"He puts his feet down heel first, which laminitics often do, but as there is no sign of laminitis it must just be the way he moves".
Well done to him, I suppose for spotting how the hoof landed, but surely it should be a toe first landing which is a red flag in a vetting (as with the horse I blogged about here) , not a heel first landing?!
He then went on to say to the prospective owner:
"He won't need shoeing unless he's going to do a lot of roadwork".
Now in some ways its amusing, but really this vet had no excuse - he is in an area where he will have come into contact with a number of excellent UKNHCP practitioners, including at least one farrier; the horse was on a yard where all the horses are barefoot and working hard; the vet's own practice has at least one client who has evented barefoot horses for several years.
Fortunately there is a fairly concerted education campaign going on up there, but you can only educate people who are willing to learn...
He was a she :-).
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised she made the comments. She's the vet who comes to do my flu jabs, and every year she has seen Zippy she has made me trot him up for her because she thinks he is such a super horse - but somehow she never noticed his pronounced heel first landing. Go figure!
C :-)
Sorry about the gender confusion! I'm not surprised - I know at least 2 vets down here who would say the same, having seen gazillions of different horses stomping here without shoes (!) There's none so blind...
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