The Barefoot Horse Magazine

08/01/2026

Again - once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Wake up world. Let's start saving these horses from hoof capsule imbalance now, not when many 1000s more have suffered at the hands of ignorance.

Join HM's free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

The BHM Team 😢

Here's an uncomfortable question (that the world is struggling to answer)👇

If P3 truly rotated or sank overnight…
why is there never a clear, sequential record showing it happening?

Let's face it, we should be DROWNING in evidence which shows feet like the one in this post - just rotating and sinking before our very eyes 👀

But alas...
No baseline photos.
No consistent trimming history.
No early x-rays taken before the change was declared.

Literally - zilch. Nothing. Nada. Yet the belief is still so incredibly strong, that ponies like this one in this post, were persistently and consistently damaged, abused and crippled for many years of their lives.

Those 'laminitis peer-reviewed' papers everyone bleats on about - go and actually READ them.

Go look for the hoof histories BEFORE they overdosed those horses.
Go look for the sequential x-rays, before, during and after - ON ALL FOUR FEET. Not just the front right or left.

What people call “sudden rotation" - is almost always just suddenly noticed.

Hoof capsule distortion doesn’t announce itself.
It develops quietly - trim after trim - until pain finally forces attention.

And here’s where the story usually goes wrong 👇

As heels are allowed (or encouraged) to rise, the palmar angle of P3 increases.
This doesn’t drive the bones downward.

It forces the capsule (coronary band) upwards and around them.

The bones aren't sinking. The hoof capsule has been placed under chronic (long term) imbalance - and therefore the whole foot under prolonged, agonising tension.

Hard horn at the coronary groove can stretch - over a long time.

The papillae - responsible for each individual horn tubule - don’t increase in number.

They become pulled into unnatural orientations in their sockets, producing horn that is already compromised and distorted well before it even reaches the ground.

Painful.
Progressive.
Often present for years.

At the same time, something critical is missed.

What many call “compression” at the front of the hoof is actually the opposite.

The toe wall is repeatedly removed.
Normal feedback is lost.
Growth rate slows.

Meanwhile, the back of the foot continues growing at a much faster rate.

This growth-rate mismatch creates distortion - divergence - tearing - stretching - PAIN... not because horn is being crushed, but because it is being deprived of normal loading, feedback, and vertical depth.

As depth of the capsule is lost (deliberately, ignorantly removed) - osteonecrosis of P3 develops. All the internal structures begin to suffer.

Not because they moved, sank, or whizzed through the capsule - but because the capsule that should be protecting them, no longer functions as a unified structure.

The result is a powerful illusion:

- bones appearing to sink through a capsule that has, in reality, been distorted, stretched, and damaged around them.

Bones didn’t migrate.
The architecture surrounding them failed.

And when this is viewed through the lens of hoof capsule imbalance, distortion, and divergence - the pattern becomes impossible to ignore. You see it everywhere.

But if everything is filtered through the idea of a “dysfunctional metabolism” - rehab is usually doomed from the start. And you become obsessed with fat ponies.

(But skinny ones suffer too!)

Because when the hoof isn’t addressed correctly and consistently - rebalanced and kept that way whilst the distortion grows out... the horse may appear to improve temporarily, but those so-called “laminitic bouts” will keep on returning to haunt your equine - and you.

Recovery doesn’t come from wedges, resections, clogs or cutting tendons. It doesn't come from long-term use of drugs trying to correct the metabolism. It doesn't come from endless, pointless arguments online about the "laminitis is a real disease it exists" belief system...
.. it comes from restoring what was lost:

✔ Correct dorsopalmar balance
✔ Ground contact and functional feedback
✔ Vertical depth
✔ Respect for the hard sole plane

✔ Following Mother Nature's constants

This foot in this image was not the victim of a metabolic dysfunction - or a pony eating too much and getting fat - EMS, PPID or any seasonal change... it came from one person who believed they were chasing a metabolic problem and that their job was to try and 'tame' a foot that was distorting before their very eyes.

They thought that the distortion was coming from the inside.

Instead of realising that THEY were causing the distortion - the pain - the suffering.

So they just kept on perpetuating it. And coming up with various excuses and blaming the owner.

Uncomfortable?
Yes.

Yet we can prove over and over again, that once you rebalance the hoof capsule correctly, the distortion grows out, the comfort returns - once you stop messing with what should be, a perfect design.

So isn't it time we stopped this charade and started to see hoof capsule divergence and distortion for what it truly is? Look at the foot in this post.

