Stretched white line and tales of the unexpected

Well yesterday was weird but kind of wonderful.

Here is a snapshot of the highlights:

Key note: Soaking hay - a pain, but not as much as when it can't be done, the happy sound lamis become unhappy footy lamis on the dry stuff.  This is very noticeable on the rounds today.

Deshod one horse, must have been in agony because most of the nails (6 per foot) were through the white line. Horse was a total gent throughout.  Oddly his fronts had been 'scalped' (toe wall rasped to white line and sole taken down to the quick) but his backs were mile high with chalk and excess wall.  Can't think of any justification for that.  I have to be honest the shoeing was pretty bad.  Big chap but the gap between the heels was left at not much more than an inch. No surprise his feet are massively contracted.

Big time lami still sound despite problems with hay, but the foot is showing the signs - not a lot to take off volume wise, but very important to keep on top of balance and roll for this one.

New horse (a) - badly stretched white line with loads of blood.  Lameness not immediately obvious because equally short on all four.  I didn't plan it, but while I am talking the owner through the feet and what I am seeing, I find myself getting pretty tough.  Probably tougher than usual.  I worry I have over done it and when I get a call today I am expecting a telling off.  Instead owner tells me they are onboard and are overhauling diet.  Haylage yet again is the key suspect. Very pleased for horse; total gent, the sort that gets kissy when they know you are trying to help and always does their best no matter how poorly they are.  Owner is great for taking hard news on the chin and putting her horse first.

New horse (b) - simple consult - as above; makes me wonder why existing hoof care provider for this horse hasn't said anything?

Regular client (RC1) - sore legs; getting better thanks to dedicated owner.  Still have to trim without touching his legs at all (trust me it's really tricky!) but we have reached an agreement - I will avoid touching his legs and he will do his best not to kick me.  It takes a while but he gets done and we both walk away sound :-)

RC2 - Big teaching session - ambition to get horse more or less self maintaining.  Horse is slightly tricky, but the owner is very capable and the right person for the job.

RC3 - Also teaching session - not just hooves, but lots to explore on diet.  Horse is in trouble, but hides it well before reaching a point where it is all just too much.  I see a lot of horses like this.  Unfortunately too many get blamed and then 'lumped' for what is really human error.  This owner is too smart for that kind of nonsense and is using her brain to help her horse, rather than a stick to beat it.  Gold stars for this one - we will get there.  Smashing horse, smashing owner *

Newbie - horse never known to be sound, walks like a clown.  Not really surprising, the poor thing is on stilts.  Horse is nervous but co-operative, doesn't have the muscle tone to handle too much, so we do enough to restore balance without being prissy.  Makes my (and the owner's) day when the horse walks off like a dead posh expensive show horse.  Get a text this morning reporting that horse is still smiling and is being very, very affectionate.  R-E-S-U-L-T :-)

* The wonderful thing about today - lots of tricky horses, but every owner/carer is determined to work in their horse's best interests, even if it means putting their own ambitions to one side for a while.  Big hugs and gold stars to all of them.

And why weird; ah well, I have to have some secrets :-)

Do horseshoes hurt horses?

This post was inspired by something I read on a forum today. Someone was having difficulties with a horse that didn't want to be shod. This post attempts to illustrate why some horses might object to being shod.

The shoe below was nailed onto a cadaver under veterinary supervision to illustrate the 'ideal' positioning of a horseshoe nail. You can see the nail penetrates the water line (unpigmented inner hoof wall) before exiting via the outer hoof wall. You can also see how close that nail gets to the white line or laminae. As you know this is an incredibly sensitive area - just like your own nail bed. To hold the shoe on effectively the nail must go through the water line - it is the tough part of the hoof wall. The outer wall is relatively soft by comparison.

In this example (p1) the water line appears to be in good condition.

But for many shod horses the water line is in much poorer condition. Look at the foot below. You can see the white line is stretched - so the foot is already compromised and probably painful (p2). And if you squint (try clicking on the picture to enlarge it) you can see how emaciated the water line is, especially in the left area of the toe.

The water line is patchy and in places virtually non existant (p3 and p4). Where would a farrier put a nail on this foot?

In the fifth photo (p5) you can see a couple of nail holes in the left hand quarter. You can see how close they are to the white line - the equivalent of your own nail bed. I'll let you figure out if that hurt or not.

This is my own horse - shod before I got her. She hates being shod and hates farriers. I wonder why?

Fortunately after a bit of TLC her white line has reasserted itself - it took about 16 weeks to get a water line around the whole foot (p6). This is a terrible picture, just before a much needed trim, but check out the toe area - much tighter white line and the water line is getting fatter. I will see if I can get a better picture in the next few days.

Transition to barefoot of an unhealthy foot

This foot was never 'officially' diagnosed as suffering from laminitis. But the signs were there. Stretched white line with blood at the toe. Significant stress rings and a dropped sole.

The first picture is beginning of Sept 09, the second is today Feb 2010. I have edited this post to put in today's picture. If you click on it you can clearly see how the foot is still scooting forward, but we are getting there. Both pictures right fore.

It's easy to see how distorted the hoof capsule is in the first photo. The toe is too long, the heel underslung and there is a wave in the coronary band where the quarter is out of whack.

In the second photo (apologies for the mud) you can see a much shorter hoof capsule overall, the heel is back in the correct position and there is no distortion in the coronary band. The mustang roll is less than pretty, but we are working on that :-)

These pictures have a bigger time frame between them. The first is beginning Sept 09, the second is today, beginning Feb 2010. Both right fore.

You can easily see how the foot has decontracted and the concavity has improved signifcantly. There is still more to go, but we are making progress. This hasn't been achieved because of the trim, but because the whole lifestyle of the horse has been addressed (DEET).

The horse was allowed to self trim its sole and bars which happened very quickly once the shoes were removed. The bars were badly overlaid and had become embedded in the sole.

Underneath the overlaid bars were substantial, weeping corns.

The 'live' sole was more convex than concave and there was a significant amount of bloody torn laminae at the toe. All in all a very sick and painful foot.

Despite the difficulties we are making progress and today the horse was able to walk comfortably over a patch of large, fairly sharp stones.