Jennifer Vallieres - Natural Hoofcare

Certified by the American Hoof Association

This pony had recently been rescued by a very loving family, she had obviously been neglected for some time. She was in a tremendous amount of pain when I first got out there and had been for a long time. It took a few trims before she began to be move around more comfortably, we still had a long way to go but she was on the right track. The pics you see were taken about 1 year apart, she came a long way considering how severe her condition was. As you can see she is now a very happy and healthy pony and enjoys taking her little girl for pony rides around the farm.

                    SEPTEMBER '10                                                  AUGUST '11

This pony's vet recommended she be put on large amounts of sweet feed since she was pregnant and needed the extra "nutrition". This was very poor advice. Sweet feed should never be a part of a horse's diet and definitely not in large quantities. Not too long after the baby was born the excessive amounts of sweet feed resulted in acute laminitis with excessive hoof growth, eventually resulting in founder. The owners called me out because she had become so sore that she was lying down much of the day. I immediately told owners to take her off the sweet feed and replace it with a low-sugar feed. A couple weeks after her first trim she was up and moving around much better, no more laying down. A few months later and she was moving normally even though her hooves were still in the healing process. It took less than a year to completely rehabiliate this foundered pony. This pony was kept on a 4 week trim schedule. Even though changes were made to her diet, the rings on her hoof wall tell us that even more improvements could be made, these rings/ridges are a sign that she is still getting a bit too many sugars in her diet.

           APRIL '10                                                        SEPTEMBER '10             

This mare had no lameness issues despite the clubfoot but her owners had called me to see if anything could be done to improve this condition as it is obviously not healthy and can lead to problems later on in the horse's life. I put her on a 6 week trim schedule and within a couple months there was noticeable improvement in her contracted heels, they had begun to spread out and her frog began to take on a very healthy shape, a couple more months and her heels had lowered "on their own", a sign that the coffin bone had moved back to more normal position. She did not experience any discomfort whatsoever during this healing process. 

                   MAY '09                                                     NOVEMBER '09

This horse's shoes were pulled 2 weeks before I started working on him, the owner had just bought him and wanted him to be kept barefoot. He had no prior lameness issues but there was definitely room for improvement, the horn quality was poor and there was a bit of white line separation at the toes. He was put on a 5-6 week trim schedule, no changes to his diet were necessary. It took about 8 months to grow in a completely new hoof, the horse stayed sound and rideable throughout the transition. 

     MARCH '08                                                                     DEC '08

This pony had a very stubborn case of thrush that was preventing him from landing heel first due to pain. Traveling down hill was very painful for this horse and he took tiny baby strides to try and keep weight off his painful frogs. The owner treated the frogs with an assortment of products and finally started having success with "White Lightning", the thrush had cleared up for the most part and the horse moved much much better and could travel downhill comfortably. He was kept on a 4-5 week trim schedule, but what helped this horse more than anything was treating and beating the thrush in the central sulcus of the frogs. I have since then found more effective means of treating thrush and even very stubborn cases can be cleared up within 2-3 months.

                     JAN '08                                                      MAY '09