Step 1

Clean the hoof with a hoof pick and brush. The cleaner we get the foot, the longer our tools stay sharp. Mud and dirt are very abrasive.

This is no longer the first step I take when I am trimming. It is actually one of the last steps.

This has been a very hard page to modify and update. I have found no way to describe exactly what I do with the heels because there is not one way that is right for all situations. Once again, there is no "perfect" and no "recipe".

Here is a picture of what I call a "heel triangle". You can see the wall, the bar, the white line and the sole.

There are two different times that I rasp the heel down to where I can see the heel bar triangle this clearly. The first situation is when I am teaching someone what the heel bar triangle looks like. The second is when the hoof has a tall heel. Low heels do not need to be lowered like this because it can make the horse sore.

I basically classify heels into three categories; too low, too high, and heels that are in a "good range".

I say good range, because there is no measurement for too high, too low or good. I have not figured out a static enough measuring point or an accurate enough range to even think about giving a measurement. There is too much variability between horses and feet.

Keep in mind, I look at each individual heel. There are times that a horse will have a high and a low heel on the same foot. I will show pictures of this later. Right now, I am going to keep things simple.

Low Heel

The frog looks completely flat and mashed down.

The digital cushion is being worked too hard and has too much pressure on it.

Good height

The frog is in contact with the ground.

The frog is neither suspended above the ground or mashed flat.

The digital cushion is being stimulated but not over worked.

High heel

The frog is not in contact with the ground.

The digital cushion is not being stimulated so it will begin to atrophy and get smaller.

Digital cushion is the fibrous fatty tissue that lies underneath the frog. It is the cushion and shock absorbing pad between the ground and the underlying structures such as the deep digital flexor tendon, navicular bone, and coffin bone.

I also think of it as the underlying trellis that helps determine the frog, bar and heel shape. The shape of the digital cushion directly affects the shape of the hoof you see.

I did not make the center sulcus as deep as it can be on some really contracted feet. I plan on redoing this picture, but did not want to hold up putting this page on the web because of one picture.

When I think of the digital cushion being compromised, I picture a tooth paste tube. You can empty out the tooth paste by flattening out the tube or by squeezing the tube.

The low heeled foot is the flattened out toothpaste tube, and the contracted, tall foot is the squeezed tooth paste tube.

Or it could be a thin walled foot tends to flatten out and the thick walled hoof squeezes inward. Either way, the digital cushion is being affected.

Low Heel

The heel bulbs look very flat in this hoof.

The digital cushion spreads out from side to side.

Good Heel

The bulbs are round and soft looking.

The digital cushion is full and round.

High Heel

The heel bulbs appear to bulge up and out of the hoof capsule.

The digital cushion looks like it is being squeezed.

The lateral cartilage also lies underneath the corium and up the outer wall of the heels and above the coronary band. It is also a shock absorber. Thin lateral cartilages means there is less shock absorption in the foot.

I imagine the lateral cartilage and digital cushion as being the frame work or trellis that the rest of the foot can hang on. The shape and amount of these tissues greatly affect what the foot looks like and how it functions.

I really am not sure how the lateral cartilages affect heel height, but I know it is inter-related. It doesn't hurt to understand where these structures lie and how they interact with the digital cushion. This is why I have thrown them into the mix.

Here is a rough placement of the lateral cartilage and digital cushion. Below is my interpretation of a healthy set of tissues. I hope you can imagine that as these tissues get thinner, the back of the foot will look more pointed or squeezed.

The digital cushion and lateral cartilage together make a nice thumb rest. The digital cushion forms a ledge and the lateral cartilage closes in the sides.

In the above pictures, I am palpating the lateral cartilage (first and second picture) and the digital cushion in the last picture.

I cannot change how much digital cushion a foot has, but I use this information to influence how I trim.

A flattened out digital cushion encourages me to leave all the heel that I can. I do not want the digital cushion taking the brunt of trauma. I am going to allow the heels and bars and lumps and bumps to take some pressure off the digital cushion until it can come back.

A squeezed, tall digital cushion tells me to make sure the heels do not get too high. I do not want the heels to lift the frog up off the ground because I don't want the digital cushion to atrophy from lack of use.

