Category: Bars

Bars Follow Buttresses

Except when they no longer can.

When heel buttresses are laid forward, bars are going to lay down on the sole.

It is possible for a hoof capsule to be so compromised that the wall corium from which the buttress grows no longer produces a full buttress.* The back end of the hoof is made of soft tissues. These soft tissues can and will compress when the capsule is trimmed incorrectly. When this happens, the bar is no longer truly attached to the buttress. I’ve seen more than a few hooves where the bar is butted up against wall, as opposed to there being a robust buttress connecting wall and bar. A true and robust buttress provides support the bar attached to it. One job of a buttress is to support the bar structures in maintaining their optimal angle. Optimal bars grow straight from and with a strong attachment to the buttress. From the buttress they grow straight to their natural termination approximately half way down the frog.

When the bar does not have a true attachment to the buttress, it has nothing to hold it vertical. An unattached bar is totally and completely subject to ground forces. The relative integrity of the hoof in front of/under unattached bars may keep them in place to an extent and for a time. This, though, is dependent on how the rest of the hoof capsule is being maintained.

*Similar to what happens to grass if you lay something it, the grass will not grow.

Another thing that just came to me regarding bars…

I’ve seen many hooves that have the tell tale cracks at the natural terminus of the bar. I’ve seen some too, that don’t have it. It occurred to me yesterday that that cracking very likely corresponds to the flex point in the foot that is determined by the caudal end of the coffin bone. The inner sensitive hoof has the coffin bone for structure in the front half (and half is used loosely here), and the back/caudal half of the foot is made up of tough yet flexible structures. So when a horse lands on it’s heels, and then transfers it’s weight forward during locomotion, there’s a bend point that happens between the front and back parts of the foot.

When the hoof is of optimal size, and the corium that grows the bars is as long as is intended by DNA, the flex point falls at the natural terminus of the bars and cracking is visible. When a hoof is foreshortened and the corium that grows the bars is pushed forward into the capsule and under the coffin bone, the natural terminus of the bars is pushed forward as well. When the natural terminus of bar is forward of this flex point that leaves solid bar over the flex point, and solid bar is much less likely to crack due to it’s very design.

Buttress~Heel~Switchback

A Buttress by any other name…
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-flying-buttress-4049089

The hoof as a whole is an amazing mechanism that is perfectly suited to it’s purpose. Everything on this earth that grows naturally has been engineered to it’s current form by the forces around it, and so, can be thought of using the terms of engineering. https://simplicable.com/new/material-strength

The buttress (and bar) structures serve as the lynch pin of the hoof.

Turns out, ‘lynchpin’ is very similar in meaning as ‘buttress’. Who knew…

This is not yet an optimal buttress, but it’s getting there. Note the laminar line is still a bit pointed. Note the increase in bulk.

Picture a hoof capsule without a buttress. It wouldn’t work. It doesn’t work.
When buttresses are compromised, the hoof is compromised. Full stop. Compromised being less than optimal.

And optimal buttress is more than the sum of it’s parts. Literally.

Buttress mass = Wall mass + Bar mass + (X)

But it’s more than just that. This fortified structures hold their respective heel walls and bars at a specific angle to one another. From each buttress, the bars point back into toward the center of the capsule, to the toe quarter on the side opposite. The buttress is pointed at its outside, posterior end and the yellow laminar line makes a graceful arch around it’s interior edge.

But here’s the thing . . . It’s not always easy to see when a hoof has a compromised buttress. But, there are some tell tale signs specific to buttresses not yet being all they can be, and that there may be an issue, bearing in mind that each foot distorts in ways specific and peculiar to their own internal weaknesses and external conditions:

Thin bars ~ Thin bars can happen when the hoof is run forward from behind.

Laid over bars/bars that wont ‘stand up’ ~ Bars stand up only by virtue of their solid attachment to the buttress structure, so if they’re not solidly attached, or if the buttress structure is no longer there, the bars by virtue of the horses weight and ground forces, can only lay over.

Cracks where bar ‘joins’ buttress ~ But when there’s a crack, that’s a sign that the bar is no longer joined to the buttress. This show up as a buttress is getting trimmed out of the foot, or as the foot is being rehabbed.

Bar abutting buttress further up the wall ~ This is the next step after a bar crack. First there’s a small dis-attachment between the bar and buttress. Then, in some feet, as the frog structures get pulled forward, the bars get pushed along forward in front of it.

Curves ~ Curved bars are a sign that the back of the foot will expand when trimmed in a way that will allow for this.

Kinks at the buttress end of bars ~ Kinks at the buttress end of bars are what happens mid way between curved bars and a dis-attached bar that is heading up the solar surface of the foot.

*Some examples below were found on the internet, not sure whom to credit.

Thin, curved bar. An optimal bar will be a bit more robust than this.

Kinks where bars become buttress. Bars look thin as well.
Bar kinks at buttress. Crack between bar and buttress. Bar also looks of different material than buttress where the bar currently butts up against the buttress-yellow arrow. Notice how the bar is grey and the wall a dun color. If you were to push the bar down along the wall to where the red dots would run in a straight line, the grey of the bar would match up with the grey of the caudal end of the wall there.
Buttress on left is scant in size with crack. Crack at bar/buttress meeting on right.
Crack between bar and buttress.
Distinct kink where bar and buttress meet. Crack started too. Bars curve before they kink when the back of the foot is being drawn down and forward.
Bar migrating up the inside of the wall. Bar outlined in red dots. Wall outlined in blue.
Bar migrating up the inside of the wall. Bar outlined in red dots. Wall outlined in blue.