About a year ago, I took on the care of my horse’s feet, myself. I pulled the shoes and started trimming. I read everything I could get my hands on and studied very hard. I finally hooked up with KC LaPierre and his HPT theory in June and have been studying his program exclusively since. The difference in my horses’ soundness has been huge and we are able to do more and more…shoeless.

KC’s theory teaches us not only how to trim for balance but why stimulus is so important for the developement of great structure and therefore function. His new product Perfect Hoof Wear, is an amazing new concept in protective hoof wear in that it allows expansion of the hoof and therefore allows stimulus to affect the foot positively. More info is available at www.equinepodiatry.net .

I elected to test drive this product on my OTTB, Canon. He has decent feet and no soundness issues currently, but he has pretty typical TB feet. He has a clubbed RF and his LF heels are chronically underrun…the perfect test case!

RIGHT FRONT (club)…

To be honest, I couldn’t be happier with the current condition of this foot, even though it is still quite upright. I’ve given up on the idea that it will look exactly like the other front foot.

Above the PHW applied. I’m pretty sure I have the webbing up too hight over the heel bulb…but will get some feedback on that, I hope.

LEFT FRONT (underrun heels)

Again, there isn’t alot to complain about, but I am interested to see if he can develope more heel here with the PHW

Canon has had seedy toe in the back feet, but that is a thing of the past. He does have this quarter crack that I just can’t make headway with. So I’m curious to see what will happen with the PHW here.

It was 20 degrees here when I applied the PHW, which requires application of an epoxy, soaking of the wrap in warm water…hmmm, challenging.

I came up with this cheap fix. A small styrofoam cooler, hole cut in the top. Fill with luke warm water. Cover the epoxy gun with a plastic baggie and slip through the hole. It worked well. Kept the Epoxy warm and the water for soaking too.

Stay tuned for my next installment…when the PHW comes off in a month (I hope).