# Horse hoof overgrown bars



## BuckyGold (Nov 8, 2017)

Hi, my horse Buck got his feet messed up by the farrier i started to use. (he had a different farrier in wyoming before i brought him to utah who did a wonderful job on his feet). Since i was uneducated in the hoof ways i didn't think anything was wrong. He was tender on his front right after every trim for about a week. Anyway... The fourth trim made all fours sore. The farrier said his backs didn't need any trimming, just a little clean up of the bars and a small bevel on the hoof wall. After seeing him limp bad over gravel i paid extra to put shoes on his fronts. I was tired of that farrier doing an awful job and making excuses. I have never used that farrier again. I moved my horse to a closer boarding facility which had 5 green pastures. The boarder trimmed and shoed his own horses so i asked him to show me how to pull the shoes off and help me clean up his feet. After a lot of research on how to farry my own horse i recognised what the farrier had done. Buck's fronts had high heels and his backs were left too long at the toe. His backs are what i need help on. The bars are overgrown. His heels are slightly under run but not too bad. His hooves had started to "bullnose" from his coffin bone sitting at a negative angle. I've been keeping his heels by the base of the frog, and taking his toe down little by little. The problem is he's got a lot of retained sole at his toe so it's hard to tell how much i can and can't take. I carefully trim the tip of the frog to the true apex and it's deep enough i can settle my thimbin there. The bars are so over grown i cant tell what's sole and whats bar. I don't know how much to trim out. A little bit of the sole has shed on the sides but not enough for me to tell what's what. I read another farriers article about something similar and she came to the conclusion you eighter hack it all out or leave it alone. It didn't help me. I'm very caustious about what i do and don't touch with the hoof knife so please, any insight will help.


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

well, the ELPO hoof mapping should help you find that true sole plane


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I don't think you'll be able to use mapping to find the sole until you get the bar peeled off the sole.
That's something you can't do with a file, you need either a sharp hoof knife or nippers. The bar has the texture of thin plastic, and it's about impossible to get the right angle to file when laying flat over the hoof. 
You need to peel up the edge about where the arrow is, and nip or cut it off.
All that bar material needs to come off the hoof. It is covering part of the toe also, and the other side of the sole.









This is the angle bars grow at, so you know what your goal is.









There is another view you need of the hoof, which is so you can visualize if the heels and bars are the same height. You can see in the hoof below that the wall, heel and bar are higher on the left side of the photo.








Your hoof appears to have a much higher bar and heel on the top side of the photo, so that should be brought down to match the other side. That side has the bar growing tall but straight, so that is easier to trim down.
Unfortunately, if both heels were that long and you've brought one down too far, bringing them both down may put the horse on a sensitive frog and make him sore. 

From the way the lower heel with the run over bar looks, it is my guess that you did not lower the heel like that with trimming, but it has been unbalanced for awhile. So the horse may feel much better if you can trim that bar off and take the other heel and bar down to make the hoof sit level on the ground.


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## BuckyGold (Nov 8, 2017)

Thank you! These pictures are about a month old, and i did go back with the rasp a few days ago i just forgot to take new pics. I'll upload new pictures with more angles tonight. I've tried getting at the bars with the hoof knife but talk about rock solid! I'll try again with the nippers. Also, if any of you could help with positions to stand while trimming the hoof that would be great... If a professional saw the way i stand while trimming they'd probably laugh.


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## BuckyGold (Nov 8, 2017)

Thank you for the responses, these pictures are about a month old but the bars and sole look the same now. I'll upload new pictures with more angles tonight as i've gone back in with the rasp a few days ago but forgot to take pics. I'll try to go at the bars with the nippers today. Is there any way to tell the difference between bruising and over-trimming?? He hasn't been sore since i've moved him, and every time after i trim he walks over gravel fine. He has back hooves of steel... unfortunately the bars are made of steel too lol


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## BuckyGold (Nov 8, 2017)

Sorry about the long delay. Most of his sole has softened up from the weather that i can peel off or scrape out the over grown bars. I will be trimming this weekend. I will be taking to toe back. Here are some pictures from a day ago.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

Yes, removing dead sole before mapping, is part of the protocol, as per those videos, 
I did not think that was needed to be put in, as the videos themselves address that point.
When I took an ELPO trimming course, cleaning out the seat of the corn, to determine live sole and defining the bars, as per video, was the starting point
As for the pictures, bars still need to be defined and any part lying over on the sole, removed
If the horse did not have those laminitic rings, I would for the first mapping , really identify live sole on the entire bottom

You also need to identify the true apex of the frog. When the toe gets stretched, it pulls the sole and frog with it quite often.Again, watch those videos


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## newtrailriders (Apr 2, 2017)

subbing


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