Sisco

Finally for this week here is our last arrival, Sisco who has come all the way from Germany. He has been diagnosed on MRI with bilateral navicular degeneration and pedal osteitis - fortunately for me the MRI report was in excellent English!

He has long toes and of course its no surprise that he is landing toe first. The usual reaction to seeing feet like this is to want to shorten the toe - its something we talked about quite a bit last weekend at Writtle University College. 

In fact although the long toe is problematic it is a symptom of the weak palmar hoof rather than a cause. How do we know this? Because if you shorten the toe in these horses before the palmar hoof becomes stronger they will usually become lamer.  

The aim of rehab and the aim of remedial farriery is the same: to strengthen and support the palmar hoof, but with rehab the additional strength and support comes from within the hoof capsule not from external structures. 

 Once the palmar hoof has developed the toe will naturally shorten as the foot loads more correctly and becomes less under-run. This is what we hope to see with Sisco over the next few weeks.

Sisco's footage is here: https://vimeo.com/manage/321948162

Mac

 Mac is the penultimate new arrival, making his way here on a very stormy Sunday from Oxfordshire - its a good thing he was not one of the long distance travellers!

I saw Mac last autumn, as he is a horse I have known for a few years, and he has had problematic feet for a while. He's a big moving horse but has never really developed the back of his foot properly despite spending most of his last few years out of shoes.

Equally, occasional spells of being shod have not helped either so he has come here to see if an intensive few weeks of rehab can convince him to grow a better foot! 

Although they don't look too bad in a lateral shot, once you pick a foot up you can see the uneven hairline and weak heels. At the moment this is his worse foot but his lameness flip-flops from right to left over time. 

His right foot is better balanced and again looks ok from the side.  He is landing better on this foot although thats a fairly recent development. 

The frog on this foot is doing more work and the foot shows the benefit of this better loading. His hairline is also more even but his frog is a long way from being as healthy as it could be so we have plenty to work on!

Mac's footage is here: https://vimeo.com/321944848

Humphrey

Continuing the log book of our arrivals is Humphrey, the third of the new rehab horses. 

Humphrey has a history of lameness on the RF and MRI showed 2 DDFT tears as well as related navicular bone damage. 

This is his better foot, which by comparison with the RF is more balanced. Its also the foot he is happier to load - in fact it was tricky to get a good photo of his RF on the ground, as you can see below.

His owner commented when we were first in touch that he has "decent" looking feet, which is true, but as we often see with horses who come here its not always the nicest looking feet which function the best. 

By contrast with Poppy, for instance, you might say that Humphrey has the better-looking feet but his landing is worse, as he is actually toe first on both front feet, not just the right.

 We will want to see improvements in his palmar hoof, of course, in the next few weeks so look out for his updated photos in due course.

 Humphrey's video footage is here: https://vimeo.com/321691431

Poppy

 Poppy is the next of the new rehab horses. She is an event mare from Ireland who has had recurrent lameness since 2017. MRI showed DDFT, collateral ligament and navicular bone damage which had worsened over the period to October 2018.

She has been out of shoes since November of last year which has certainly given her a head start in her rehab. Her landing has reportedly improved over that time and at the moment she is landing heel first (which was not the case a few weeks ago), meaning we can progress with her in hand work more quickly than usual.

Looking at her feet there are clues that the new landing is relatively recent as her frogs are still contracted and there is evidence of historic media-lateral imbalance in her uneven heel bulbs and hairline.

She also has a tendency to thrush, probably again because of the contraction in her frogs and palmar hoof. This is under control now and should improve with her better landing. 

Overall there is a lot to like about Poppy's feet and she has made a good start to her rehab before she even arrived here.

We will want to see further improvement in her frog and digital cushion and a rebalancing of her feet as well but she is on the right track.

Her footage is here: https://vimeo.com/321432273

Billy

We have had a new intake of rehab horses arrive over the weekend so I will be posting all their new pics and videos over the next few days.

First up is Billy, the only one who has arrived in shoes, and who was diagnosed in August last year on MRI with DDFT and navicular bone damage in both front feet although he is lamer on the right foot.

He has been shod in bar shoes with pads but his lameness persisted.

 I filmed him on arrival in his shoes and these photos are of his feet straight out of shoes, starting with his worse (right) foot.

There is the fairly typical long toe and contracted frog - the bar shoes and pads had enabled him to land heel first but had of course prevented the frog and back of the foot from receiving any stimulus so it is not surprising that they look weak.

As ever, this is the business end which we will hope to see improving over the next few weeks.

Although he is not as lame on this foot there are obvious issues and as with the right foot the palmar hoof is under-run and has effectively collapsed.

 A slightly better looking frog on this foot but looking at the heels the level of under-run is clear.

Billy's footage is also up on Vimeo for those who are interested: https://vimeo.com/321219317  

We are on Instagram!

I've put Rockley Farm on Instagram and I will be posting lots of extra pics on there so please come over and find us - just search Rockley Farm and we should pop up looking like this...

The foundations of soundness

This is a post, fundamentally, about how to keep a horse sound.

It will come as no surprise to most of you, I suspect, that in my experience soundness in a horse is built from the ground upwards.

In other words, a horse has to be able to load its bodyweight  - that great mass of several hundred kilos, several feet up in the air - onto its relatively tiny hooves in the most balanced way possible in order to avoid injury.

Even when a horse is simply standing, there is a tremendous load - his whole bodyweight - being transferred to a very small surface area - his four hooves. Once you add in movement the load immediately increases and the faster the speed, the greater the load and the greater the force on the tendons and ligaments of the limbs.

Other factors, such as hard ground, jumping or uneven surfaces can also put further stress on soft tissue.

For all horses, whatever their work level and whatever stage they are at in their training, it is essential to ensure that their feet are as balanced as possible.

On a balanced foot the risk of injury is reduced because the tendons and ligaments of both the hoof and the limb are able to function as effectively as possible and provide the maximum support.

When I film horses (either at my workshops or when horses come here) it is dynamic balance I am looking for - does the horse land heel first, is his medio-lateral balance correct, are his hooves supporting his limbs and body in the best possible way?

Very often there is a problem which can be seen in slow motion and the horse has a history of lameness. It can also be a warning sign that something needs to be improved before the horse is asked to work harder or faster.

On a couple of occasions a horse with less-than-perfect foot balance has been sound at the time of filming but has developed an injury a few months later. Like us, horses can compensate for a while but a compensation causes strain on other soft tissue and is rarely sustainable in the long term.

So do take the time to check how your horse is landing -  film on your phone and assess his foot balance. Check it in motion because hooves are built to move and it is once a horse is moving that his foot balance either starts to help him or make him more prone to injury.