08/31/2026
WHY ARE OUR EQUINES ENDING UP LIKE THIS?
At our cadaver workshops, we encounter equines with catastrophic damage inside their hoof capsules - just like this poor pony who had lost nearly half of its P3 (pedal) bone.
Look carefully at this foot.
The heels had been allowed to become extraordinarily high, keeping P3 in a severely hyper-positive position. The pony had effectively been standing on the tip of the bone within its hoof capsule.
At the same time, the toe had repeatedly been shortened in an attempt to control what was perceived to be tearing the laminae further.
So...
More toe removed.
A shorter capsule.
Increasing proportional imbalance.
The heels left too high.
P3 becoming progressively steeper - up and down at each trim - but more up than down... until it was positioned almost vertically within the foot.
The result was catastrophic.
P3 had lost bone all the way back to the terminal arch - the vital region through which the principal digital blood vessels come together.
This was not a minor change.
It represented profound destruction inside the hoof capsule.
And profound pain. That had been going on for a very - long - time.
No diet change or metabolic drugs were ever going to fix this.
Imagine trying to stand and walk every day with damage of this magnitude. Imagine attempting to live normally while the bone inside your foot was being subjected to these forces.
And this would almost certainly not have been confined to one front foot.
Yet what would this pony’s suffering have been called?
“Laminitis”of course.
What about the tendonitis of the extensor tendon, being pulled and stretched constantly, with no let up or relief?
What about the digital cushion, the navicular bone, the coffin joint, the ligaments, the lateral cartilages all under unnatural forces - being damaged?
And you blame the DDFT for this? For pulling P3 through the capsule - because you see laminae that have failed and you have been told over and over and over again, that what you are seeing is a disease process?
But look out.
Because once that "laminitis" label has been applied, attention turns overwhelmingly towards metabolic disease and diet.
Towards you as the owner. YOU have to control the diet to stop P3 continuing to move.
The pony, the hoof capsule and the mechanical forces acting upon its internal structures would have disappeared behind that diagnosis.
But diet did not stand this pony on the tip of P3. You don't really believe it did, do you?
Diet did not leave those heels at that height. Did it?
Diet did not repeatedly shorten the front of the capsule while leaving the back of the foot profoundly elevated. Whilst you watch your HCP fashion the front of the foot into something "nice and neat".
This was a mechanical catastrophe, followed by a biological disaster so extensive that no drug, dietary intervention or emergency trim could have replaced the bone that had already been destroyed.
That does not mean metabolic disease does not exist. But it NEVER does this to a foot. That's just what you have been conditioned to believe.
When owners, hoof care professionals (HCPs), vets and other equine professionals quote “laminitis” as the explanation for P3 being in this position, they are showing you they have been blinded by a system that has taught them to look beyond what is physically in front of them.
A diagnosis does not absolve us from examining how the hoof capsule was being managed before the crisis occurred.
When we see P3 held in an abnormal position, laminar separation, altered growth, distortion and progressive destruction, we must ask:
> > How did this hoof capsule arrive here?
> > Who was monitoring its proportions?
> > Who was assessing the proportional relationship between toe height and heel height?
> > Who was recognising that P3 was being maintained in an increasingly hyper-positive position?
> > Who was responsible for keeping the capsule in balance?
That responsibility rests with HCPs - and the equine system itself - and saying so is not “throwing HCPs under the bus.”
Human beings make mistakes. And in the cases of our "laminitic, P3 rotated" equines - extremely big mistakes.
But it's ok because in the equine world, these mistakes are then chalked up to a metabolic disease. It totally lets the human "off the hook" - every time.
We encounter equines with significant bone loss after years of different HCPs and schools of thought, shortening toes, managing heels higher than what would be normal for the equine foot in front of them...
.. and then doing something slightly different from the person who came before them. Putting their own 'personal touch' on the situation.
There has been no consistency amongst trimming worldwide, even though the equine blueprint demonstrates anatomical consistency if we are prepared to examine it.
What did the owner, the HCPs, the vets, friends and other equine professionals miss?
They missed the hoof capsule progressively changing over time.
Not one person built a meaningful sequential history showing how that capsule was becoming increasingly distorted.
The HCPs may have misread the capsule, not because they intended to cause harm, but because they were not consistently following and documenting the anatomical relationships within it.
Nobody did. Nobody does. Not really.
HCPs inherit ideas from their training. They collect different techniques from different schools, organisations and practitioners - and from the things they see online.
They get taught one thing - think it isn't working - think every foot is vastly different to the next and needs some special trim to keep it "in-line".
"Every foot is an individual" they yell.
Actually, not really. They are all designed under the same exact blueprint. A slight morphology (shape) difference here and there, but everything behaves under the same rules.
HCPs genuinely believe they are helping while unknowingly creating or perpetuating damaging mechanical forces.
The problem is that there is no single, internationally standardised trimming method.
HM are continually berated because we position ourselves in such a way that we focus strongly on anatomical balance. And not on, or with, other farrier or trimming schools.
That makes us the black sheep of the family because we are believed to not "play nicely" and "join forces" with other methods that are peppered with personal opinion.
There's a reason we don't allow other methods to be discussed in our hoof rehab group - because we are NOT a method.
