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TrulyTrust Equine Learn how to create a vibrant, pain-free life for your horse without feeling overwhelmed

31/01/2025

Before and after trim for today. Really had to trim that frog back.

29/11/2024

An amazing transformation! This horse struggled with a skin condition and nothing seemed to help. I went out to do a Zoopharmacognosy consult and we also discussed the horse's diet. She chose her herbs and I suggested a change in feed alongside her chosen herbs. 5 Months later and the results speak for themselves. It's amazing how well our horses are able to self medicate when given the opportunity.

20/11/2024

Hope's Story Part 4: We have now looked at various photos of Hope's club foot and discussed the challenges we faced at the beginning, now it's time to discuss the opposite side.

Not many people discuss the challenges that can be faced when trimming the hoof opposite to the club foot. You are more likely to come across these challenges when the club foot is severe.

☀️The problems most often seen on the opposite hoof to the club foot is a hoof that becomes flat, becomes run forward, unable to gain some height in the hoof wall, and sometimes being unable to grow proper heel.

☀️Why is this? This happens when the club foot causes the horse a lot of pain. As a result the horse often shifts his weight, carrying more on the normal hoof in order to reduce the pain he feels. While this helps him feel some relief, it can over time cause the normal hoof to wear down to a point where the hoof becomes compromised. It's also likely for the heels to wear down more than the toe, worsening the situation.

This comes with its own challenges. With Hope being a draft horse, her weight also worked against us. She carried a lot of weight on her normal hoof and you can see the low angles back in 2021 (although new growth was promising). My trim once again focused on balancing her hoof, my trim had to be very specific as to grow some heel, and help the whole hoof move back. But also remember the club foot. I had to work to reduce her pain in that hoof so that she didn't need to put so much weight on this one.

☀️Fast forward to 2024 and she now has a much stronger hoof. Her whole hoof shifted back and is now within a much better and healthier range. She still got some bruising due to her conformation also causing an uneven weight distribution, but overall I'm so happy about her progress.

🍃Learn more about hooves on my website and student portal www.trulytrustequine.org

19/11/2024

Hope's Story Part 3: Let's continue with some more photos of Hope's club foot, all 2021 vs 2024.

☀️When you look at the side view you'll notice just how severe her club foot was, you can see how she could be in so much pain, carrying so much weight on her toe. At one point her dorsal wall had 3 different angles! The new growth I saw in 2021 was very alarming, growing down even steeper than previously, and I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Now many trimmers would go and look at this hoof, then start lowering the heels and leaving the toe very long, trying to force the hoof down. While this may seem logical, it can make things much worse. We must realise that a club foot will NEVER be a normal hoof, it will always be more upright. The trick with these kinds of hooves is to manage the problem. If the horse was born this way, you are not going to fix it as an adult. You want to aim for a balanced trim, not taking too much heel which will make the horse lame but taking enough to reduce the pressure on the toe. This is exactly what I did and the results speak for themselves!

☀️When you're looking at the side view, look at the whole hoof. It's easy to look at the dorsal wall and say, "That's still way to steep", but look at the change in the horn tubules, and in the heel. Look at that massive change in angle, all without forcing the heel down.

At the sole view you'll notice wonderful expansion in the hoof. The whole sole relaxed (not as easily noticeble on photos), the deep collateral groove became more shallow, and the width of the sole and whole hoof expanded. A fantastic win indeed. In the next post you'll learn more about the problems we faced with her other hoof.

🍃Want to learn how to recognise problems in your horse's hooves, and discover the real root cause? Join one of my online courses today. The black friday sale is still on, get 20% off when you enroll using the code black20

16/11/2024

Part 2 of Hope's Story: The Club foot had a deep crack in the front of the hoof. This crack was very deep at the bottom of her hoof, less so towards the top, but extended about 3/4 up her hoof. That was of concern for a couple of reasons:

☀️One, it's the perfect breeding ground for Bacteria and Fungus. Thrush and White line disease are major concerns in such a hoof. Once these take hold it further weakens the hoof, and it can be difficult to treat, especially with a deeper crack

☀️Secondly, the hoof will be structurally weaker. With a club foot where the pressure on the dorsal wall (front of the hoof) is already high, you don't want a weak hoof wall, since this will make restoring the hoof so much harder. You want to eventually be able to shift the pressure away from the toe, this is harder to do when the hoof wall is weak and caving in. A weak dorsal wall can also result in the club foot quickly becoming worse.

