We had a new horse arrive at the end of last week all the way from Dubai. She found the 30 degree drop in temperature a shock, its fair to say, and has had to go into a heavyweight winter rug until she acclimatises (which lets face it is likely to happen sooner than it warming up here!).
Her feet are interesting because they are the feet of a horse who has lived on sand. I have heard comments before from owners whose horses were in Dubai that they have extremely concave feet with what look to our eyes like under-developed frogs.
You can certainly see that in this mare's feet and in a UK horse with frogs and heels like this you would expect a weak palmar hoof and a toe first landing.
However in her case the hoof shape is likely to be more to do with the environment she was living in and if so her feet should rapidly adjust now that she is in a different environment with different surfaces.
It will be fascinating to monitor how her feet develop.
3 comments:
Shape sort of makes sense when you think about the kind of surface she's been on, it's deep and takign a good grip is probably more important than shock absorption. Will be interesting to see if there are any issues with the difference in moisture content in time. Guess you'll see a massive event line. Well done on having International clients now :)
watching with interest 😊, love what you do
She is the second Dubai horse Bruce, and we've also had other international horses (European and New Zealand) before now.
Thanks Tessa - should be interesting :-)
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