Four week Dash

Dash arrived just over 4 weeks ago  - his photos really should have gone up on Monday but he had to wait till the new girls had had their day in the sun.

From this angle the new growth at the top of his hoof is already clear and you can see that his foot will be much more upright once it has fully grown in. 

He has gone from landing toe first to fractionally heel first which you can also see in the way his frog is developing. 

The whole back of his foot is broader now and his  foot will be much more supportive too with the widest point being further towards the back of the foot. 

Still a long way to go with a weak digital cushion but its early days and he is heading in the right direction. 

As with the right foot, this is more upright and already looking stronger. Once the whole hoof capsule has grown in his whole foot will be less under-run and have a shorter toe. 

It certainly looks as if Dash has ambitious plans to grow a really good foot!

Dash's footage is up here: https://vimeo.com/223156287

Mismatched feet - the arrival of Dallas

These feet belong to Dallas who also arrived at the weekend. She is a young horse but has developed mismatched feet most likely through loading them unevenly over a period of months.

This is her lamer foot which you can see is more upright and clubby. She is landing toe first on both feet and her frogs in particular are under-developed.

By contrast her left foot, which she is more willing to load, looks stronger. Her landing isn't great on this foot either, however, so we have plenty to do.

 More on Dallas as she hopefully makes progress during the next few weeks.

Monday means new hooves

New feet today, with the hooves belonging to Shannon, originally from Northern Ireland and more recently from much nearer, in Somerset.

 She has been shod for a number of years both in these shoes and previously in bar shoes and wedges and although they kept her sounder for a while its now time to try something different.

These are feet with quite a lot of work to do  but we've certainly seen much worse feet on horses who have gone on to do very well barefoot so I have every hope that Shannon will be one of their number in a few weeks time.

 She has been diagnosed with navicular bone damage which is worse on her left foot and she is certainly lamer on the left, and has a worse landing on that foot, but as you can see there are also some issues with the right foot which again should improve out of shoes.

 More on Shannon soon.

Twelve weeks to grow some new hooves

We have a bit of a changeover weekend coming up with horses going home and new horses arriving so its time to post some update photos. This is Jigsaw who will have been here 12 weeks tomorrow. 

If you draw an imaginary line across the widest part of his hoof its clear that its now significantly further towards the back of the hoof than it was when he arrived. This is a good thing as it means his palmar hoof is stronger and better able to support the limb. 

Jigsaw already had a reasonable frog and digital cushion so it was just a case of building it up and getting it used to more work and tougher surfaces. 

His heel is less under-run now and that chunk missing in the outer wall is a good guide to how much hoof he has grown, since it appeared just after his arrival - we think he knocked himself while travelling. 

This is now a much stronger hoof and it should continue to improve over the next 3-4 months as the rest of his new hoof capsule grows in.  

Interestingly Jigsaw had a heel first landing, just about, when he arrived, which meant we were able to begin work on hard surfaces with him at a relatively early stage compared with most horses. His frog and digital cushion therefore did not show as much deterioration as we often see.

As with the right foot, a less under-run heel and better support for the limb. I hope Jigsaw will have a very successful return home and continue going from strength to strength.

Two weeks and no trimming part 2 - Dash's update

Dash, like Dazzle yesterday, has been here for a couple of weeks so I am updating his photos as well. The angle of these photos is not comparable, for which I apologise, but you can see that he has grown a reasonable amount of foot by looking at the position of the nail holes and the angle of growth at the top of the foot. 

Dash is definitely growing in a stronger foot but it will be several more weeks before the new growth is far enough down to be clearly visible.  

He is already tidying up his own feet without any need for trimming but you can see that his frog has a way to go before it is back to full strength.

This is the business end and although its early days there are encouraging signs that Dash is rebuilding the back of his foot. 

Keep your eye on the top of the hoof; the new growth at the coronet is where we want to see changes. 

Two weeks is only a short time, of course, so the changes in his foot are not yet that easy to spot; updating his photos and video in a couple more weeks should give us more obvious improvements. 

Finally here is his video footage which, like Dazzle, shows him inching towards a better landing. 

https://vimeo.com/221386583

Two weeks and no trims

I wanted to post a quick update on Dazzle who arrived a couple of weeks ago because he is an interesting example of why we don't trim.   

He arrived with slightly wild and wooly feet which were basically quite nice but rather long. Many people would have shortened the toe but as, Dazzle has been diagnosed with a lameness which blocks to the palmar hoof, doing that would have been counterproductive as it would have increased the load on the back of his foot.

By allowing him to first develop a stronger palmar hoof we have allowed him to begin to load it of his own volition which has also had the effect of shortening his toe. Its much easier for the horse to do things this way round - dealing with the cause then the symptom - and also enhances soundness. 

These are still very early days for Dazzle but he is already using and developing the back of his foot much more and his landing is as a result showing signs of improvement too.

His footage is here https://vimeo.com/221386404 where you can also see how his movement is changing.