Once qualified, other non HM HCPs around the world start combining theories, techniques, tricks and rules - and instantly start to lose sight of the blueprint the horse is showing each and every one of them.
Combining 'ideas' is not an objective system for demonstrating that the resulting capsule remains proportionally balanced around its internal structures.
That is precisely why we must be willing to question established practice.
We have become terrified of the toe.
“Shorten the toe” is repeated so frequently that it can override everything the foot itself is showing us.
Followed by, "oh that looks better", as the owner looks down on a "nice and neat" shortened capsule.
This pony had a tiny hoof capsule - but look at what was going on inside.
Continually removing toe does not automatically balance a hoof, just because it appeals better to the eye.
If the heels remain too high, shortening the front of the capsule, destroying proportional balance, will make the strained internal relationship even more extreme.
You will actually make the stress on the laminae worse. And you certainly won't fix it.
That's not diet tearing laminae - that is the forces of torque, tension and strain.
Only trimming a foot back into balance will fix a P3 that looks like it is floating through the hoof on an x-ray.
Oh yes, we know:
"The humans couldn’t possibly have caused this. Stop saying such terrible things, HM."
But I'm afraid they did. I'm not here to win any popularity contest - clearly.
When people see what they call the HM “crazy-looking toe” - a long-looking toe that alarms them because it no longer appears conventionally short - they accuse us of causing the problem.
But stop and think.
By the time we begin rehabilitating these equines, many have already sustained extensive damage. Some may have gone too far ever to grow a completely normal hoof capsule again.
Some will grow out the distortion and return to normal, sound lives.
Others may carry the consequences permanently.
But we did not create the original distortion.
This is not a diet problem, folks. It really isn’t.
Eventually, I hope, more owners will begin to work this out as they become more educated about true anatomical balance.
It reminds me of the film 'Idiocracy'.
The plants are dying because everyone is watering them with a sports drink. When somebody suggests using water, the response is effectively:
“No. The system tells us this is what plants need. And we don't question the system."
But the plants are dying in front of them.
Still, people remain more loyal to the accepted explanation than to what they can actually see.
We cannot continue doing this to horses.
We cannot continue placing every catastrophic hoof failure beneath the same metabolic label without investigating the mechanical history of the capsule.
At some point, we must examine the destructive trimming practices that repeatedly remove too much toe while leaving too much heel.
This pony did not deserve to suffer and die with damage of this magnitude while its condition was simply chalked up to another “laminitic bout.”
We have to open our eyes.
And that begins with owners.
Photograph your horse’s feet consistently.
Take reliable dorsal, lateral, solar and caudal views.
Build a sequential record rather than waiting until your horse becomes visibly uncomfortable.
Be bothered.
Do not wait for a “laminitis” diagnosis before examining and documenting the hoof capsule.
Look for imbalance and distortion - for what we describe as Hoof Capsule Divergence, or HCD.
Thankfully many owners are now working it out. And it is often a very painful journey to accept what they believed to be a disease - was in fact - imbalanced trimming.
But, I can guarantee, it was more painful for their equine as their hooves went progressively more out of balance at every trim.
Owners most definitely are becoming more hoof-savvy.
But owners also need to understand what a proportionally balanced hoof capsule looks like. Without that knowledge, how can they know whether their horse’s feet are remaining balanced between visits?
This is not about encouraging owners to attack their HCPs.
But for goodness’ sake, stand up for your equine.
Do your due diligence.
Build a photographic record.
Ask questions.
And do not allow people to continue altering a capsule that is becoming progressively more distorted while blaming every consequence on a disease.
HM could have taken the easy route.
We could have joined everyone else in talking almost exclusively about disease, metabolism and diet.
Hyperinsulinemia this, hyperinsulinemia that.
It would have been safer. Far easier for us.
It would have been more acceptable.
And it would have spared us, and me, an enormous amount of criticism.
But it would not have explained this foot.
It would not have explained why the heels were allowed to become so high.
It would not have explained why the toe was repeatedly removed while P3 became progressively steeper.
It would not have explained why the capsule continued to diverge from its anatomical proportions until the bone itself was catastrophically damaged.
And it would not have saved this pony.
By the time we arrive at feet like this, we do not have a magical rasp that can replace missing bone.
We cannot trim away years of destruction in one visit.
We cannot promise that every horse can grow a normal hoof capsule again.
That is why owners must become involved before the crisis begins.
Photograph the feet.
Compare them sequentially.
Learn the anatomical constants.
Watch the proportions.
Ask what is changing - and why. Become INVOLVED in your horse's hoof care.
Do not allow a familiar diagnostic label to end the investigation.
Because “laminitis” does not explain who shortened the toe.
It does not explain who left the heels high.
It does not explain how P3 was maintained in this position.
And it does not explain why nobody stopped it before nearly half the bone was gone.
This pony could not speak.
But this foot is evidence.
The question is no longer whether we can see it.
The question is:
How many more equines are we prepared to lose before we finally admit what is staring us in the face?
Humans are getting it wrong. And the system is perpetuating it, unapologetically, masquerading it as a disease.
I hope one day you will finally see it.
Lindsay Setchell
HM