Utter man-made disaster. You accept that. You stop this nonsense. The pain. The suffering.

FOREVER.



HM.

Don't let this happen to your equine - stop it now - learn how to balance a foot correctly and your equine will never suffer from "laminitis" ever again 👉The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

06/01/2026

A great read! Gawsworth Track Livery!

The BHM Team ❤️

“Winter laminitis” or just another convenient scapegoat? A get out of jail free card for unbalanced hoof trimming?

Every season has an excuse.

• Spring / summer: grass flushes
• Autumn: seasonal hormonal rise
• Winter: winter laminitis

Yet the same horses, the same hooves, the same unresolved problems keep showing up year after year.

Cold weather does not create laminitis in a healthy hoof.
What it does is expose hooves that were already compromised.

Horses still dealing with HCD (hoof capsule divergence), dermal damage, bone loss and poor circulation often show more pain in winter because:

• Damaged hooves struggle to thermoregulate (AV shunt dysfunction)

• Cold alters efficient circulation

• Metal shoes conduct cold directly into the hoof

• Frozen ground removes impact absorption

The horse didn’t suddenly fail. The environment just stopped compensating for poor mechanics.

Blaming seasons instead of addressing long-term imbalance and trimming strategy isn’t hoof care.
It’s a rotating list of excuses.

Healthy, well-balanced hooves cope with seasonal change.
Winter doesn’t cause the problem. It reveals it.

06/01/2026

This post by Hoofing Marvellous beautifully explains why they rehab the way they do, and why they have so much success helping horses recover from "laminitis" (pssst... it's hoof capsule divergence (HCD) actually!).

Go HM!



The BHM Team ❤️

This is a typical foot halfway through rehabilitation.

This pony had been suffering for years with what was repeatedly labelled a metabolic condition and, of course, “laminitis”. In reality, the problem was hoof capsule divergence (HCD) created and perpetuated by imbalanced trimming practices.

Before now... the toe was repeatedly chopped back while the heels were allowed to compact and rise unchecked.

Growth slowed at the toe and accelerated progressively toward the heels. That imbalance is what sets up divergence, tearing, pain, and chronic inflammation.

And it isn’t just the laminae that suffer.

All of the soft tissues within the foot are affected, with inevitable knock-on effects throughout the body. This is why these equines cycle through “good phases” and “flare-ups” for years.

👉What you’re looking at here

We’ve left the bones from the original X-ray and superimposed them onto the foot at that time.

You can see a small ski-tip on P3.

This forms when P3 has previously been in a far more hyper-positive position.

The ski-tip is not leverage damage now - it’s a folding of the rim of P3 during osteonecrosis and it always forms parallel to the ground surface.

The presence and direction of the ski-tip on an x-ray reveals where the heels used to be.

You can see the distorted white line (lamellar wedge) on the sole view.

And crucially, you can see that the toe wall is not yet on the ground, even though there is still significant distortion growing out.

That is not failure.

That is exactly what a healing foot looks like.

👉Biology, not cosmetics

This pony is sound and comfortable. Her feet are doing precisely what they should be doing.

Growth rates are becoming more homogenous throughout the capsule.

As the rehab progresses, trimming frequency naturally shifts:

- from every few days

- to weekly

- to every couple of weeks (any longer is not wise)
.. until the toe wall eventually comes in to contact with the ground.

These rehabs are a process, and they require patience.

Horses handle this process extremely well when balance is maintained.

You can already see the new dermal–epidermal laminae connection growing down from the coronary band - it’s about halfway down P3 at this point.

👉Why we do NOT remove the toe too soon

This is where most rehabs fail. When people are itching to remove the toe. In many cases the foot will let go of the toe itself when it is ready. With most, it just grows out - no drama.

If you remove the toe too early because “it doesn’t look right” → rehab is set back

Remove more toe → heels rise faster

Heels rise → compaction increases

Palmar angle of P3 increases → more fixed “rotation”

Divergence re-establishes → pain returns

This is the exact cycle so many equines go through hence why they have "laminitis bouts".

Also the more toe a human removes at this stage, the more the trimming schedule has to regress again.

But most owners and HCPs don't do this in practice - so each time the trimmer turns up to trim the heels and toe have already diverged more - the less they address it - the more it happens.

👉By contrast 👇

Leaving a balanced wedge of distortion on the ground provides:

- better support

- more comfort

- increasing vertical depth under P3

- correct biological feedback

- stabilised growth rates

This is why balance always beats appearance.

