What did Christmas bring?

Besides dislocating my thumb about 3 times?  Well these (only to nurture, the horse attached is not mine, but he is lovely lovely, lovely.)

Shoes on too long, toe has shot forward, heel collapsing
 and not under leg

Weak heel

Angle incorrect, too long, proportions out

Shelly hoof wall - lacks quality horn and is soft

Long toe, heel forward not under leg, shoe on too long

Thrushy, contracted, skinny weak frog

As above - the stink was really bad

With shoe off this frog was ridiculously
 skinny, full of thrush and really squishy

All horse owners should come to learn that heels like this
are unacceptable

Not one good foot on this horse, but they will be

Currently with sore feet, sore back and a very weak hind end this horse is another which has been dismissed for 'attitude'.

To be honest with feet like that (and the knock on consequences) I think any of us would be quite justified in having 'attitude'. But you know this guy was lovely to deshoe - I didn't get any negative feedback down the leg at all. He just stood there like a proper trooper and within 20 minutes post deshoe went from looking really sad to beaming from ear to ear. (IYKWIM)

His new owner (who got me in to deshoe within days of acquiring him) reports that he has in 24 hours post deshoe started to move better and become much more cuddly.

I'll post updates of his hoof progress as I get them - but so far so good :-)

Post Script - the sad thing is that many horse owners would think that these feet were fine - even good. 

Hooves and health

Start front

+ 10 weeks front



Start side/quarter





+ 10 weeks side/quarter



 


 

Start solar

+ 10 weeks solar

Start heel

+ 10 weeks heel

The horn quality on this hoof became too poor to hold a shoe. The deep event lines, the poor quality horn and heavy rasping of the toe are indicators that something somewhere is not right and it is probably, but not necessarily diet related. Some farriers will rasp out a toe to try and correct what they know to be a bad angle - but it is far more effective (and correct) to grow a good angle to start with.

10 weeks on, with a new diet it can be seen that the top half of the hoof has fewer event lines. The new horn has a better texture and the colours are more clearly defined and the darker shades have a deeper hue.

When first seen the coronary bands on this horses hooves wer almost horizontal, (a little earlier tthan the first photos in the entry but the camera with them on suffered my usual techno trauma). Here it can be seen hhow the hoof is adopting a more natural form. A lot of the change is self determined - as the shoes have been removed - but this has been helped by a correct trim according to the principles of the AANHCP. In particular the heels were lowered and the quarters relieved.

Although the heel views are not the same - I think you will be able to see how the central sulcus has filled out, cleared of thrush thanks to the determined efforts of the main carer. What is particularly interesting is that although the hoof horn in the heel area is shorter, the heel itself is bigger, more robust, 'beefy'. So the 'big' heel which some try to achieve by leaving the heel horn high, has been achieved by building up the back of the foot. This will allow the hoof to function much more effectively.

Although this is a challenging case - it still rocks! Best wishes and all the best to this horse and their people.