Sore Footed Mare Getting Worse - Mad at Farrier

[Debbie Lincoln]

I have a 19 year old mare who is the offspring of my favoritest mare in the whole wide world. (And I have HER daughter, too)
PJ is a chow hound and tends toward laminitis in the Spring. So she gets locked up for 3 months in the round pen and fed only hay. My friend, T, is a farrier/horse trainer and sometimes we trade horses. Hers need the grass, mine don't. SHe also rides PJ's mare, Dandy, while she has her, which is good.

PJ came home last week, limping on front left. T had trimmed her a couple days earlier, but she thought maybe an abscess was developing, and I agreed as we have had so much wet weather. We wrapped her foot, buted her and decided to wait to see if the abscess would surface. 
Yesterday she was a bit gimpier (on soft dirt) - but I had to be gone all day and decided to still "wait and see". This morning she was standing like severe founder in both front feet. Could hardly walk. I am sick to my stomach. You know the feeling.
I call my vet and tell him I'll meet him at the clinic after church - 12 noon. (I LOVE my horse vet!)
PJ loads in the trailer reluctantly, but still sweetly.
A quick exam and Xrays of both feet reveal that her soles are extremely thin - only .6 cm and .8 cm respectively (they should be 1.5 - 2.0). 
PJ has always been tender footed after trimming and I have always trimmed religiously ever 6 to 8 weeks. But I always assumed the tenderness was "old founder related" (from 10 years ago).  Xrays revealed absolutely no signs of founder recently or past. 

SOOOOO - here's the $64,000 question - am I trimming her TOO FREQUENTLY? Should I just let nature take it's course and let her hoof wall extend some??? Is my farrier simply too aggressive with trimming?

$200 boots, X-rays, a tube of Bute and a Sunday visit is worth it to make my horse travel comfortably again. I was in tears thinking the worse....

Here she is AFTER being locked up for a couple months several years ago:



And her Highness with Baby Dandy 7 years ago before regaining her girlish figure:



I'll try to get a decent picture of her today. She's even trimmer than the first photo.

[acl68025]

Is your friend trimming for you or an actual farrier? I'd extend time between trims & see if the mare improves

[Debbie Lincoln]

She has a regular route and has been doing this for 6 years but I have suspected that the mare could go longer between trims. We are good enough friends that we can work this out, I think. I am getting copies of the X-rays. And my vet is very well-respected in the horse world. I will not accuse her - just suggest readjusting her trim schedule and technique. I have been assured that "the mare has many years left in her". Which is all I want. My grandkids need to remember her....

[bsmit24]

Once her hooves have grown out to normal she may still need trimming every six to eight weeks but it sounds like has been an issue for some time but it was not notices unless the hooves were trimmed very aggressively this last time.

[brenda]

Debbie...my vet who is also a farrier has taught me some different ideas after getting BOTH my Arabs back on their feet after a laminitis bout this winter (apparently from oat straw...sigh)
Anyway, he absolutely does not trim the frog ever and he pretty much leaves the sole alone..just a teensy bit of tidying up. He trims back the heel a bit and makes a nice break over in the front. I had not ever had him do my horses before but he wanted to be the guy in charge until we get everything back to as normal as possible.
So this was new stuff for me, but boy those two got back on their feet pretty darn fast with no bute after he trimmed except for the trailer ride home. And they were miserable.
I think he would say that the sole was messed with too much and maybe leaving the frog alone would be a new and different theory to go with even though you are obviously not dealing with a laminitis event here. (although mechanical laminitis can crop up with drastic trim jobs so I know you will keep an eye out for that) But if she is that tender, obviously she needs something less drastic done in the future.
Poor, poor girl. I KNOW that stomach ache feeling. It just kills me when they are in such pain. Hoping she is feeling well very soon.

[dmbenson]

I too am most certainly no expert - but I say let them grow a bit. I do know that the frog is the shock absorber for the hoof, and I never, ever ever, except for cleaning off dry 'flaps' let any farrier touch it. If the sole is that thin, she needs a bit more hoof wall to allow the sole to not come into solid contact with the ground until it can grow a bit.

She's beautiful by the way!

[jenna403]

I did have a horse with very thin soles; thin enough that the vet mentioned that the soles would "give" in response to just finger pressure. I also kept up with an 8 week trim cycle because of flaring and acute heel pain, blah, blah, blah. My farrier did not touch the sole and very little, if any, on the frog. Despite a variety of tries, I always had to come back to shoes. I would have loved boots but he had very round front feet, wider than long, so wouldn't fit any.

Maybe the wet weather has left her soles so soft that just moving has bruised her soles made her sore? Since I'm assuming she's not in heavy work, a longer trim cycle would be worth a try. How about a "sole hardener" such as Durasole?

Good luck! She's a lovely mare.

[jerseyrose]

The only time a farrier ever messes with the sole or frog is when I put front shoes on. Going barefoot tends to squash everything flat. Going 8 weeks should be fine. You have her off the grass and in a dry lot so she may be doing some wearing down of the toe on her own.

It could still be an abscess and you know they can flare up and go away or take a looooong time to ripen and then burst. I hope she does ok.

I think she looks great in BOTH pictures and the foal is lovely!!!!!!!!

[Debbie Lincoln]

Thanks everyone.
THe sole is never trimmed. ANd this mare has been "tender footed" all her life and had to have shoes to be ridden. I rarely ride her now, though.
My farrier says that to "toughen" the soles she needs to be trimmed more frequently. Think of it like us going barefoot daily - the bottom of our feet develop callouses. If you wore shoes ALL the time, your feet would be quite tender once you took them off. But if her soles come in contact with the ground more often, they SHOULD thicken...or that's the theory anyway.
I am tempted, however, to just turn her out and not trim at all for several months. Since she is rarely ridden anyway, all I really care about is to keep her comfortable. I do not want to stress tendons with long toes, though. We don't have much rocky ground here. ANd while money is not a HUGE issue, doubling up on her trims is expensive. sigh

I do have the xrays from her last exam...and I plan to have them done again after a few months - after whatever we decide to do with her.
And I am REALLY glad to know that this isn't a life threatening thing. The boots do keep her comfortable. ANd she's getting extra attention now, too, which makes us both happy...

[dunderi]

She is a really pretty mare, I love a proper Chestnut coat like that.

I would say go longer. I'm a big fan of bare foot, and have a horse who's feet grow hard as rocks but only trim when needed - not by a calendar.

[boondocks]

I say longer also... You can paint the soles with venice turpentine 1-2x a week will help toughen them if she is wet grass or mud... But really time is the only way to grow thicker soles...

BUT, if you think she's getting abscesses then painting hardener on them can make break thru take longer...

[suzorse]

I also trim when necessary some times every 6 months , some times every 4 and sometimes 1 time a year , I do not ride enough for shoes ,when I have done lots of riding on rocky ground I will have shoes put on , like when I was using my horses on the range pushing cows
Suzanne