31/01/2026
When sore feet get mistaken for personality 🫣
I have written before about Sensitive Sole Dysregulation Disorder (SSDD), so I will not unpack it again here. What matters is how often sore feet get rebranded as personality traits, temperament flaws, spookiness, “trauma,” or whatever emotional diagnosis happens to be fashionable this week.
Hoof pain is inconveniently subtle. Hooves do not bleed or swell theatrically. When all four feet hurt, as is common with laminitis, thin soles, poor angles, or metabolic stress, horses do not limp in reassuring ways.
There is nowhere comfortable to limp to. Instead, the stride shortens, rhythm unravels, the body tightens, and the horse feels wrong while looking mostly fine.
Because nothing looks dramatic enough, the explanation shifts to behaviour. Suddenly the horse is emotional, reactive, sensitive, or “just like that.” Riders reach for a training fix or a trauma narrative rather than asking a boring but far more useful question about physical comfort.
Years ago, a client told me her gelding was an “adrenaline junkie.” What she was actually describing was a horse who moved better once adrenaline kicked in and fell apart when asked to soften. That is not thrill-seeking. That is pain management.
Adrenaline dulls pain perception just enough to make movement tolerable. Calm states remove that buffer, which is why these horses struggle most when asked to settle.
Sore feet quietly sabotage movement, balance, posture, and behaviour all at once. Then training escalates while the real problem keeps doing its quiet damage.
Not everything is a hoof problem, but sore feet are astonishingly good at disguising themselves as bad behaviour. Before diagnosing personality, check what the horse is standing on.
Collectable Advice 139/365 😎
