Heart & Sole Natural Hoof Care LLC

01/23/2025

1 year progress pictures- Before and After

Negative palmer angle, rotation, & severe white line disease

Trim cycle: 4-6 weeks
Topical treatment for wld & thrush
Diet changes- lower sugar, removal of processed feed

12/30/2024

Barefoot vs Shod hoofprints. How much info can we gather from a simple hoof print?

The barefoot hoof- you can clearly see the impact of the frog. A strong frog means a healthy digital cushion, which also supports & protects the navicular bone above. Think about that! The frog is so important! Look at the frog imprint in the pictures. It's bearing a lot of the load, doing it's job well. Also, the peripherial wall is loaded, but you can see the sole is passively carrying some of the load. The width of the heel is wider on the barefoot hoof compared to the shod hoof (contracted heel). There is a reason for that.

Shod hoof- No frog imprint, because the frog is not being loaded, which can lead to thrush, caudal failure (failure of the back half of the hoof, digital cushion), contracted heels, and navicular disease. The hoof is dangling from the peripheral wall & the rest of the hoof is not in function or use- as seen my the undisturbed dirt within the hoof print. If you don't use it, you lose it.

There is a time and place for shoes... but we have to remember that the hoof was designed to be barefoot. There are very intricate & important parts of the hoof that need to be in function in order to be healthy.

12/26/2024

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!

It's been another wonderful year. Over 275 horses count on us to show up every rotation. Which means over 8,000 hooves trimmed throughout the year! We traveled over 14,800 beautiful miles the last 12 months. It has been such a blessing and an honor to continue to do this work. Thank YOU- each and everyone of you who entrusts us with the care of your horses & farm yard friends. We wouldn't be here without you. Thank you to those who show us support & follow along here on Facebook. We're looking forward to another great year!

Pictured is myself (Cassie), my colleague and sister (Tarah), and the best horse ever (my Derek).

12/11/2024

I know this owner and horse personally. He's lives up to his name Lovie, very sweet and very low in the herd. He would make a wonderful companion horse!

12/08/2024

OUCH!!

Just a hole……

My showcase of my hoof and whole horse dissections:
http://www.patreon.com/hoofstudies

Shop my website: https://hoofstudies.com

Thank you to my sponsors❤️

Holistic Equine:
https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/

Farrier Speciality products- https://fsphorse.com

Catherine Seingry - https://catherineseingry-equiholistique.fr

The Donkey farrier
http://www.donkeyhooves.com

Melissa La Flamme - https://www.espacechevalmoderne.com

Lighthoof Mud Control Grids Fix Your Muddy Horse Paddocks Forever - https://www.lighthoof.com

Hoof Doctor/Equine one - https://equine.one, https://hoofdoctor.ca

Heike Veit
http://www.gesundehufe.ch/

Areion Academy
https:/www.areion.co.uk
Equine Podiatry and Barefoot Trimming Education - Areion

12/05/2024

What is a Good Teacher?

Now, I am a mentor for my hoofcare organization, but I know I’m not the best hoofcare teacher. I have a lot to learn about teaching about hooves - as much as I have to continue to learn about hooves themselves! But I do have a Master’s Degree in Education, so this topic is a bit close to my heart.

In the hoofcare world, like most places, there are a lot of strong opinions.

When we are passionate about something, that can make us see things a bit more “black and white” than they really are in reality.

The best teachers and mentors I have had have been those that have nudged me to consider something different when I was so rigid in my thinking. Those that played a little bit of Devil’s Advocate or pushed me to think outside of the box.

And in terms of my mentors pushing me to not be so “rigid” in my hoofcare thinking, the more hoof rehab cases I saw, the more I realized that every single horse is an individual, and therefore there is no “one size fits all” in hoof rehab cases.

Yes, most rehab cases improve with the tenets of diet, movement, and good hoofcare- and of course, if you’re able to influence their daily management a bit more, “friends, forage, freedom.” But the more we see, the more we realize that some cases need some individual extra support and troubleshooting to become sound.

