Bruised sole

Last week I noticed some bruising on 2 of Blaze's feet, one front and one hind. He's not tender when I press on the spots nor is he limping at all. I'm sure it's from all the walking around he has to do on snow/ice, and he probably had some snow packed into his hooves multiple times.

I DO have a call in to the farrier, but he hasn't gotten back to my BO about when he's coming out. He needs a trim, but I also wanted an opinion on the bruising.

Because I haven't dealt with this before, I haven't been riding him since I discovered them.



The coloring on both bruised hooves has turned a more brown color now, which, if I attribute it to human healing, means it's getting better. Should I continue not riding him? I've been doing a lot of easy groundwork (no lunging) but I do miss riding him.

If he's not limping, warm, moving uneasily or sensitive to applied pressure, I would keep riding. Some horses are more tolerant than others to this sort of thing. He has a nice looking foot; probably why he doesn't mind. We all get bumps and bruises, but we can carry on.

Thanks! I'm curious-what about his foot looks "nice"? I'm always curious how people judge good feet, because I don't know much about it myself.

As you say, he is due for a trim -- his heels and bars need doing for sure. But his foot is uniform, concave, decent frog. Though I would leave more toe callous on him. Now if I could have some of those heels for my girl we'd both be set!

I agree that it depends on the horse, too. It's really not that unusual for barefoot horses to get sole bruises from rocks, frozen ground (can be worse than rocks), stumps of little trees, etc. Some horses are not bothered at all and some get very tender. They don't seem to bother our mares and we'll continue riding, but keep them off the sharp rocks until it's grown out.