How do I deal with heels that seem to be in the normal range, I check to make sure they are not crawling in, out, or up. If they are, I encourage them in the right direction.

As the digital cushion atrophies, the lateral cartilages are also affected. Which occurs first? I don't know. I think it is a chicken and the egg dilemma. It doesn't matter.

I do believe that genetics plays a part in the beginning amount of digital cushion, but environment and mechanical issues affect how much damage is done.

You will often see skinny frogs with contracted heels and really flat, wide frogs with really low heels.

I am doing the "Do you see it? Do you see it now? Now do you see it?" approach.

All I am showing is the difference between heels that tend to run high and heels that tend to be low.

These two horses show the difference between the digital cushion being squeezed verses being flattened. Or I think of it as strong walled verses weak walled feet.

Here are two pictures of hooves with a small amount of digital cushion. The first is a foot with not much concavity or arch. The frog looks really wide, but flat. The second picture shows a really narrow frog that is a thin strip.

Low heels over stimulate the digital cushion and lateral cartilages. High heels may either under stimulate the digital cushion and lateral cartilages or over stimulate them by squeezing.

I am convinced that digital cushion can return. It is a slow process and I am not sure the re-growth is ever the quality that nature intended. This is one good reason to make sure babies have proper hoof care. We don't ever want their digital cushion compromised.

I am not as optimistic about the lateral cartilages repairing. I may be wrong, but they do not seem to improve as much as the digital cushion. They will soften when less pressure is put on them, but I am not sure they ever actually thicken again.

Wall thickness plays a part in the heel height and hoof shape. It boils down to the difference between thick and thin walled hooves.

When a hoof has small amounts of digital cushion and thin lateral cartilages, a thin walled foot will flatten out and the heels will mush down, out or forward. The heels will basically grow any direction except up.

Heels can get extremely high in horses that have nice thick hoof walls. In a thick walled hoof, loss of digital cushion generally results in the walls contracting or rolling inward.

Thin walls flare out; thick walls flare inward. The trick is to get the heels basically in line so that the frog can be properly stimulated and the digital cushion will function as a shock absorber. If the frog is being squeezed flat from a really low heeled hoof, the extreme pressure keeps the digital cushion from repairing. If on the other hand the frog is way up off the ground, the digital cushion will get no stimulation and will atrophy. A thick walled foot can also squeeze the digital cushion and put too much pressure on it that way.

This is not a hard and fast rule, or we would not see horses with a high and a low heel in one hoof. This is just imagery that I use to help me determine how to trim the foot.

I think of collecting the weak walled foot and making sure the strong walled foot doesn't creep in towards the frog or up towards the sky.

Coffin bone shape also plays a part in the height that heels can achieve. Coffin bones have vastly different shapes.

Here is the lateral view of four different coffin bones. The shape is does not look drastically different from this angle.

I am putting up lots of photos of different coffin bones, but pictures are a very hard way to show the actual difference in the coffin bone shape. It is evident that each coffin bone is different when you see the varying concavity on the bottom. Some bones have a huge vaulting on the underside and others are completely flat.

Here are the impressions made with two very different coffin bones. The first has lots of concavity and the second has little to no concavity. I tried very carefully to exert the same pressure on each coffin bone, so that the results could be compared. It is not perfect, but regardless, the difference can be seen.

This is the solar view of four different bones. I think you can see these feet would look different if these horses were alive.

1. The first foot is very symmetrical and both palmar processes are almost even. The frog would be fairly large. There is a nice amount of concavity with this foot.

2. The second (top right picture) is symmetrical but much wider than the first. The frog would be much wider in this foot. This coffin bone also has much less concavity. This foot would also be very round in shape.

3. The third coffin bone (bottom left) is from a lop sided foot. The palmar process on the left is much longer than the one on the right. The heels would never be even. The bars would always look different because the lamina for the bars follow the shape of the bone. The shape of the bone is different from one side to the other.

4. The last coffin bone (bottom right) is very asymmetrical. This foot has more concavity on the left than it does on the right and the heels would never look the same. Ever! That goes for the bars of the foot also. They would never have the same shape. Ever!

