Is Your Horse Sore After a Trim?
I talk to many people who tell me that their horse is sore for a few days after a trim. This includes horses who are subjected to so called "barefoot trims" and "natural trims" as well as horses who are just trimmed by a regular farrier. I also hear from a lot of people that their horses are sore after being shod.
Most of these people are surprised when I tell them that their horse should not be sore after a trim. I think so many horses are sore for a few days after being trimmed and/or shod, that people just think it's normal. But it's not normal.
If your horse is sore after being trimmed or shod, then the horse was trimmed too close. It doesn't matter how good a reputation the farrier or trimmer has; it doesn't matter what kind of schooling or training or certifications he/she has; it doesn't matter what the trim your horse gets is called. If it wasn't sore before the trim but is sore afterwards, the horse was improperly trimmed.
There are two main reasons why a horse is sore after a trim. The first is that the sole was trimmed. The sole is approximately the area represented by the grey area in the picture. The sole is live tissue, and cutting into the sole is like you cutting your fingernail into the quick. It may not hurt the horse when the sole is actually cut, but it will be tender to pressure and will cause soreness after a trim. That generally happens in one of three ways. First, when the toe area is trimmed, the trimmer opens the nippers wide and cuts not only the wall, but also into the sole area. This is done in an attempt to shorten the toe...but the toe should never be shortened by cutting into the sole. Second, the trimmer might take a hoof knife and carve the sole 'till it looks all shiny and waxy. This is done in the name of "removing dead sole," "cleaning it up," "concaving the sole," "relieving sole pressure," to name just a few. But, whatever the case and whatever the excuse, it's cutting into live tissue and causes the horse to be sore. Finally, it can result from trimming the heel too low and cutting into sole at the heel. Farriers and barefoot (or natural) trimmers alike have been influenced by the mustang hoof models, and often the heels are trimmed down in an attempt to make them look like mustang hooves. Of course, high heels are very common on horses and without question they are harmful, but if the horse has been maintained for a long time shod or trimmed so that the frog can't touch the ground, then not only will the heels be too high, but the sole level itself will have dropped. If you're trying to lower the heels on a horse, you absolutely have to stop before you get to live sole. There is no shortcut to lowering heels--you'll just have to be patient and hope that the sole itself will recede as natural function is enabled...and only then can the heels be shortened. This is a good reason not to let the heels get too long in the first place, because not only the sole but the entire inside of the hoof capsule will drop down, and it's not going to recede at the snap of a finger or snip of the nippers. It took years for the heels to get that high, and it will also take time to get them back down.
Despite the fact that it's commonly done not only by farriers but barefoot trimmers alike, the sole should not be trimmed. The sole is there because it serves functions, and these functions are compromised if the sole is trimmed. Not only that, trimming the sole will lead to hoof deformity. To understand the functions of the sole and how trimming it can lead to hoof deformity, please refer to the video, "Understanding the Hoof--From the Horse's Perspective." Pay attention as your horse is trimmed. The owner should always be there watching when the horse is trimmed or shod. I would never let someone work on my horse without my being there...you can never tell what might happen. The trimming should never extend inside of the lamina, or white line, not even at the tip of the toe and not even on a horse that is being trimmed to be shod. If it does, the live sole is being invaded. If, after a trim, the sole on your horse in any area has a shiny and waxy appearance, you know the live sole has been invaded. If you see flakes of sole lying on the ground after your horse was trimmed, you know the sole has been invaded. Don't allow yourself to be bullied by a farrier or barefoot trimmer and let your horse's sole be invaded
The second main reason horses are sore after a trim is that the hoof wall was trimmed too close. This usually happens on horses that are barefoot and trimmed according to the "barefoot" or "wild horse" or "natural" model. The wall will be trimmed down to sole level, because that's what was seen on mustang hooves, and so many in the barefoot establishment try to make mustang hooves out of all hooves they trim. But...horses who live in environments different from the mustang environment will need hooves that are different from the mustang hooves. They will naturally develop hooves that are different, because that's what they need. All natural hooves do not look like mustang hooves.
The picture shows what was trimmed off of a natural hoof; that is, a hoof that Nature formed in the absence of human intervention. (That is the definition of a natural hoof--A hoof formed by Nature, not by nippers and rasp according to a "barefoot model.") Anyway, you can see that in the environment this horse lived in, it needed hooves that were longer than sole level, so that's what Nature provided in the several years during which the horse was not trimmed. Then a well-meaning trimmer came in and removed what he referred to as the "deformity" (some call it "pathology"), which basically means anything which departs from what the barefoot establishment says a hoof should look like. But...the horse came up sore after this "natural trim." Why? Well, this horse in its environment needed more hoof wall. This is not to say that the horse walked on its hoof walls; you can see that the hoof wall, beveled as it was, would sink down into the soft environment this horse lived in so that the sole would still bear weight when the hoof was loaded. Removing the wall forced a hoof form Nature did not want, and although what this horse received goes by the name of a "natural trim," in this case it actually hindered natural hoof function on this horse in this environment. As a result the horse was sore.
If your horse was not sore before a trim but is sore after a trim, that means it was improperly trimmed...and it doesn't matter who did it, whose "model" they followed, or what the trim is called.