👉What actually goes wrong in these rehabs

Removing the toe too soon.

Conversely, leaving the toe but not addressing the heels and bars.

Allowing heel compaction instead of trimming to the true hard sole plane.

If the heels and bars are kept where they should be - to the correct hard sole plane, not to compaction - recovery is reliable.

👉The outcome?

This pony's new hoof capsule will fully appear, from this stage, at around 7–9 months (rebuilding and regrowing a new hoof from a very damaged one takes time!).

Toe wall will be back on the ground (with very serious osteonecrosis cases, that doesn't often happen).

Laminae will be fully reconnected.

The pony will have a stable loading, landing, and support. FOREVER. No more "laminitic bouts". Literally that's it - boom gone - no more "laminitis" ever as long as the hoof is kept in balance.

This pony is currently sound in all gaits. There is no tripping, no tendon strain, no tearing.

If tearing were occurring, she would have gone backwards. She hasn’t, she's improved and back to her old self already - because balance has been maintained.

👉One final eency-weency bit of TRUTH

We have treated thousands of horses, with and without a toe.

A balanced toe left to grow consistently outperforms a cosmetic toe removal:

- greater comfort

- earlier stability

- easier balance maintenance

- correct biological stimulation

- better long-term outcomes

What matters to the horse is not how the foot looks - it’s how it lands, loads, and supports the body.

And the horse will always tell you when you’re doing it right.

ALWAYS.



HM.

If your horse, pony - or donkey - is having "laminitic bouts" the trimming will be off - find out how to fix it by joining our free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

04/01/2026

Hector’s awesome rehab continues 🔥👏👏

Join HM’s free rehab group and help your horse The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

The BHM Team 🔥

Out with the old. In with the new. On the brink of the Year of the Fire Horse 🔥

We are standing at the threshold of change.

In Chinese tradition, the Year of the Fire Horse is associated with disruption, truth surfacing, and the breaking down of systems that no longer serve. It is not a gentle year - it is a year that demands movement, honesty, and courage.

And that makes it a fitting moment to talk about healing.

Because what you’re looking at here is not failure.

It’s a hoof growing back into truth… and balance.

These X-rays are of Hector, a horse we are supporting Gawsworth Track Livery to rehabilitate.

Hector arrived at the beginning of August 2025, just after he was scheduled to be PTS.

He had been:

• Diagnosed with laminitis
• On large doses of ertugliflozin
• On box rest
• In “remedial” shoes
• Immobile, distressed, and suffering

The vet & farrier had nowhere left to turn.

Today, Hector is:

• Sound
• Moving comfortably
• Barefoot
• Out of boots
• Healing

And nothing about his recovery fits the story you are still being told about LAMINITIS.

👉What actually happened

Hector did not become crippled because of something he ate.

His laminae did not “fail” because of a toxin.

His P3 was not pulled through the hoof capsule by the DDFT.

What happened - as it does in every case like this - is hoof capsule imbalance.

Specifically:

• Compaction at the heels
• P3 elevated into a hyper-positive palmar angle
• A hoof capsule manipulated into imbalance by trimming and shoeing that did not respect internal anatomy

We call this hoof capsule divergence (HCD).

P3 did not rotate independently of the hoof capsule. It did not sink.

The hoof capsules were altered, and P3 was the innocent victim of that imbalance.

That imbalance places strain on:

• Laminae
• The extensor tendon
• The coronary band
• Ligaments, connective tissue, bone

And ultimately, the entire body

Misunderstand the cause - and you will misunderstand the rehab.

👉Why we did not remove the toe

One of the loudest reactions we hear at this stage is:

“That toe needs taking back.”

No.
For Hector, and the thousands of horses like him, that would be disastrous.

We did not remove the toe because we are deliberately encouraging:

• More vertical depth under the tip of P3
• Increased sole depth
• Greater surface area
• Improved comfort and protection

When Hector arrived:

• He was shod
• His heels were high
• His toe had already been shortened
• His hoof capsules were imbalanced on all four feet (fronts worse than the hinds)

The shoes came off immediately.

His hoof capsules were rebalanced to his internal anatomy.

And then we did the hardest thing of all:

We maintained that balance - and… waited.

Patience truly is a virtue.

👉Out with the old. In with the new.

This is the part many people misunderstand.

As the old toe wall grows down, it drags the separated lamellar wedge with it.

That can make the toe appear longer horizontally for a period of time.