The shape of the coffin bone and the amount of vaulting that it has helps determine the type of foot that is going to grow.

The hooves below were cut roughly were the arrow is on this foot. It was close to the tip of the frog.

Two vastly different types of feet.

Here is another tall contracted foot. In this foot, the hoof wall is compressing the coffin bone.

This foot was cut back much further. It is not at the tip of the frog. The dark spot on the bone is actually part of the navicular bone.

I have marked this in the large picture.

Of the three feet shown, one is a thin walled, flared foot which needs to be discouraged from spreading further.

The second is a thick walled, tall type foot that looks relatively healthy, but I wouldn't want it to get any taller. By the way, the frog looks so small in this foot because it is the tip and not back towards the heels.

The last is also a tall type of foot that is rolling in on itself. This foot needs to be encouraged to "open up", and it needs to be lowered.

The interesting point is that concavity will vary hugely from horse to horse and hoof to hoof. That is why there is no formula.

No matter how you trim, these feet will never look alike. I would encourage the flared foot to collect itself, and I would discourage the upright foot from contracting. That is all I would aim for in my trimming.

We cannot change the underlying bone shape, but we can discourage digital cushion loss by keeping the foot together. We don't want the upright foot to cave in on itself or the flared type foot to crawl out further.

Believe it or not, you can begin to tell what you need to do with the heels by looking at the bars of the hoof and by the depth of the collateral groove (the space between the frog and the bar).

I showed the three basic types of heels; too low, just right, and too high. Look at the difference in the bars. The low heeled horse has bars that are fanned out like the pages of an open book. The bars on the normal foot are like a book half open, and the bars on the contracted foot are almost upright. They are like a book that is only slightly open.

low heel

laid over (flat) bars

normal heel

not upright/ not laid over bars

high heel

very upright bars

I will try to take you through how to determine if your horse has high heels. The reason that is important is that high heels need more attention than a low or normal heels. You don't want the heels to continue growing upwards and raising the frog up off the ground or curling inward and putting too much pressure on the frog and underlying structures.

A good place to start determining what to do with the heels is by looking at the bars. Actually, look at the groove (collateral groove) between the bar and the frog. This area will give you an idea of whether you need to really lower the heels or not.

I have described the bars as either laid over or upright. There is, of course, all variations between these two extremes. It is like opening a book. When you first crack open the book, you cannot see the margins in the middle of the book and do not have a hope of distinguishing individual words. As you open the book further, you can tell that there are margins on the left and right of the page and you can begin to see the words on the page.

The first picture shows what it is like in a hoof that has a deep collateral groove. The bar and frog are very, very close together. This can mean that the digital cushion is being squeezed.

The next picture shows what it would be like if the collateral groove was very shallow. The bar and the frog are spread really far apart. Usually, this means that the underlying digital cushion is being flattened.

Keep in mind that this is the same book and that the "bar" would be the same size in both of these examples. It is the orientation of the bar that is different.

Deep collateral grooves tell me that the heels can and probably should be lowered. A shallow collateral groove tells me to leave any height that I can. The digital cushion is getting little or no protection from the bars, so the last thing I want to do is remove what little support they have to offer.

Here is another way to show the difference in the collateral groove or frog:bar relationship. Once again the "bar" is exactly the same size in each example.

When I look at the different "M" configurations, I clearly see that the first one would compress very easily. In fact, it would compress too easily and would have a hard time recovering.

The second would have "give" but would not flatten out. This configuration is strong and flexible.

The last would have no "give" or "spring" to it. I think this is why I see more ring bone and side bone in the upright, contracted type of foot. The hoof does not absorb much concussion, and the joints get more than their fair share.

This foot is very asymmetrical. One bar is very upright and has a deep collateral groove. The other bar has a much shallower collateral groove and a more normal bar.

So.... I will lower the sheered heel (the one with the deep collateral groove) and encourage it to open up and treat the other heel normally.

Ironically, this horse was not lame before he had his shoes removed or after. Some horses are amazing.

This foot is a little different than the one above. It is also asymmetrical, but it has a normal heel and a low heel.

