Symptoms: Lame, badly distorted front hooves with very thin soles, brittle hoof wall and a large crack in the centre of her toe of the off-fore hoof.

This mare happened to be quite lame upon initial inspection. Straight away, you can see a large crack in the toe of her off-fore hoof and a brittle hoof wall on her near fore, her soles were very thin and bruised.

For this mare, I applied a plastic shoe with cuffs around the edge that extended up the hoof wall, past the weakened hoof wall, which allowed the shoes a better opportunity to stay in place throughout her shoeing cycle. I also applied liquid sole cushioning and pads to help her grow some depth of sole.

The crack on her toe needed to be braced to prevent it from moving upon weight bearing, so I braced the crack with an aluminium patch to help it heal. Thankfully, this broodmare responded well to this treatment and, over the coming months, you can see that the crack, having healed at the coronet band, now has a solid piece of hoof above it, indicating ongoing healing. It took over 10 months of regular hoof care, but this mare was able to return to her bare feet comfortably afterwards.

It was a great pleasure to witness the improvement in the horse’s hooves and overall well-being.