Thursday 17 February 2011

Isha's gone home

Isha went home on Tuesday.  She is a very striking looking mare, with one blue and one brown eye, and and I had to open the blog post with a couple of absolutely stunning photos that Sam took of her :-)

I had a great email from her owner to say they had arrived safely back at her new yard and Isha stomped down a gravel track to her new field and made friends with all her new pony chums over a bale of haylage :-)

She has gone home with her hooves still a "work in progress" particularly where the old abscess damage has to grow out, but also because (as with most horses when they go home) she has grown only half a new hoof capsule and her hooves will become stronger over the next 3-4 months as the full strong new hoof grows in completely.
Isha's right front hoof a month ago
The same foot as she went home
Her sole doesn't look completely balanced but the reason for that becomes much more obvious when you look at a lateral shot.  The ridge is the effect of the abscess and below it you can see where the weakened hoof wall has broken away.  In the sole shot it appears as a lack of heel buttress and bar - the damaged, weak structure has gone and stronger new growth is appearing but (as you can see from the lower photo) its not yet completely replaced and repaired the old damaged area. 

For now, although her right front is not quite as well balanced as it will be, work will help her feet grow stronger and faster and it shouldn't be long before her right front is as good as her superbly strong left front!

5 comments:

Dom said...

Wow. Talk about a flat foot! Good to see the improvement, even if she does still have a way to go.

smazourek said...

Is that ridge only showing on one side of her hoof or is the second picture of a different foot altogether?

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photos of her eyes...

Nic Barker said...

Smazourek, the lower photo is her LF, so no ridge - you are correct, it goes all the way round.

Dare Gothic Clothing said...

Once again just want to say a massive thank you from myself and Isha, we've been out on our first 2 hacks at home and although Isha is picking her way carefully around the uneven rocky ground (to be expected until the damage from the abscess grows out), she is sound and stomping along merrily on the roads at home and on the gravel lane to the stables. Its not just the remarkable change in her hooves it is the total change in her attitude and behaviour - I said goodbye to a neurotic and explosive mare at the end of 9 months box rest back in Novemeber, and this week brought home a relaxed and enthusiastic mare who can't wait to get on with her work. If she wasn't so distinctive to look at I would have suspected Nic had swapped horses on me!! ;) So happy to have her home. Thanks a million, if a prospective client ever needs a recommendation just pass on my email, I know how worried I was to send Isha away and it was the best decision I could ever have made for my mare :)