Dr. Leslie Dyal, HCP - Rising Phoenix Equine Services

11/25/2024

11/20/2024

11/02/2024

Caudal hoof health, strength, and comfort has more to do with the shape of the palmar contours than the heel height, the toe length, or the hoof/pastern angle. Every structure in the foot (inside and out) depends on the palmar shapes for optimal development…as does every part of the rest of the horse.

09/25/2024

09/02/2024

Every horse owner, practitioner, and trainer should keep track of whether their horse’s hooves are regenerating or degenerating.

Boon, 6 year old Quarterhorse
Front left
Pulled shoes at 4 years old
This is 2 years progress building true heel...regenerating live tissue not preserving dead heel horn.

This horse was beginning to develop sheared heels due to his conformation, and/or from the effects of imbalanced trimming with fixed, rigid, steel, shoes that were restricting growth and movement.

The bottom left photo ( pre trim ) reveals how he is currently loading and wearing the medial heel ( left side in photo ) more than the lateral heel. You can also see that he does the opposite at the toe pillars. He is breaking over with more weight on the diagonal lateral toe pillar, causing this side to wear more. Steel shoes prevent wear but the wear is needed at the bottom of the wall to keep the rest of the horse properly balanced to their dynamic individual physiological needs. These needs evolve through rehab and up through the stages of continual development so the trimming needs to evolve as well. Steel shoes cause everything else above the shoes to jam up, twist, and contort. The wall grows about 1 mm every 3 days. 1 mm of vertical imbalance at the ground equates to 3-4 cm of horizontal compensation at the hips and wither on an average sized horse. That means if the trimmer/farrier has a 1 mm margin of error when setting a shoe there’s going to gradually be more by the next shoeing cycle. If nobody is noticing and correcting for the changes above the shoe then they get magnified over time. Without a fixed shoe, the trimmer/farrier can make frequent minimal corrections that improve the horse’s comfort and way of going, gradually improving their overall balance over time.

These corrections have taken me 2 years and we still have a ways to go. This horse hasn’t been classified as “lame” because he’s been able to gallop around during this transition but he has been very stiff and he has had a hard time standing for trimming. That’s where I feel it. He is finally loosening up and finding his natural way of going. This same process can be applied to older horses with even later stages of trimmer/farrier caused crookedness but it typically comes at more of a price for the horse, the owner, and the corrective trimmer/farrier...difficult rehabs are hard on everyone.

(David Landreville, 2019)

08/08/2024

I kinda want to take him home with me ♥️

08/08/2024

Intercepted. I was walking out to get Buck and Sissy decided she was going first. Literally, for over 3 years, she comes and finds me right on schedule (or slightly before). She is 30 plus years old and an angel. She lives in a herd with about 25 others horses on 40 acres.

07/12/2024

The current track system at Rising Phoenix Farms.

06/23/2024

Beautiful consideration of the horse 💚

06/23/2024

Can a horse with thin soles develop deeper/thicker soles from being barefoot?

"Yes, they absolutely can and in our opinion it is the only option (including boots and glue ons under the barefoot umbrella here) for building sustainable live sole depth. Metal shoes and the flat trimming required to apply them don't allow the hoof to flex, and the horse also leans forward on their toes to try and avoid the pain in their heels from heel horn that is often too long, contracted, crushed and pinching. This toe loading and lack of flexion causes the retention of layers of dead sole while the live sole gets thinner, as it is crushed between P3 and the retained dead sole and metal shoe. There are often claims of increased sole depth on xrays, but once the shoes come off all the retained dead sole starts exfoliating and you are left with a thin live sole, a sore horse and the argument that they just can't be barefoot. We trim to encourage the horse to lean back into their heels and find comfort there, which lifts the pressure from the tip of P3, and allows live sole to build as the dead layers exfoliate. There may be periods of discomfort involved depending on the existing level of damage, especially when you are learning the process as you go through it, but it can be managed with boots, sand if possible, and allowing time for healing. This process is regenerative and sustainable, where as metal shoes and flat trimming are degenerative and a temporary solution at best."

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This question was recently asked in Hoof Builders and answered by co-founder and advisor, Mollie Cardigan. I always appreciate Mollie's ability to put together succinct explanations of hoof building concepts.

06/19/2024