Feral Brumby Hoof Discussion and Characteristics

Thanks so much, enjoyed your video!

Hey Melanie,  that is a great (read: neglected and difficult to answer!) question.  I don't have a video yet that specifically addresses an approach to WLD/seedy toe, and that is a great topic, I need to make one. However, as with many hoof pathologies, it will just be one example, and oftentimes what works in one case may be a disaster on the next horse. Having said that, my general approach to white line disease, which is encounterd about as often as thrush, is to take a step back and look at 1) diet of the horse 2) movement regimen per day, i.e. how many steps does this particular horse have to take in a 24 hour period, the more the better. Then, I look at the caudle area...fancy term for back of the foot. Why? A toe first landing is unnatural, but all too common in domestic horses, shod or barefoot. A flat or heel-first landing is the goal, at least for me. That enables the hoof expansion/contraction mechanism to function as nature intended it to. I like to think that if you get the back of the foot working correctly the front will almost take care of itself. Anyway, after all that, yes, a lot of folks thinking carving the visible infection and laminae away will solve WLD. No, I find that many times a natural beveled toe trim actually removes a lot of the "bad" WLD tissue, and then you allow the horse to move and grow a better foot over the next four/five weeks and come back and evaluate and see if what you did enabled the horse's own immune system/regenerative regrowth powers to "fix" the WLD for you.

Interesting video. Please tell me you're not keeping the hoof in your freezer? :) Such a tiny hoof. I'm not used to seeing so much frog in relation to the rest of the foot. I also can see that the wall shouldn't be trimmed as close to the white line like I've been doing.  Thanks for sharing :)

The bruising with curved wall ring that can be seen on the heel wall and quarter wall at (3:39) shows that the heel was growing under-run most likely being pulled forward by the overlapping bars that can be seen at (3:06) .

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this horse wore it's heels out and pulled it's bulbs down to the ground. The WORST thing you can do is form a trimming method off of looking at the exterrior of a wild horse hoof. Many wild horses have 2 inch heels. These brumby's do not have anatomically correct feet, they were in too rugged of terrain.