Hi Deb,

The heel buttresses are the area at the back of the hoof where the wall and bar meet and meld together to form a strong support surface for weight bearing and structural stability. They are level with the widest part of the frog. The point where they meet is triangle shaped and when the heels get overgrown and run under, this point gets buried beneath the excess material so that it appears to be much further forward than it actually is. If the heels have remained relatively upright and tall, lowering the heels to their correct height will expose this area.

In heels that have been crushed and run under, you may not be able to lower the heel as it may already be too low in relation to the rest of the foot and the position of the coffin bone. In this case, it will be necessary to lightly shave the heels to move the weight bearing back slightly without really losing height. To encourage the heels to grow in at a more correct, upright angle you can then carefully pare open the area between the wall and the bar without actually lowering either the wall or bar to expose the actual point where the two would correctly meet, creating a small valley between the outside wall and the inner bar.

Generally, exfoliating, dead sole is rather dry/chalky, flaky, brittle, white and may pop off in pieces with little to no help. Live sole has a waxy, translucent, smoother texture to it. However, in damaged feet where the sole has been laid down under stress, the dead sole may look quite similar to live sole. It may have a pink (blood) or yellow (serum) tinge from leaking fluid that was incorporated while it was being laid down. This is when knowing what is going on with the bony column (xrays) is really going to help.

Check out these links for more info:

http://farrierart.com/Uniform%20sole%20thickness%20-%20Michael%20Savoldi%203%20pages.pdf

http://www.hoofrehab.com/HorsesSole.html

Lavinia, Dante, George Too and Peanut
Jan 05, RI
EC Support Team