At the same time:

• New, connected hoof is growing down from the coronary band
• New connections are forming between healed dermal and epidermal laminae

The old, distorted horn - made up of chaotic, torn epidermal laminae (what should be a tight white line) - is growing out.

This is not deterioration.
This is replacement.

Vertically, Hector’s dorsal wall is only marginally longer than when he arrived - and that small increase is exactly what is giving him the depth and comfort he needs under P3.

Horizontally, what people panic over is distortion, not true length.

👉What we are celebrating (even if others aren’t)

While the rest of the world looks at this stage and panics, we - and Hector - are celebrating:

• Increased sole depth
• Increased surface area
• Decreasing palmar angle
• Improving balance
• Comfort that allows him to move freely and barefoot

We would like to see Hector’s P3 become more ground-parallel over time - and it will - but that can only happen consistently once his true toe wall reaches the ground and stabilises his real, functional sole depth.

Remember - not only are you being told a lie that these horses need to be pts because this is a disease out of control… you are also being sold the wrong recovery pathway.

We are helping Hector heal with…

No wedges.
No casts.
No clogs.
No resections.
No tenotomies.
No toe-chopping.

No 💰💰💰💰💰

Just correct balance to internal anatomy.

👉A note for owners and professionals

Hector does not care what his toe looks like right now.

He cares about:

• How his foot lands
• How it loads
• How it supports him

Not how it looks coming off the ground. And he doesn’t trip. And there is no leverage causing the laminae to continue tearing… if that was happening he would have deteriorated, not improved.

And this is why we show these rehabs in real time - month by month - with sequential X-rays.

Because we want owners to learn to read X-rays simply enough to ask one crucial question:

“Is my horse balanced - or not?”

Our Phoenix Warriors are increasingly able to do exactly that, because they’ve:

• Spent time in our free rehab group
• Watched the free YouTube content
• Taken foundation courses, online and in person
• And most importantly - rehabilitated their own horses

👉Why this matters - right now

The Year of the Fire Horse is not about human comfort from old beliefs.

It is about movement.

It exposes systems that rely on control, confinement, and outdated explanations - and it rewards those willing to observe, question, and change.

Horses like Hector are showing us that:

• Laminitis is not a dietary moral failing
• P3 does not rotate, sink, or pe*****te
• And rehabilitation does not come from force or fear

It comes from balance.

As we step into the Year of the Fire Horse, we are not just watching damaged hooves grow out.

We are watching an old narrative finally burn away - and something far more honest grow in its place.

TRUTH.

Go team Hector 🔥🔥



HM.

If you have a horse like Hector, stop the imbalance, don’t buy into “Laminitis Inc.” - join our free rehab group and heal your horse now 👉The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

02/01/2026

Another fantastic rehab by Gawsworth Track Livery & Hoofing Marvellous 🔥💪👏

Well done team Pluto. Another sound step forward in debunking the myth of P3 rotation.

The BHM Team 🔥

Remember Pluto? He’s been rehabbing at Gawsworth Track Livery for the past 10 months.

His owner was told he had laminitis.

Everyone is taught that laminitis happens like this:

A horse eats something wrong.
Or is exposed to toxins.
The laminae “let go”.
P3 starts to rotate overnight.
The DDFT begins pulling.

From there, the script is familiar:

Box rest.
Deep beds.
Take off the toe to reduce strain.
Leave the heels high - because lowering them would “stress the tendon”.
Remedial shoes. Drugs.

It’s frightening.
It’s dramatic.
It’s usually expensive.

And it’s COMPLETELY wrong in both the diagnosis and the treatment. And that’s why 1000s of horses are lost every year to a disease that doesn’t exist.

Pluto’s exact story has been repeated for decades - not because it’s true, but because it fills a gap in understanding.

👉Pluto’s Reality…

Pluto didn’t wake up one morning with a bone suddenly rotating inside his foot.

He didn’t eat the wrong thing which caused the laminae to suddenly tear.

There were no toxins flooding his system causing P3 to start moving.

The suffering horses like Pluto go through, is now so common that people cannot see the real truth.

It starts with high heels, a distorted hoof capsule, and poor dorsopalmar balance. Toes being shortened. Natural ratios of heel to toe ignored.

That imbalance was masked - briefly - with shoes. Such a common approach.

But as time went on, he became more and more crippled.

Why?

Because he was being forced to move increasingly on the tip of P3, as the back of his foot became rigid and the front of the capsule was shortened again and again.

The laminae didn’t “fail”.

