Project Dexter results so far

Project Dexter is our research project into rehabilitation of horses with "navicular", caudal hoof pain, DDFT/collateral liagment injuries.

Every horse who comes to Rockley with these diagnoses is included in the project, which runs entirely due to the help, goodwill and support of Prof. Peter Clegg at Liverpool and numerous horse-owners and their vets, to whom I am eternally grateful! Horses are assessed by their own vets, and 10 different (and sceptical!) vets have been involved so far.

The preliminary results for Project Dexter are shown below. The research project started in February 2008, with Dexter and horses are listed chronologically.

As at June 2010, 13 horses are included - 10 have completed their rehab, 3 are ongoing. 8 out of 10 horses are in full work, including jumping and hunting; 1 horse returned to light work; 1 horse (which had severe bone damage) improved but did not return to full work. 7 out of 10 horses have been re-assessed by their referring vet, confirming the improvement or return to soundness.

I have had to shrink the table to fit it onto the blog - if anyone is interested in the full details, please email me: nic@rockleyfarm.co.uk and I will send you a copy.

Horse name	Vet assessment before rehab	Other treatments used previously	Vet assessment after rehab
Dexter 9yo TB	3/10 lame LF	Remedial farriery, barefoot, Cartrophen, joint supplements	Sound In full work
Hector 6yo ISH	1-2/10 lame bilaterally	N/A	Level, shorter stride in trot on 5m circle on gravel In full work
Erik 9yo WB	3/10 lame LF 1/10 lame RF MRI: DDFT damage bilaterally, worse LF	Remedial farriery (raised heel bar shoes), IRAP	Sound LF 1/10 lame RF
Uriel 8yo KWPN	2/10 lame bilaterally	Remedial farriery	[Not yet re-vetted] In full work
Blue 10yo IDxTB	3/10 lame LF	IRAP	[Not yet re-vetted] In full work
Paul 11yo ISH	3-4/10 lame LF	Remedial farriery (wedges)	Sound In full work
Bobby 11yo ISH	4-5/10 lame X-ray: Severe bone damage	Remedial farriery (glue on, heartbars)	2/10 lame
Charlie 9yo ISH	3/10 lame LF 2/10 lame RF	Remedial farriery (heartbars)	[Not yet re-vetted] In full work
Frankie 7yo TB	1-4/10 lame bilaterally MRI: bilateral DDFT, DSIL, collateral ses. lig damage	Remedial farriery, Cartrophen, joint supplement (MSM, glucosamine)	Sound In full work
Lady 10yo Welsh x	2/10 lame LF (straight line) MRI: DDFT damage, worse RF	Remedial farriery (NB)	Sound (straight line) In full work
Lexus 19yo ISH	1-2/10 lame LF	Remedial farriery (heartbars), biotin	In full work
Storm 8yo ISH	3/10 lame LF MRI: DDFT damage, worse LF	Barefoot
Bailey 8yo WBxTB	2/10 lame LF MRI: Collateral ligament damage	Remedial farriery (wedges, Centrefit, PLR), Tildren, IRAP

Wedges - the movie(!)

I've had a chance to look at the footage I took at the weekend, and here is a short clip of the new boy in his wedges.

The two things to look out for are the toe first landing in front and his stride length - he is just about tracking up in these shots, but his movement is rather pokey - its easier to see in the real time footage, but you almost get the feeling that he is "marching on the spot" rather than stretching out.

I will try to get some comparative footage and photos up as soon as I can :-)

Effect of wedges

The subject of wedged shoes came up a few days ago. Its a form of remedial shoeing which is a relatively common means of trying to take pressure off the deep digital flexor tendon, so its often suggested for "navicular" horses and horses with DDFT injuries.

These shoes have the effect of raising the horse's heels which mechanically makes sense - in a static horse, raising the heels shortens the DDFT. There is an extreme example shown here.

Once moving, the effect of wedged heels is that the horse is effectively walking "uphill" at every step - and if you watch any normal horse walking on a slope, going uphill will make it land more toe first and going down hill will make it land more heel first.

Of course, horses with DDFT/navicular pathology always prefer to walk up hill than down hill, because the back of the hoof is the area which is painful for them.

So on the face of it, wedged shoes are a good idea because they allow the horse to walk toe first all the time...Except that we know that a toe first landing causes undue strain on soft tissue over time, including on the DDFT itself.

There is also the huge problem that landing toe first does not allow the horse any real ability to shock absorb, as there is simply nothing which can fulfil this function in the toe, so every stride on hard ground will jar the limb.

A wedged heel is therefore a way of alleviating caudal pain for the short term, but it doesn't provide a solution. In fact, as these types of shoes don't allow the DDFT to fully extend, they can be problematic if used for too long.

Interestingly, Denoix and Pailloux recommend stretching the DDFT as an important part of rehabilitation, and this involves lowering the heel, and raising the toe to fully extend the DDFT.