Isha's gone home

Isha went home on Tuesday.  She is a very striking looking mare, with one blue and one brown eye, and and I had to open the blog post with a couple of absolutely stunning photos that Sam took of her :-)

I had a great email from her owner to say they had arrived safely back at her new yard and Isha stomped down a gravel track to her new field and made friends with all her new pony chums over a bale of haylage :-)

She has gone home with her hooves still a "work in progress" particularly where the old abscess damage has to grow out, but also because (as with most horses when they go home) she has grown only half a new hoof capsule and her hooves will become stronger over the next 3-4 months as the full strong new hoof grows in completely.

Isha's right front hoof a month ago

The same foot as she went home

Her sole doesn't look completely balanced but the reason for that becomes much more obvious when you look at a lateral shot.  The ridge is the effect of the abscess and below it you can see where the weakened hoof wall has broken away.  In the sole shot it appears as a lack of heel buttress and bar - the damaged, weak structure has gone and stronger new growth is appearing but (as you can see from the lower photo) its not yet completely replaced and repaired the old damaged area. 

For now, although her right front is not quite as well balanced as it will be, work will help her feet grow stronger and faster and it shouldn't be long before her right front is as good as her superbly strong left front!