If the hoof wall is off the ground you're less likely to have soreness. It's
important if the sole has dropped that no one touches it with a hoof knife. If
someone tells you they are going to create a concavity by carving it out....ask
them to leave. Until the internal structures move back up in the foot, you will
have severe lameness if the sole is thinned further. There's nothing wrong with
putting some boots on. The Epics are quite easy to put on, comfortable for the
horse and can be left on 24/7 if you want. My friend used them for her
laminitics until they got over the worst of the soreness and then they wore them
only for riding. The more the horse walks, the more the foot will grow so
putting boots on after the shoes come off would probably be best as it allows
the hoof to go back to it's normal job of pumping the blood thru the horse and
flexing like it's supposed to without excessive pain. If the horse is too sore,
they won't walk. I had zero transition lameness in my warmblood when I finally
got up the guts to remove his shoes. Proper beveling of the hoof wall was part
of it, and part of it was that he didn't have that bad a foot.Since then I've
learned to do trims myself and now do it part time. I've not had a horse go
lame from a trim that wasn't already lame to begin with. We did put boots on
that horse for his comfort and he is now boot free when walking around the
corral. He'd most likely need the boots for riding at this point though as his
feet are still in very poor condition. These were OTT thoroughbreds who had had
shoes left on so long they finally fell off. This was while they were being
"trimmed" every month....how that worked with some shoes still on is beyond me.
I'd hazard a guess that both the TB's that I'm trimming now are every bit as bad
as your horse. They are coming around slowly though and will have better health
for it as well. I'd pull the shoes, get a good trim job and put some boots on
that boy and see if that helps him. Perhaps you should also look into having an
Equine chiropractor take a look at him as well.



Meg

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