They were ripped and torn because the hoof capsule was no longer aligned with the true anatomical structures inside it.

That tearing was then blamed on “laminitis” caused by… well you name it, there’s an excuse every time!

👉The Great Misdiagnosis

So many horses share Pluto’s fate. And many never make it back to soundness alive.

The story is ALWAYS the same…

👉Hoof capsule imbalance → pain → tearing → blame laminitis → repeat the same damaging approach.

Diet gets blamed.
Toxins get blamed.
The hoof capsule is treated as irrelevant.

Yet the distortion was created by humans, through imbalanced trimming and shoeing to fit an image - not biology.

👉What Actually Fixed Pluto

Nothing dramatic.
Nothing invasive.
Nothing frightening.

We rebalanced his hoof capsule.

That immediately stopped:

• The tearing of the laminae
• The strain on soft tissues and joints
• The forced loading at the toe

Then we allowed the distortion to grow out. No box rest.

No bone was “put back”. It was never able to move freely in the first place.
No tendon was fought.

The system simply began working again.

👉The Uncomfortable Truth

Diet didn’t do this to Pluto.
Toxicity didn’t do this to Pluto.

Poor, imbalanced hoof care did.

And the same poor understanding nearly sent him to his grave. And if his owners hadn’t sent him to GTL, he would have followed countless other equines crippled and pts by ignorance.

We fix horses like Pluto every single day - horses written off by a rhetoric built on fear and misunderstanding.

The myth never existed.

The problem is - and always has been - a hoof capsule allowed to drift out of balance with the biology inside it.

Pluto is nearly ready to go home now. Is he out of the woods?

Yes, if his new HCP keeps on top of the balance.

No, if he’s HCP lets this happen again.

Luckily Pluto will have one of our HMB Pros to keep his capsules balanced to his internal anatomy… but how many equines are not as lucky as him?

Pluto did not recover because laminitis was managed.

He recovered because the myth of laminitis was abandoned.

The bone didn’t move.
The tendon wasn’t the enemy.
Diet wasn’t the cause.

The hoof capsule was put out of balance by humans who blamed their incorrect trimming on diet - then the right humans came along and put it right.

Until the industry accepts this, horses will keep paying the price for a story that was never true. Horses will keep losing their lives, while humans keep causing it and walking away.

This will stop. We will make sure of it.

Awesome rehab Pluto and GTL👏👏💪



HM.

Save your horse, just like Pluto’s owners did, join our free rehab group - The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

01/01/2026

29/12/2025

This still shouldn’t be happening to our beautiful equines… but it is. Ignorance is no longer bliss… help HM fix this mess!

Join their free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

The BHM Team 😤

These two X-rays were taken just days apart - of the same foot - on the same pony.

👉First X-ray: A Manufactured Crisis

The first image shows a hyper-positive palmar angle of P3 - and a crippled pony labelled with laminitis.

At this point the hoof had been subjected to:

• Repeated toe removal to “reduce leverage”
• Progressive heel elevation (not recognising compaction)
• A coronary band forced toward horizontal

This is built on the belief that toe removal protects the laminae and the DDFT - which they think is pulling P3 through the capsule.

It isn’t. It is an anatomical impossibility.

👉The Constant Everyone Ignores

The relationship between the frog and the tip of P3 is fixed. 100% FIXED.

Wherever the tip of P3 sits, it is always just in front of the apex of the frog. ALWAYS.

The frog cannot move freely within the horn of the sole - therefore neither can P3.

What we are seeing is articulation around the coffin joint, then locked into that position by excessive heel height caused by compaction - not bone rotation driven by failed laminae and tendon pull.

👉The Correction

• Lower the heels to a functional plane
• Leave the toe alone
• Remove the divergence

👉Second X-ray: The Evidence

Just days later after the trim:

• The palmar angle of P3 and the angle of the coronary band is markedly improved
• Comfort begins to increase

👉The Truth👇

The DDFT has not continued to “pull” P3 through the capsule - because it never did in the first place.

Go and read all the pointless peer-reviewed evidence showing that a DDFT tenotomy does not alter palmar angle one single bit.

And pray for all those poor souls who had their tendons cut.

Only heel rebalancing lowers the palmar angle.

👉At The Toe?

The same degree of separation remains - because damaged capsules must grow out.

👉The Question We Keep Avoiding

If P3 were truly rotating due to laminar failure, this second X-ray COULD NOT EXIST.

So why are we still:

• Cutting away toe that provides stability?
• Allowing heels to rise via compaction that lock distortion in place?
• Performing invasive procedures that do nothing to restore balance?

