.
Ok, here we go. Yes, Brew has some cracks. LOL! It will take some time for them to grow out and down. This trim is basically a set up trim where I'm removing anything that is putting stresses on the walls that are causing them to flare. A lot of the trim was done from the bottom and then rolled as the final step. As these flares and cracks grow out, the hoof will become more healthy and stable. I put some horizontal cuts above where the major cracks start to prevent them from running up any higher. I rasped off as much of the flaring on the quarters as I possibly could this trim. You can see that the hoof still doesn't look very nice but its definitely more functionable.
Before.................................................................. After
The left picture shows a hoof in need of some serious work. The toe needs to be brough back and rolled. The heel is starting to run under as well as flare out. The quarter starting at the coronet band has some tremendous stress and has started a large crack up the hoof wall. The after trim picture shows what little I was able to do to beautify the hoof but at least now his toes have been brought to a comfortable level. The heel has been brought back further towards his actually heel bulbs and the quarter has been relieved. There is still a very large crack that will have to grow down and out. I have placed a horizontal cut with my rasp to stop this crack from going any higher and break off if it needs to at that point some time in the future. Its not pretty but this is a work in progress.
Before.................................................................. After
In the left picture, the heels are flaring to the outside. I would like for them to start growing straight down instead of to the sides. I lowered Brew's heels only until the shavings were sticking and the live material at the seats of the corn was turning lighter. Two things Brew does have going for him is that he does have quite a bit of concavity. You can see it in this view as well as the oblique view. And he also has a thick digital cushion. This means that he is using his heels and developing the back of his hoof. His frog is also nice and plump.
Before.................................................................. After
The oblique view shows that I had a lot of hoof wall to remove as well as some heel. You can see in the after trim picture that there is hope for Brew because of his overall hoof health. It is just in need of a good trim kept on a schedule. The frog is robust. The sole is concave. The quarters have good relief. He does have bares that were semi laid over but I just trimmed them a small bit to even them up with the wall height. The toe and quaters have been rolled. There was nothing more I could do with this hoof on this trim.
Before.................................................................. After
Now here is where I can see the most significant change from before to after. You can see that there really was a good hoof in there somewhere. With all the flares removed and the walls rolled, this hoof is starting to look somewhat normal from the solar view. Please excuse the mud. Brew along with his other pasture mates get trimmed again on March 14th. Tune in then for more updates.
Before.................................................................. After
For those of you who have never seen me....here I am with Brew. I'm 5'6"....Brew is a very BIG boy!
