Blue's hooves

Blue has made great progress since I last put photos up.  He now strides out over tarmac and has become so much fitter that he no longer finds it a chore to go out but really seems to enjoy himself :-)

He is due to go home soon, and you can see from the photos that although his hooves are getting much stronger, it will take another few months of work from him and his owner before he has grown a full hoof capsule. 

The lower photo shows his hoof growth rate since he arrived he in the first week of April - the tighter, richer coloured band in the top third of his hoof shows the growth since then.  See - hooves really do grow from coronet to floor in 4-6 months when you have a hard-working barefoot horse :-)

I've posted the sole shots, with apologies for the dirt - I had only just picked them out! - because it shows you how much frog development you get in a relatively short time.  

Also (but its harder to see from these photos) you may be able to spot that his collateral groove depth is improving significantly and will get better still once he has grown in his full new hoof capsule.