A "Sole"ful Story

Yes, this post has been in the works for too long. Rest Assured, here it is though!

There is a lot of talk about the soul of the horse, and yes, I for one believe that they do indeed have souls. Today though, let's take a look at the SOLE. The sole is a marvelous thing, and can tell you a tremendous amount about the health of your horse, and the health of his hooves.

Looking at the bottom of the foot, the average owner sees the wall, the frog, and the hard area around the frog and behind the wall- the sole. Most times, they only worry if the sole is flaking off, something is oozing from the sole, or God Forbid, something is sticking out of the sole that does NOT need to be there.All good things to be aware of, but let's delve a bit deeper into the sole, and see what it reveals to us.

Below, I adjusted an old file photo to try and point out some areas that we horse owners need to be aware of. Once again, things are color coded, which really is a huge help to us all!



First, lets take a look at the arrows inside the pink circle.

RED is pointing to what is known as "Outer Hoof Wall".
BLUE is pointing to what is known as "Inner Hoof Wall"
YELLOW shows us the "White Line".

The RED arrow at the Outer Hoof Wall, shows us what most folks see in their minds eye when someone says "Hoof Wall". Which *very basically* is a pigmented section of the hoof capsule. It is the outer layer of said capsule, containing within the mechanisms that make the equine hoof the amazing structure it is. Outer Wall can come in different colors- known as pigment. Lack of pigment, or the proverbial "white hoof", means just that- there is a lack of pigment in the wall.

The BLUE arrow at the Inner Hoof Wall- Inner Hoof Wall (very basically) is the connection between the white line, and the outer hoof wall. The same material creates it as the rest of the hoof, it simply does not get the pigmentation mentioned above.

The YELLOW shows the white line, which as you can see, is not really all that WHITE, but more of a buttery color in a healthy hoof. The white line is VERY important, and knowing what a healthy one looks like can tell you a tremendous amount about the hoof. Ideally, it should be fairly thin, consistent in it's size all the way around the hoof wall, and "tight" looking. The horse in the photo has a good white line. In a horse that has rotation of the coffin bones (also known as Founder,) the white line can be SIGNIFICANTLY different. A wide, or stretched, white line is a bad thing as it indicates the stress and strain placed upon the entire hoof capsule. Very (very) basically, you can look at the white line as a "binder" of sorts, being a different consistency from the rest of the hoof, allowing for proper bonding of the structure. (By the way, with proper trimming, this *CAN* be repaired, with the coffin bone being carefully returned to a ground parallel position. I suppose that's another post entirely though.)

The BLUE CIRCLE shows us a section of sole that is ready to exfoliate, or shed. Why is this horse having a tough time shedding sole? Frankly, this horse does not have the healthiest feet around. He is barefoot, and getting better, but... he has a ways to go. (This shot was taken last Spring- progress has been made, but it has been quite slow. I don't have an updated shot yet, but will work on getting one to share.)

The single biggest question we get, hands (or hooves) down, is "What is this white stuff flaking off of my horse's hoof? Should I be worried?"

To ease any worries, the white stuff is naturally exfoliating sole material. This is a normal process. If your horse is shod, you will see more of it for a few reasons, the two primary reasons are:
Reason One: The sole is held up off the ground, which acts as a natural "scrubbing" agent.
Reason Two: The hoof is more or less "locked" into one position, keeping the sole from flexing as much as needed to "clean" away the material.

In a barefoot horse, you have to look at where most of the weight is being borne. Is it on the wall, as traditional farriers have trimmed for eons? Does the horse have a (genetic) tendency to be club footed? What are the living conditions of the horse- turn out, over different terrain? Stall bound, on straw? Shavings? Sawdust? Muddy turn out conditions? Dry turn out conditions? Overall health of the horse?

All of the above are factors in how the hoof will work, and how much, if any, of the sole will exfoliate.

There is also another term that is used by we hoof care providers: "retained sole" or "false sole". Which is simply put, sole material that has NOT, for whatever reason, been able to exfoliate. (Sonny Bunz with his tendency to be clubby in one hoof has to be monitored carefully for retained sole.) That sole can build up and create health problems for your horse's hooves. A hoof care provider who does NOT carefully (C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y!!) remove exfoliating sole is inviting "garbage" to become "trapped" up against the sole, allowing for the strong possibility of an abscess developing. There is a rule in our practice: Take ONLY what the hoof is willing to give you! (In The Bunz Boys case, it means I am out there quite often working on one hoof, taking what the foot will give me at the time.)

There are so many other places this post could wander off to right now, but I think we need to stop here and field questions. Then we can wander more into things like dropped soles, concave soles and what it means, flat soles, how a sub-solar abscess can affect the hoof care provider as we initiate knife work (read: Heart Attack as the knife slips under a section of sole and WAY MORE comes out than we were expecting. Stacey at Behind The Bit with her handsome Riley might just get to see that for herself!) What bruises in the sole mean, how does the sole protect a rotated coffin bone, what is a "sinker"- or coffin bone protruding through the sole, white line disease, is the sole meant to be weight bearing ... oh boy, that list could get mighty long here!

Fire away y'all, and let's see what we can come up with to help you out!