Little by little I adjusted the trim to balance the hoof, being careful not to take too little hoof wall which will end in no positive results, but also not too much which would make Hope lame. I didn't do anything to the crack itself, but rather focused on treating the root cause, which was the large amount of pressure on the toe. I also recommended the owner treat any bacteria in the hoof. The vet also provided help with Hope's nutrition to ensure strong hoof growth.

Today the crack has completely grown out and isn't returning, her hoof has also expanded in width (which I will show you more clearly in future posts). A club foot expanding in width is exactly the type of result you want.

🍃Want to learn more about hooves? Why not take a look at what TrulyTrust has to offer? Start with our free guide, an ebook or invest in a course to start improving your horse's hoof health today. Also don't miss our black friday sale this November, 20% off on all courses

www.trulytrustequine.org/hooves

15/11/2024

Sometimes your clients and their horses become part of your family and it can be difficult to say goodbye. This week I had to say goodbye to one of my client horses whom I've grown to love very much. She found a new home with loving owners, but I'll miss her.

❤️Hope has such a beautiful journey, one that is truly inspirational and over the next few posts I want to share that with you.

In 2021 her owner reached out to me after a local veterinarian referred her to me. Hope was struggling with early signs of laminitis and a severe club foot. The problem was that most farriers didn't want to work with her, telling the owner to put her down, and when her hooves were trimmed she had to be sedated because she didn't want to stand still.

☀️I knew this was going to be a challenge but I was up for it because I had to help. After doing a thorough hoof evaluation it was time for the trim. At the first session I suggested Positive Reinforcement, guided the owner a bit, and Hope took right to it. Because of her pain it was difficult for her to keep her hoof up for long, but she kept trying. We could only trim one hoof per day at first, but little by little we made progress.

Fast forward 3years later and she is doing very well! No more signs of any laminitis, the club foot has expanded and the angles improved, we do hooves with no sedation, and yes we can do all 4 hooves now in one session.

I'm going to miss how excited Hope gets when she realises we are going to trim hooves and she'll get food. And how she gives her hoof as soon as I touch her leg.

❤️I will always remember this journey that I got to share with this family, and I'm sure her new family will love her wholeheartedly.

14/11/2024

Have you searched for the why yet?

🔹The symptoms are the abnormal gait, the cracks in the hooves, the upright hoof shape, the stiff muscles, the occasional bite or kick, the unwillingness to cooperate, the buck under saddle, avoiding the halter/bridle and the list goes on.

❌The cause is often not your horse being dominant, trying to be the leader, faking it to get out of work, just having bad genetics, being naughty, being accident prone etc.

When you look deeper you will often find the real root cause which often involves:
🧩Incorrect trimming practices,
🧩Training causing the horse to be fearful or defensive (teaching them how to avoid rather than approach)
🧩A diet lacking or oversupplying key nutrients
🧩Lack of movement due to lifestyle and management choices
🧩Different areas of pain in the body which can be linked to hoof trimming, saddle fit, the rider, lifestyle, diet, teeth etc.

Whenever something goes wrong or doesn’t seem quite right, we should start investigating to find out what’s going on instead of putting a bandaid on and leaving it for later (because it’s not that bad).

Over the years I’ve learned that preparation and prevention is truly the best way to help our horses stay healthy and happy, thriving in their life. I try to always analyse and look for where I can make improvements. No one of us are perfect, I sure know I'm not, but we should all be striving to know more today than we did yesterday, and to strive to make our horse’s life as joyful as we are able to. Their lives are in our hands

🍃Website: www.trulytrustequine.org

12/11/2024

We often think that sensitive hooves come from hooves that are too soft, especially after heavy rains, but did you know that horses can become sensitive in their hooves when the hooves are too dry and hard?

