Tuesday 27 March 2012

Wedges are definitely "in" this year...

We had a new arrival at the weekend - Eva, a 15 year old IDxTB mare who had been diagnosed at Leahurst with a DDFT tear.
Her vet and farrier have worked hard to try and improve her lameness over the past few months and she arrived in wedge shoes and pads.
She has an interesting hoof/pastern axis, particularly on her RF, and although the wedges have shored up the back of her foot its clearly very weak.  Her toe is also very long, especially if you envisage her foot minus the wedges.
Not a lot to see at the moment! In fact the gel had done a reasonably good job and out of shoes her frog was not half as bad as it would have been in the bar shoe alone.
 Nevertheless, that's a frog and digital cushion that desperately need better stimulus.  It also looks as if her medio-lateral balance isn't quite right - it may just be the camera angle but the foot does seem to be tending to collapse medially.

Eva is now out of shoes and enjoying the new experience of living in a mixed herd - she is rather like the girl from a select seminary for young ladies who has suddenly started a new term at Grange Hill(!).  Though she thought they were a bit of an odd crowd she is now well on the way to finding her feet - in every sense.

3 comments:

Steph said...

Nice to see one I know of personally, looking forwards to seeing her and the others when I finally get back over to you!

Kristen Eleni Shellenbarger said...

Oh boy..this was US two years ago. Wedges, and shoes and all the yuck. The day I decided to STOP the insanity and yank Laz's shoes was the best day, or was it the day after where he despite being in some pain, was moving so much better. Kudos to you and showing images so those like myself can continue to learn! Thanks...

Lainey said...

Bailey had wedges for 6 months he was crippled by them so i insisted they came off! now barefoot for 18 months and moves better than he ever ha, this is reflected on every dressage comment sheet he has.x