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Monday, 13 September 2010

Bailey W - 2 month progress report

Bailey W has now been here for just over 2 months. He is back in work and his owner came to ride last week, which was lovely. Bailey still finds concrete and hard uneven surfaces a struggle but he is making good progress. When ridden up the fields he can hardly restrain himself and does either a very smart trot or (for preference) a bounding canter(!)...

The photos chart his LF changing quite dramatically - from day one in shoes at the top...
...then one month in, as his new hoof angle is just starting to appear...
...and finally at 2 months, with some good new growth - the band you can see at the coronet - and an improving heel.
Particularly interesting is the change in hoof/pastern axis. You can see how as his hoof health improves the angle starts naturally to become more correct as the hoof becomes more supportive. Hoof/pastern axis is important, but its a symptom not a cause - its correct when the hoof is supporting the limb load correctly.
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2 comments:

  1. jenj14 September 2010 at 00:07

    The last picture is really great, because I think my horse's feet look quite similar to this right now. It's good to know that these mismatched angles are "normal" for this stage of the game.

    I'm curious about how often you trim during this transition stage. I've trimmed four weeks apart, and this time 'round, he looks like he needs trimming at three weeks (!). Should trims be this frequent (I am used to shod horses being reshod every 6 weeks)? I realize it depends on the horse somewhat, but I'm curious about what you find as an 'average', if there is such a thing.

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  2. Nic Barker14 September 2010 at 08:59

    Hi Jen, Glad you like the photos - I never get tired of seeing hooves improving :-)

    TBH, I trim infrequently - on this particular horse there is little or nothing to trim at the moment in any case - he is missing hoof rather than needing any taken away!

    In addition, the horses here are all in work and also roam around on our tracks all day, so many of them self-trim anyway. Personally, I don't see horses here needing to be trimmed at the sort of frequency you describe but it depends also what you mean by trimming - a quick cosmetic roll to tidy the edges might well be appropriate when a full "trim" is not required :-)

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