I wanted to post these photos yesterday for Thomas' owner, Emily, but its tricky to blog without electricity so here we go today instead. Its been a week with lots of hoof updates rather than more general posts, but that's just the way some weeks go!
Tom has been here 9 weeks - he had been out of shoes for several months before he arrived. He was landing slightly heel first, which was good, but had issues with sole sensitivity and despite his landing had a weak palmar hoof. We hoped that some time on the tracks combined with work on varied surfaces would help take his feet a stage further.
Here he is 9 weeks later - no trimming has been done at all but he has been allowed to move as much as he wanted on the tracks and has also been worked on the roads and tracks here as long as he was comfortable. Its still not a terribly strong foot but he is happier to load the back of the foot and he has much more development there too.
His frog and heels were under-developed but he has made good progress in beefing up his frog and strengthening his heels. These photos are a good illustration of why correct work and stimulus are more important than trimming.
A trim would have lowered the heels in the top photo, but that would have put more pressure on a weedy frog. In contrast, allowing him to work on stimulating surfaces has improved both frog and heels so that he has a better base of support and a better ability to shock absorb.
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