So, I am going to collect (take off the flare) of the low heel. I want to encourage the hoof wall to grow in straighter. I will leave all the height on the bottom that I can.

For this next analogy, I used foam sleeves that are used to keep canned drinks cold. All I did was cut off 1/2 inch increments from the "heel".

I wanted to show how much the toe is affected by dropping the heels raising them.

It is very important to bring the toe back with a good mustang roll, or the foot will begin to run forward. I do not want to create a whole different problem.

For years, I have worked on bringing the toe and heels back on a low slung foot like this. Once I started thinking about raising the heels any way possible, the toes started coming back.

It took many years for me to realize that all the lumps and bumps on the bars and around the frog could actually serve a purpose. They could be used to temporarily raise the heels until the walls could grow in straighter and stronger. They also can protect the frog and underlying digital cushion.

Notice how much the angle of the toe changes with just a small wedge under the heel.

This is a very high heeled foot. It is much more important to look for the live sole and a clean heel triangle in this foot.

In the pictures below, the frog is in a valley. It is very obvious that these heels need to be lowered.

The next foot is a bit harder to recognize where to go with lowering the heels because it looks like the frog is already on the ground.

The frog is not as recessed here, but the collateral groove is very deep. This tells me that the heels can come way down.

The collateral groove is a better indicator of the heel height than looking at the level of the frog.

I usually trim from the top, but sometimes another part of the foot screams for my attention. In this foot, the heels won first place. I lowered the heels and bars with the nippers, but it could have been done with the rasp. I am searching for a clean heel triangle. I will work harder to clean-up the heel triangle on a high heeled foot, but I may not find it in one trim. Remember, trimming is a process.

In the end, the heels are not anywhere near live sole in the heel triangle (the sole still looks cracked and mealy but the white line is clear). There is no need to lower the heels any further with this trim. This is good enough. The frog is in contact with the ground and that is fine for now.

Even though I dropped the heels considerably in one trim, this mare was not sore at all. She went bolting from the barn and ran quite a few laps around the pasture. She showed no signs of soreness over the next few days.

Some times you will notice the horse is sore a day or two after a trim. In a situation like this one, where I dropped the heels rather dramatically, I think it is often body soreness from the angle changes rather than a foot soreness. One way to tell the difference is to walk them across hard or rocky surfaces. If they are foot sore, they will really notice the rocks.

If the horse was sore prior to trimming, then they will usually be sore afterwards.

Thick walled hooves are capable of raising the frog up off the ground. I am sure that lack of frog stimulation helps the digital cushion atrophy. I wish I understood why some horses lose this cushion more extensively than others, but I don't.

If you look at the sole pictures of this foot, you can tell that the digital cushion is not as atrophied in this mare. Her frog is still relatively wide and makes a fairly large V. The next hoof is not so lucky. The foot is very contracted and the frog is merely a sliver.

The above mare's frogs are now on the ground. Her soles will exfoliate better. Regular trimming will keep this mare's feet looking good.

Here is what I saw the first time I met this horse. He had been lame for years. He stood in his stall, rocking from foot to foot because both of them hurt so badly.

I wish I had used the hoof pick to show the collateral groove depth. It was amazingly deep!

This is one of the few hooves that truly had what is called a "false sole". It looks like he is at live sole in the "before" pictures, but he is not any where near live sole.

Once again, the depth of the collateral groove tells me that I can lower this heel a lot! If I relied on my eyes and the texture of the sole, I would have left this horse's heels way too high.

This is all I could do in the first trim. His heels have been lowered considerably. I cleared up the white line in the heel triangle and made sure to roll the heels.

This is what his feet looked like when I came back just twenty-one days later. His heels are still very high, but the foot looks better.

Six weeks was too long between trims for this horse. His foot has gotten very tall again.

His feet are improving. He is still lame, but not in constant pain like before. His frogs have begun to open up. The heels grew a lot, but he is still making progress.

The texture of this horse's sole is very deceiving, but I can tell that the collateral groove is still very deep. I lower his heels further than I would on a foot with shallower collateral grooves.