For example, 90% of laminitis is endocrinopathic - or caused by a metabolic disorder. When I first started in hoof rehab, every case I saw was metabolic, and therefore turned around fairly rapidly with the proper management, so I thought laminitis cases were pretty easy! Change the diet, check bloodwork, get them moving, get a proper trim and use therapy boots and they seemed to come sound quickly and even grow out rotation and reverse distal descent.
….And then I met my first SIRS (“Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome”) laminitis case who had me staying awake at night trying to find out how to stop his feet from completely falling apart. Because with SIRS laminitis, the circulating toxins are the enemy, and diet and metabolic management does nothing.
And once we figured him out, I had a supporting limb laminitis case that threw us all for a loop. Because with supporting limb laminitis, the inability to offweight the opposing limb of a severe injury leads to a lack of circulation/perfusion in that foot that causes laminitis. They NEED to move to prevent this, but often can’t due to intense pain.. a broken bone, a bad tendon tear, etc. The treatment for the injury was contraindicated for the treatment of the laminitis. It took a team and quite a while, but we got that case back to comfort - but it wasn’t just diet or trim or metabolic management.

And I so appreciated those mentors and teachers during those times who reminded me that I didn’t have all the answers and there’s always more to learn. My business name may be The “Humble” Hoof, but I’m not immune to letting my pride creep in when it comes to what I’m passionate about. We all can. What I learned from the amazing people who came alongside me and still walk with me in this hoofcare learning journey is that I don’t want to assume I have all the answers, or put others down or shame others for doing something differently than I do, because I haven’t seen every single case or every horse, and will always have more to learn.

Of course- a good teacher in this industry also educates on how to discern when something is helping or hurting, how to apply deductive and inductive reasoning, and teaches to continually pursue further education and latest research to make sure we are helping the horse to the best of our abilities.

And one thing I know for certain, no student effectively changes their mind through angry arguments, bullying, shaming, or constant aggressive challenging. The best growth I’ve seen in the hoofcare world has been through thoughtful conversations, collaborations, looking at cases together, and coming together with a common goal: to help the horse. Because (and I say this all the time) - no one wakes up in the morning thinking “man, I can’t wait to cripple some horses today.” We do the best we can with the knowledge we have at the time.

And on this journey, good teachers make it possible to change your position without shame.
Because no one ever knows it all.

11/24/2024

I see "high- low hooves" often enough. I don't believe that every hoof is exactly the same, but in some hooves there's a very obvious difference. One hoof will be much more upright and the other will be flat & flared. That's what we refer to as "high-low". ***edit to add- we are not so much talking about true clubbed hooves, which is a tendon issue on the clubbed hoof****

Here's some interesting insight from a recent hoof clinic.

JENNY HAGEN - We are not symmetrical, so it’s no surprise that horses aren’t either! Asymmetry of bones, tendons, ligaments and joints will affect the hooves, and can lead to high/low in feet.

-High/low hooves can also be due to pain somewhere (upper body or limb/hoof, horse offweights the painful side and that foot becomes “high” and overloads one foot that becomes “low”). These situations need RELIEF from pain to resolve - finding the root cause and rehabbing, etc. Not necessarily a specific trim or shoeing. Look higher up with high/low feet.

*️⃣ If owners practice exercises to help laterality, that will also help with high/low hooves. A short stride can be stemming from a back or neck problem - it can present as just “not moving well.”

*️⃣ The C6-C7 experience much more load than other vertebrae. If the neck is very tense, a horse may stumble or trip (it’s not just about hoof breakover!)

Another great reference:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15SwXMkfNj/

11/12/2024

Happy Tuesday! Great trim Tarah Lynn LaBarre 😍😍 Heart & Sole Natural Hoof Care LLC

11/11/2024

Another great trim by my sis and colleague Tarah Lynn LaBarre ❤️ Heart & Sole Natural Hoof Care LLC

11/06/2024

Hoof of the day! Before & After Trim

11/04/2024

This is showing the front of the navicular bone. The part by my index finger is the joint surface that it forms with the coffin bone.

