My horse, Tanna, has some hoof separation along the inside of his right front foot. I knew it was happening, but I didn't think it was as bad as it really was. The separation goes deeper than I thought. When he came up lame at the trot, mostly sound at the left lead canter, and falling down lame on the right lead canter, I took him to my vet. Vet found the hoof separation goes deeper than I thought. He did some elimination testing and concluded that the hoof separation is the reason for him being lame.
Vet's recommendation is to have another vet (my vet is leaving for 10 days) dremel away the outer hoof wall up to where the hoof separation stops. Then have shoes put on him to support the hoof and protect the sole right next to where there is no hoof wall. Leave the shoes on for 6 weeks, then pull the shoes and check everything and re-evaluate. Of course, no riding until this is all said and done.
Here's the rub. Tanna's barefoot. I'd like to keep him barefoot. If shoes are the BEST way to go with no other comparable solution, I'm willing to do that until this problem is taken care of (1-2 shoeings), but I'm looking for another way.
I can do the dremeling myself. Vet says the one reason he does it is because people are afraid of/aren't used to using the dremel. But the main reason the vet does it (instead of a farrier or the owner) is that a lot of the horses they have to do it to are scared of the dremel noise to the point of needing to be sedated so it can be done. I have used my dremel enough on the horses for neither of them to be surprised or scared of the noise and so that I am comfortable doing the work myself.
Instead of a shoe, I was thinking of using some sort of hoof reconstruction material. But since I want to keep Tanna barefoot, I would need a material that would flex enough so that the natural movement of the hoof wouldn't dislodge it and it needs to hold up to being stepped on (duh ;-)).
This is the bottom of his foot. I should have cleaned it better. The separation goes along the side of his hoof about 75% of the length. Here it doesn't look that long, but that's from the dirt. Also, the separation tapers off close to where it quits altogether.
Here you can see where I've already dremeled some of the hoof wall down. I did this to give him immediate relief and to minimize the chance of the whole piece of hoof coming loose if he steps on a rock wrong. However, I don't want to leave the hoof this way for long due to the pressure exhibited on the sole. You can also see from this view some of how far down the separation goes because the sun is shining through the hoof wall.
This is just another picture from the bottom.