Georgia came here with a fairly gloomy prognosis from her vet, who had described in great detail to me over the phone all that was wrong with her feet (DDFT damage, fibrocartilage erosion, flat feet, collapsed heels etc). He felt at the time that the best that we could hope for was a "reasonably sound retired horse".
Couple this with the fact that she had a hind limb extensor tendon injury and it was clear that her rehab could be an uphill struggle. However over the last 8 weeks Georgia has made good progress, from a tense, unlevel horse (above) to one who is starting to rebalance herself and move much more correctly.
The reason for this is that her hooves are undergoing some fairly radical rebalancing as well. The steep angle change you can see in the lower photo is the hoof growth over the last 8 weeks.
From the top its obvious that the new hoof capsule will not only give her a shorter toe and stronger heels but there will also be a significant shift in medio-lateral balance.
Her palmar/caudal hoof is not yet as robust as it needs to be - and it won't be at its best until the new hoof capsule has completely grown in. Nevertheless, even with just a few weeks under her belt she is developing a stronger hoof which better supports her limb - so less strain on ligaments and tendons as well.
As you can see, her frog is nowhere near as strong as it should be (compare with Felix's hooves in this post) but its improved enough already to allow her to land better, particularly behind.
1 comment:
ahhhh can almost see her hooves breathing a deep sigh of relief.. the therapeutic power of correct(er) movement.
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