Introduction to Hoof Health - Mission Farrier School

[missionfarrierschool]

However, we applaud you for your keen interest in the maintenance of barefoot hoof management. If you’d like more information on the appropriateness of barefoot management please visit our website where we have several DVD’s on appropriate barefoot maintenance and appropriate shoeing.

[missionfarrierschool]

Thunder had a soft foot, living in a wet environment. Even great feet get sore under those conditions. His owners wanted to trail ride him. And yes, they tried. The "only thing that happened" is, he got sore. We do a lot of barefoot trims, and we teach a lot of bare foot trims. Barefoot is great, until it isn't. Stimulation is good on a hard dry foot. Soreness or inflammation is never good, and can lead to degeneration of the coffin bone, and once this occurs, it is not repairable.

[ctnaturalhoof]

how sad, he has a great foot and you'll put on a shoe. . . why?  I did not see excess wear, I saw an overgrown hoof. Did you try trail riding him with those great feet first? I am sure the only thing that would happen is that he may not have needed trimming very often! I am sure he did a lot more in the wild than he will ever get domesticated!

[Xela549]

Thanks very much sir you have improved my knowledge of the hoof and cleared some things up for me. Your demonstration skills were excellent.

[thehappyhoof]

WOW, Seeing that hoof really turned some lights on for me regarding the back of the hoof and the frog. What a hoof that guy has. I wish you'd post some more videos, you're about the best farrier I've ever seen. And the way you drew that coffin bone I KNEW THAT WAS WHERE IT WENT TO!!! Why do so many farrier's think there's only bone in the toe? Is it due to only seeing xrays?

[missionfarrierschool]

Thank you for your comment. You are correct that nature tells the truth & nature rolls the toe as the environment trims their feet every day. In a natual environment the wall at the toe was never intended to bear weight & in fact the hoof wall is worn away from the toe quarters fwd. Gene O's studies showed this 20 yrs ago and we've seen it on thousands of horses since.

[QHKarla]

I heard you speak several years ago. I was very impressed with the information. My first thought was, why didn't I know this? My second thought was, why doesn't everyone know this. Thank you for making this information available. Great, great information. I hope to send my son to your school soon.

[cannonb]

Wow, this is clearly the best information I have seen yet. Where can I buy the whole video?!!! Highly impressed with the quality of information shared here. Thank you for sharing this.

[mpascoe11]

perfect example if the typical thorough bred. they are far from natural, and have the shit bred out of them. its like you having flat feet, or high arches, either way u are going to have your same feet for the rest of your life, they arnt going to change. that mustang in the video has the best feet a horse could possible get, but no sort of natural trim is going to stop it from getting foot sore while riding on rocks in the mountains, or down a road everyday.

MP.

[mpascoe11]

i think the hoof smith from sydney who claims to be a bare foot hoof specialist, should stop and have a good think about your job as a "natural hoof trimmer". what do you do exactly to a foot to increase the growth of DC? no matter what u do if that horse is born with minimal DC its never going increase. Continue down>

[TheHoofSmith]

Wow what a long response.

As for checking on digital cushions just feel between the heel bulbs the cushion in a wild horse should be as high as the lateral cartilages. In a domestic horse it is just below the Lateral cartilages. In a shod horse I have found it as small as 2mm thick which would be less than it was born with. You cazn monitor changes by feel as the horse rebuilds the back of its hoof.

Regards

Darren Robertson

[missionfarrierschool]

Thank you Darren and Cody for your input. Yes Darren, we measure the Digital Cushion in the same manner, as demonstrated on our full video, which should be available soon. However, we believe we are improving the integrity of the frog, bars, and sole, not changing the quantity or composition of the adipose fat and fibril elastic and cartiledge that makes up the digital cushion.

[missionfarrierschool]

Continued: And of course the huge limiting factor is how the digital cushion is arranged under the bone colum and in the back of the foot. Often there are genetic influences which inhibit any possibility of "rearranging" of the cushion.

[missionfarrierschool]

Let's all just keep trying. Mark Plumlee, MissionFarrierSchool . com

[clovnicek]

I agree, the video from Mr. Plumlee is excellent. However, as far as I know there is no proven information that says for sure that a foot can develop digital cushion later in life, so I would tend to agree with Mr. Plumlee. I know that Dr. Bowker has speculated that features of the digital cushion are of a type that 'could' generate some new growth, but I don't think he has been able to prove it. (Continue to next comment!)

[clovnicek]

You commented your work is "rebuilding digital cushions" but how do you know that you are actually getting quantitative DC growth? Are you doing an MRI of each digital cushion before and after to measure the amount of material you have 'rebuilt'? I suppose in theory you could measure the DC of a cadaver hoof, but there is no way to know what the DC was like say a year before, so I don't know how you would get a comparative measurement that would in fact show that the DC has been rebuilt.

[clovnicek]

(Continued) Maybe you should instead say that your work is "restoring foot function", just as Mr. Plumlee's is. I don't doubt that you can improve the quality and function of the foot with the trimming you are doing. We to achieve dramatic and complete foot function recoveries on horses that have been subject to long term hoof distortions and poor trimming and shoeing applications.

[clovnicek]

I know that Mr. Plumlee has successfully restored proper foot function (with and without shoes) and improved the quality of life for thousands of horses over his 30 year career as a dedicated hoof care provider. You can make a lot of claims and speculations from observations of a few cadaver feet, but do you know for sure that all of the feet were shod with steel shoes before their life ended, and if they were, for what portion of their life, and under what shoeing protocol where they shod?

[clovnicek]

(Continued) As I'm sure you know, there is a lot more to foot function than just whether a horse has a shoe on or not, so don't be quick to condemn a person and what they have to offer solely based on the fact that he applied a shoe. Everyone, especially a man that has devoted his life to keeping horses comfortable and sound, has valuable information and experiences that others can learn from, just as I'm sure you have experiences that can help others.

Sincerely,

Cody Ovnicek