If you have a navicular bone in your hand, you can work out which way up it goes by that part. I call it “the smile”.
Find the smile and place it at the top.

Below the smile is an indentation running across the whole bone. The impar ligament is present there and it attached the navicular bone to the coffin bone.

The impar ligament can feel pain per my chats with Dr Sue Dyson. It’s a common site for stress and strain.

Then there are those holes. The big ones can be big or small and there can be many holes or not many. The holes contain cells that create synovial fluid. The fluid for the joint.

Blood vessels also run through the smaller holes.

All horses are different. Historically the research suggested bigger deeper holes with certain shapes showed pathology in the bone but now we know it’s not true.

The part where my thumb is, is where the deep digital flexor tendon runs.

I find them fascinating and each one tells me a story of the horses life, or more correctly, the biomechanical pressures put on different parts of the bone, or ligament insertion damage, or in balance in the foot.

The problem is on X-ray we may find navicular bone changes but unless it’s backed up with the clinical presentation and nerve blocks we are chasing a diagnosis. There are so many changes see in the bone that have little to no effect on soundness.

As my farrier mate said -‘ don’t tell the horse what was seen on X-ray’.

My showcase of my hoof and whole horse dissections:
http://www.patreon.com/hoofstudies

Shop my website: https://hoofstudies.com

Thank you to my sponsors❤️

Holistic Equine:
https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/

Farrier Speciality products- https://fsphorse.com

Catherine Seingry - https://catherineseingry-equiholistique.fr

The Donkey farrier
http://www.donkeyhooves.com

Melissa La Flamme - https://www.espacechevalmoderne.com

Lighthoof Mud Control Grids Fix Your Muddy Horse Paddocks Forever - https://www.lighthoof.com

Hoof Doctor/Equine one - https://equine.one, https://hoofdoctor.ca

Heike Veit
http://www.gesundehufe.ch/

Areion Academy
https://areion.co.uk/

11/01/2024

This was a hard blessing for me to recognize because business debt is not desirable. But we needed a reliable vehicle... and so here it is! We do enjoy cruising around in it.

For those of you not sure if you can chase your dreams. Well, when we started out in this business, we had a small little 2 door coop car and a few necessities to get the job done. Now, we're expanding into a nice new truck, more tools than I can count, and over 200 horses on the books. God is good. May He continue to bless the work of our hands. 🙏

10/31/2024

I’m delighted to let you know that our navicular syndrome class is now ready for you to register your spot!

Thursday 14th November 2024, 7 pm -9pm UK time which is
Friday 15th November 2024, 8am to 10 am NZ time

45usd

Join me for an absolutely packed 2 hours taking a deep dive into navicular syndrome. I have hoof slices to share with you that show normal navicular bones and their associated tissues and then a series of other slices going from mild disease to severe.

We will look at the location of the navicular bone in the foot and I’ll show you lots of different models and real live limbs to help you orientate yourself.

Looking at the role of the navicular bone and the stresses and strains put on it.

Enter into a closer look at the bone, and its ligaments- the impar ligament and the colateral ligament, plus identifying the bursa. I’ll be using my macro lense to explore the foot and explain all the different structures, and what they do.

We will start with normal healthy samples to hone your mind and then we will start to look at different degrees of pathology. You will learn how to recognise the issues. You will understand what is healthy and what is not and more importantly why.

We will look at X-rays and MRI examples to further help you understand what to look for. And the importance of taking good radiographs.

We will discuss the current understanding of causes, hoof shapes, trims, breeds, type of sport, genetics, and understand why it is such a hard syndrome to predict its progression.

I’ve been studying navicular syndrome for the past 5 years and have had private mentoring and tuition by Dr Sue Dyson who is one of the experts in this field.

I’ve studied many 100s of navicular bones and their closely associated structures and I have a very good eye for detail.

Check out the registration details in the comments. Will love to meet you and enjoy your questions and comments.

This is an interactive class and your experiences are welcome, please email me prior to class if you would like to share your navicular story and I’ll try to include it in the class.

All proceeds from the class go to my research fund to continue my studies. Thanks for your amazing support!

Lindsey