Reason I ask - couple of conversations recently made me realise that with shoes covering up our horses feet we really have little idea of what is going on underneath and often during the shoeing process we are not always encouraged to have a good look or ask questions.
So just to get the thought process flowing - have a look at the two pictures above. Recently deshod, not trimmed because the hoof carer was concerned there was nothing to take off.
Your thoughts please - no wrong answers as such. I will post more on this in a few days.
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7 comments:
My guess would be a streched white...err black line. Clefts look a little thrushy.
I think the heels are high, but it's hard to tell under those lovely feathers. The hoof is a little imbalanced laterally, but not bad.
I'd like to see the crumbly sole scraped away to see just how much is retained in there. Then roll the hoof appropriately. What's going on in the sulcus? It doesn't look contracted, but there could be a deep thrushy crack in it. The bars look a little folded over, but again it's hard to tell. "nothing to take off" doesn't mean "don't do anything."
Well, all things considered, this horse's hoof doesn't look all that bad for being recently de-shod. From the side it appears very upright, even with the feathers hiding half of it! So despite the farrier's resistance to trimming it, I would have taken the heels down and rolled the hoof all the way around.
Also, there is quite a bit of black gunky rot going on, and the sole looks pithy and in need of some exfoliation.... it's hard to tell from a photo without actually going to work on the hoof to see what's truly going on.... but I would guess there is some compacted sole material. But otherwise... the frog looks pretty good and he appears to have some hoof wall to work with.
OT, but I recently heard of equine canker. Have you had to deal with this severe form of thrush??
The jury is still out on canker. Current majority is that it is not thrush. However anything like this gets vet referral.
To me (non expert) the hooves don't look bad at all for a recently deshod horse.
I see thrush, crumbling sole, overgrown wall. Difficult to see how much stretch in the white line but doesn't look too compromised, heels look high. I can't make out any event lines on the bit of hoof wall I can see.
Oh,forgot to say the bars especially the right side of the pic look long and a little overlaid too.
Looking forward to your comments Lucy.
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