Notice that I find the white line in the heel triangle each and every time that I trim this guy. I may not be getting all of the mealy, flakey sole removed, but I am working down the heels.

I no longer trim this horse, he was very far away and needed really frequent trims to make head way. He also had deep digital flexor tendon problems that really are slow to heal.

The bars on a really low heeled horse are usually different than what you see on a thick walled, high heeled hoof. In a low foot, the bars are what most people call laid over. I think of it as "fanning out". You can easily see the junction between the bar and frog (collateral groove).

The frog is usually flat and wide. Very rarely do the heels need to be lowered in this type of foot. I work on bringing the heels inward and decrease the flaring at the back of the foot. Since the bars are the only structure at the back, I leave them until the walls at the heels grow in straighter and are able to support the foot.

I leave the heels as high as possible, but I do pay attention to lightly rasp them back.

I refer to heels that have bent tubules that fold underneath the foot or grow forward as "under-run heels".

The above pictures are a good example. The heel triangle is very far forward! I will work to bring this back without lowering the heels too much. This mare's foot is so flat that she needs all the height she can get, but obviously the heels are way too far forward.

The below pictures may clarify what I mean when I say that I want to bring the heels back without bringing them down.

	Here is an under-run heel. All the bristles bend and go under the foot.
	I have skimmed off some of the tubules so that they can grow in straighter, but I have not lowered the heel.
	I have cut off a few more tubules, so now more of them will grow in straighter. I have still not lowered the heel.
	Notice that more of the tubules have been skimmed off. The "heel" is growing in straighter and further back, but I have not lowered it.

I have rasped the heels back and am now working on the bars. I think of bringing them "in" the same way I think of bringing the heels back. I work on a few tubules at a time. I think of encouraging them to grow down straighter instead of folding over the sole.

Think of the above paint brush analogy. Instead of the bristles being a under-run heel, it is a laid over bar. I guess I should put this in an updated Step 4.

This is all that I will do in this particular trim. I have brought the weight bearing surface back, and I have tried to leave as much height as I could.

In a low heeled, weak walled foot, I really want to get the walls growing in straighter. Then the bars will be less prominent. Right now, there is very little wall, so the bars are needed. Take away the support of the bars and continue letting the walls flare out, and the whole foot collapses.

Here is what I mean when I say I am collecting the walls. I am encouraging the walls to grow in straighter by rasping off the flares. You do not have to rasp all the flare off in one trim.

When a horse has a really low heel and lots of flaring all around the foot, removing all the flares will result in a very sore horse. So, I concentrate on de-flaring at the very back of the foot so that it can start lifting the back of the foot.

By concentrating on only a part of the foot, the horse has a better chance of not getting sore.

This is a set of before and after photos. What I wanted to point out is that I have not gone into the live sole, yet I have lowered the heel considerably. I am concentrating on the heel at the bottom of the picture.

By the way, the heel and wall on the top is where she blew out a major abscess. It will continue to look like this for a while. The bar is about to peel off, and I feel the sole will also come off in a big piece. I will try to make sure I get pictures of the progress to show you the stages that the foot goes through after an abscess like this.

Because this was a relatively tall heel, I worked to find the white line in the heel triangle. If this had been a low heeled foot, I would not have exposed this much of the white line.

I have uncovered the white line, but have not gone into what I consider live sole.

Please be aware that all materials, photos and case studies are not available for posting on other sites or in documents unless you have obtained express permission from Paige Poss.


lateral cartilage	thick healthy lateral cartilage	thin lateral cartilage


Lateral cartilage (blue)	and	digital cushion (yellow)

		The toe angle is very steep.
		Dropping the "heels" changed the angle of the toe.
		The angle was changed even more when I finished dropping the heels.

		The toe angle is extremely shallow.
		The angle of the toe has been raised considerably.
		Now that the heels are growing in taller, the toe is much steeper.

	Here the heel is the full height. I have rasped this foot from the top.
	I have begun to "blend" from the live sole to where I am going to lower the heels.
	I am pulling the heels back a bit further.

	Just more pictures of the same.
	This and the last picture show the final rounding of the heels that I do.
	More of the same.

Low Heel	Good Heel	High heel