☀️This can happen when it hasn't rained for quite some time, and the hooves haven't been exposed to any water or moisture. The hooves then dry out, contract somewhat and loses some of its flexibility. This can become a real problem since it can result in cracks forming easier, but also going deeper.

The horse above is a prime example, she developed a crack in front of her heel. Under normal circumstances the crack would just cause some excess bar and sole to exfoliate, but because of how hard the hooves were the crack just went deeper, resulting in her whole heel wanting to break off into live tissue.

At first that heel had to be lowered to reduce any pressure on it (done by another trimmer while I couldn't get there quickly enough), and I recommended they put on topical treatments to help soften the hoof. This helped stop the crack, and help her regrow her heel. Now her heel is almost completely regrown and she is sound again.

I have seen this type of problem quite a bit recently, with my own horse becoming sensitive in her feet, and it going away after it rained.

Environment and moisture levels is a very important aspect of helping your horse grow strong barefoot hooves. This is only one of many factors explained in my Free hoof health guide https://trulytrustequine.thinkific.com/products/digital_downloads/buildingstronghooves-guide

09/11/2024

Head over to the Student Portal to receive 20% off ALL courses and classes! Hurry, because there are only 30 coupons available and the sale ends 30 Nov 2024.

All TrulyTrust courses and classes focus on Holistic Preventative care and Rehabilitation for horses. Topics include:

*Barefoot hoof health and trimming
*Positive Reinforcement Training
*Holistic Nutrition & Massage Therapy (currently available only as personalised services)

🍃Short courses and more comprehensive courses available.
Visit the Student Portal (https://trulytrustequine.thinkific.com/collections) to enrol before the coupons run out.

🍃Use the coupon code black20 for 20% off.

PS if you are subscribed to our newsletter you get advanced notice of sales on courses, you do this by signing up on the student portal.

17/10/2024

Brand new, FREE downloadable guide to help you on your journey towards a horse with strong, healthy and pain free hooves. We all want a horse who is able to walk comfortably over any terrain, but it's often difficult to know where to begin, or to figure out what we are missing when we don't achieve the results we want to.

This guide gives you a place to start, teaching you 10 things you can do today to help your horse. Various topics such as trimming, environment and proprioception is discussed showing you how important a holistic approach is.

Link to get your:

https://trulytrustequine.thinkific.com/products/digital_downloads/buildingstronghooves-guide?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabY00LXCkeOFK7dDj1XxiGaPbz8r6Ekncd6m0nxSHpX8xokVLmIj2Hwd3k_aem_3xuyRz1_BZZBTD866qtqeA

13/05/2024

What a lovely before and after trim photo of this miniature horse's hoof. I love seeing such a quick improvement after just one trim. Better and healthier hoof angle, and now we got much better hoof-pastern alignment as well. Less tension on those tendons and ligaments, and a more comfortable mini. It's a good day when you can help a horse feel better

27/02/2024

Club foot rehab alert! What an amazing transformation this hoof has gone through over the last couple of years. The owner and I were both surprised by the latest changes as it seems the hoof is starting to relax, expand and is now growing at a more normal angle.

You'll see the large difference in width of the hoof when looking at the sole view photo, and the difference in the angle of the horn tubules in the back of the hoof when looking at the side view photo.

This hoof was never forced down by lowering the heels, I actually took little heel and worked with a longer heel measurement. I had to work carefully to find the sweet spot, lowering the hoof enough to improve balance but not too much to avoid putting too much strain on the tendons. Now the hoof is starting the heal and we're all excited for the future of this horse.

19/02/2024

A big shout out to Louisa from Truly Trust Equine for trimming our horses' hooves for free and for working with so much passion and excellence! Thank you for your advice when we need it and for always being willing to help and assist.

Contact Louisa for your horses' hooves or nutritional needs!

Louisa: 081 820 9970

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Wow what a difference in the size of this hoof! Just sharing a little more of the hoof photos from the same horse than the previous post. You have to love these transformations.

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