Jinks – 7 Year Old TB/Trakehner Gelding

Jinks came to us in August 2006 through my fellow natural hoof care practitioner, Anne Riddell. Anne had been called out to see this boy whom had been diagnosed with EPSM (Equine Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy) he was in shoes, had apparently repeatedly injured soft tissues in the RF. Anne pulled the shoes and began with a natural hoof care regimen. The issues of boarding at different places which did not have proper care and access to a diet conducive to helping EPSM began to take its toll on Jinks. Lush pastures and highly processed and refined feeds led him to become completely and totally lame, he couldn't even walk down the dirt barn isle way upon one of Anne's visits. Within just a short period of being placed on pasture and on a popular name brand product identified as helpful to EPSM horses; Anne noted that Jinks was severely laminitic, and his feet were completely deteriorated with cracks all the way up to the coronary band with hoof walls completely unraveled. Anne and Jinks' owner had concluded that Jinks would benefit from a lifestyle change of no pastures and a very simple diet. However where the horse was located there were NO boarding situations that could provide this to him, so that is when we acquired him.

Let's take a look at Jinks' Left Front hoof during the time that he was on processed feeds and lush green pastures. Note the severe cracking and chipping in the photo below indicating compromised metabolism. You can see how flat and dropped his sole is and the severe unraveling of the laminae/hoof wall attachment. This condition was despite being trimmed correctly and persistently. The condition occurred rather quickly due to un-natural feeding methods.

Photo Courtesy of Anne Riddell

Summer 2006

Now let's take a look at the photos of Jinks' hooves taken at our farm in November 2007. It actually didn't take Jinks long to grow back healthy hooves once he was placed on a strict diet and kept away from lush green pastures. Jinks was fed good quality grass hay along with organic chelated trace minerals and vitamins as well as flaxseed and black oil sunflower seeds as his main fat sources.

These tough hooves were grown with little more than a simple diet, lots of natural exercise in a paddock paradise type of situation with a track to encourage more movement and simple, non invasive trimming. Admittedly, we went through a big move last summer and ended up getting SO much snow this past winter, that Jinks was lucky if he was ridden twice per week once winter hit. I took him out on a 2 and half hour ride down the road in March of this year (2008) and I didn't have any boots for him (I sold every last pair) but this horse spent over half the trip moving in an extended trot, heel first down frozen gravelly type footing. He was a bit muscle sore the next day from getting such a good workout but not a lame step anywhere!

In particular please note the structure and health of the back of the foot (no more underrun heel) and frogs as well as the THICK walls! Oh, and the walls were even thicker than what you see in these photos but Jinks had just been trimmed and I took half the outer wall away in his mustang roll! Also note the nice, healthy white line.

November 2007