Heel Buttress -

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.

Time Walker

This horse came to me with flat frogs that had only a hint central sulcus. As his feet have restored his frogs have gone through cyclic changes with the central sulcus going back and forth between somewhat open to pinched. In April of 2021 I saw indication on this frog that this cycle was coming to an end* on this foot, with the hope of his feet being restored to full size and balance a real possibility. They’re not there yet. But stay tuned.

*May 2025 edit: The cycle was, as it turns out, just ramping up. They’re still not fully restored, but they’re so very much better. Better looking to me, and better feeling, as per the gentleman himself.

This is where this foot started, or at least…where it was when he came to me just coming six.

His soles were hard and dark grey, and very thin. His frogs were hard and dark grey as well. He was walking on his perioples and hairlines at the caudal ends of his feet were all on the ground. He was uncomfortable on all but soft pasture. His hamstrings were rock hard, and his stance was camped under. I’d noticed too that when he walked, he would not extend his hind legs past vertical, always walking under himself in back.

I’d been taking pics on and off for a few years, but these snow scrubbed feet re-piqued my interest and hope. And holy skew, Batman.

That spot in the crack at the back of his ‘heel bulbs’ was so odd. It looked very much like what is sometimes found being held onto by oysters.

The periople turns white when waterlogged. The dots follow the growth lines of the periople and highlight how the back of the foot had been pulled down and under from where it should be. The skew in the foot is almost all worked out.

More waterlogged periople. And awkward growth at the fissure between the ‘heel bulbs’.

The fact that periople turns white when waterlogged is very helpful in seeing better what is going on with these feet. You can see how it is unfolding out of the back of this foot.

When I uploaded and edited this pic, and saw the ‘marker’ that is traced in yellow dots I got SO. very. excited. At this point I’d been training my eye to see the movement in the structures of the foot as regrowth occurs and this contiguous line told me that we were finally, maybe, in the home stretch of waiting for the soft structures of the caudal foot to grow back out from where they’d been pulled under.

This central sulcus was deeper than it looked. I could get my thumb in there half way up my nail when treating for thrush.

A bulge? You do you, boo.
You can trace the growth lines in the periople around the back of the foot up around the front of that false central sulcus. It’s not totally unlike watching a hot air balloon unfurl.

Another thing that changes is the amount of ‘flesh’ within the periople. Eight months earlier that area was much thinner, less ‘full’ looking. The skew is back a bit on the lateral (right) side again.

All the while his frogs have been sub par, to say the least. When I first got him they were hard grey/black, unforgiving, unfriendly wedges of nothing-that-seemed-alive or vital.

Every time I look at this pic that pattern of grow out there in the central sulcus reminds me of crab mandibles. And look at the space building along that center line between the bulbs. Also, that bit between the periople and the ground surface, that’s frog curtain. It’s not all it is meant to be, but another unexpected, delight-inducing realization.

See those two flaps there in the crevasse of the central sulcus? I’ve seen those on so many feet. I’d opened up the central sulcus to more easily be able to treat for thrush. And because I was curious what was going on under there.
This was the last time I trimmed anything away from the central sulcus. I wanted to watch to see how it would change without intervention.

It boggles my mind just how much movement, growth and change can happen in a foot in just a few weeks. Look how deep in that CS is. And how much more plump the bulbs are than in the previous pic.

Look at that central sulcus opening up. And at that frog stay growing in, back, and up.

I put this in as the shadow fleshes out a bit more the depth of the thing. That there is the frog stay. It will continue to grow in and move up to it’s rightful place between the heel bulbs at/in the hairline. There’s so much here that still has yet to unfurl.

I heard once that pigs grow bone then flesh then bone then flesh. I’ve since seen similar patterns in other things. In the past week, it looks as if these heel bulbs there at the periople have plumped out. And just look at how wide the area proximal to the frog stay is. And much thanks to a rainy day for highlighting exactly where the periople is. Notice how it is no longer shooting up between the buttresses.

The heel bulb/periople area is nowhere as thick as a few months ago. We’re coming into new coat season, and I’m thinking that between the minerals that demands from the body, combined with the growth that’s going on in all four of his feet (his hinds hoof walls have lost quite a bit of color over the past few months) I’ve decided to go get a bucket of Frank Lampley’s minerals, as it’s a stellar product and he’ll eat it straight if he needs it.

At this point he’s had three days of the Frank Lampley’s. I write that as a ‘let the record show’ as I’m not keeping track anywhere else. I’m always a bit bummed when my pics are not clear, but it’s still clear that there is some plumping going on in his caudal hoof there under the stretch of periople. The clefts around that protrusion don’t seem as deep and there’s more room between it and the hairline.
He’s got these back-of-central-sulcus-clefts going on on all his feet at this point. His hinds are bringing up the rear, with his off hind furthest from good, but it’s both interesting and heartening progress.
It’s alarming to think just how small some horses are having their feet trimmed.

Periople has thinned out considerably since this past September. Central sulcus has deepend and thinned, both from the caudal foot at the hairline growing out.

The staining and frog changes here are due to it being “stand around the hay manger in urine soaked hay and poo” season. I’m glad it’s coming to an end. There seems to be chuncks of heel and bar growing in there on his lateral (left of pic). Tubules newly uncovered often first regrow with less pigment at first, and darken up later.

Heels look long, maybe true, but given how drawn forward the caudal
hoof is, as indicated by the shape of the frog, heels are growing down
from where the heel quarter would be in a fully expanded foot. Dropping
these heels would strain the bony column and the system of softer fascia
supporting it.

Quite a crack there on the lateral heel/heel quarter…

Of interest to see how much has fleshed out there were the central sulcus/frog spine is regenerating. Interesting too how the periople gives way when grown out of (at the lateral heel).

Not sure what insult took that medial heel out. Pics like these that make my eye twitch, and have me out addressing balance the next day.

More growth at center caudal… Still has that crumbling medial heel buttress. Check out the fold in the periople where the heel buttress comes through.

And now…expansion there at the back. And if you zoom in on that white bit of buttress growing down from the lateral periople, you’ll see that it’s new growth.
New growth wall often first comes in with little to no pigment. See too how when the periople (on the lateral) thins out during this phase of regrowth that it leaves the heels looking even more high. Granted, this is pre trim, so they are a bit high…on the lateral, anyway.

Poochin out at the central sulcus again. And low the bit of new (unpigmented) buttress continuing to grow down on the lateral.

So clean…

It’s fun too, to watch the hairline change…

Still with the lateral heel buttress growing in un-pigmented.

I feel like that there is a whisper of a naturally open central sulcus…

Still more unpigmented sole there on the lateral. And check out the change in trajectory mid way down the buttress.

There’s a lot more creamy sole coming in…

Wondering here if we’re not about at the end of what has yet to grow out at the central sulcus…

Well, I guess the answer to my wondering is “Not quite yet.” But again, check out the flap there along the inside of the central sulcus. That’s looking like a natural terminus to me. Again, love the water soaked periople shots for added clarity. And appreciate again, in water logged clarity, how much more creamy sole is growing back in.

Bonus sole shot. Again, look at those triangular flaps at the central sulcus. Those aren’t cut out. Those grew that way. I’m pleased as punch with the improvements in these feet. Everything’s improved. Not 100%. I’m not sure if 100% is achievable given how early he was shod and how bad his feet were. Time will tell…

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.