👉Wake Up World - You’ve Fixated On Laminitis Caused By Diet For FAR TOO LONG!

These are not failing horses.

They are hoof capsules deformed by human intervention.

Until we stop treating distorted capsules as biological failure - and start recognising them for what they are… as man-made pathology - we will keep hurting the very animals we claim to be helping.

WHY CAN’T YOU SEE THIS? (Or why don’t you WANT to see this?)



HM.

Learn how to fix your horse’s man-made “rotation” in our free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health

27/12/2025

Isn’t it crazy that the very simple problem of the outside no longer fitting the inside because of the way HCPs trim… is blamed on the word laminitis - and everyone then conveniently stops looking at the hoof capsule.

Madness. But HM are changing this and educating owners to read capsules so they start fitting the inside again.

The BHM Team 💪

When Things Stop Fitting, They Stop Working

Across the entire equine species, the inside of the hoof follows a fixed anatomical blueprint.

It does not change from horse to horse.
It does not vary by discipline.
It does not reinvent itself every six weeks.

The inside is the constant.

The outside isn’t.

The outside - the hoof capsule - is endlessly redesigned by humans.

One professional does one thing.
Another does something completely different.
And everyone pretends they’re all doing the same thing.

They’re not.

And because there is no agreed constant to follow on the outside, the capsule becomes the wild card - shaped, reshaped, lifted, chopped, backed up, wedged, flattened, rolled, bevelled - all in the name of theory.

The result?

A capsule that no longer fits the anatomy it’s meant to protect.

This is why the same horse can wear multiple “versions” of a hoof capsule over its lifetime - all wrapped around the same internal anatomy.

And during those years, that horse may become:
• intermittently sore
• chronically lame
• diagnosed with navicular
• diagnosed with white line disease
• diagnosed with sidebone
• diagnosed with laminitis

Not because the inside kept changing -
but because the outside never stopped changing.

This is also why people endlessly argue about front feet vs hind feet.

You’ll hear:

“It’s weight distribution.”
“The fronts carry more load.”
“That’s just how horses are built.”

But the reality is far simpler - and far more uncomfortable.

People interfere with front feet more than hind feet.

They trim them more aggressively.
They worry about them more.
They obsess over breakover, lever forces, toe length.
They “protect” them more.

So they distort them more.

Sometimes hind feet are left alone and look fine.
Sometimes hind feet are interfered with just as much - and then they look just as bad.

There is no mystery here.

The difference isn’t weight.
It’s human intervention.

And right at the centre of this mess sits one word:

Laminitis.

A word so weaponised that the moment it’s spoken, everyone stops looking at the hoof capsule.

The capsule and the history of how it became so distorted becomes conveniently… side-lined.

The story becomes:

“The horse couldn’t cope.”
“Barefoot failed.”
“There must be something wrong inside.”

Shoes go on. Boots go on. Toes are chopped.
Symptoms are hidden.
The capsule continues to distort - just out of sight.

Until one day, it can’t be hidden anymore.

An x-ray is taken.
Someone gasps.
And suddenly the outside damage is blamed on an internal disease.

No one looks back down at the capsule.
No one asks how it got there.

And astonishingly, the same person who created the distortion is often asked to fix it.

How strange is that?

Then comes the panic.

“He’s sinking.”
“The bone is about to pe*****te.”

And yet the internal anatomy still looks exactly like the anatomical constant it has always been.

P3 has not “gone rogue.”
It cannot sink independently.

It is restrained by a complex, interconnected system of tissues that do not suddenly stop doing their job.

What has changed - again - is the capsule.

Raised heels.
Altered planes.
Compaction.
A foot no longer aligned with the anatomy inside it.

The inside didn’t fail.
It was forced to function inside a shape that no longer matched it.

This is the truth people struggle to see.

Because it means accepting that laminitis is not a mysterious disease attacking from within - but the predictable outcome of a capsule that has been repeatedly altered without reference to anatomical constants.

And that is an uncomfortable thing to accept.

The solution, however, is brutally simple.

When the capsule is rebalanced - correctly, consistently, and in alignment with the internal anatomy - the distortion grows out.

The outside fits the inside again.

And as that happens, horses get sounder.

This is not a disease problem.

It’s a matching problem.

And until the hoof care world stops redesigning the outside without reference to the inside, we will keep mistaking human error for pathology.



HM.

Find out how to match the outside with the inside - join our free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health