Bodywork and Lucy's hoof shift

A very interesting day yesterday when Susi Maxfield, an equine massage therapist, came to do some of the Rockley horses.  She is based way down in Cornwall but we have worked on horses together before and I was delighted to be able to persuade her to add Rockley to the northern edge of her round!

Horses are usually very good at indicating what they think of bodywork, and Lucy  - who has a lot of weakness in her hamstrings particularly on the right side - was especially demonstrative, first having a big stretch and cleverly using the wall to help(!) and then sleeping it off.

 Lucy has been here for less than 3 weeks but its interesting to see that a shift in hoof balance is already occurring.  The most interesting shot is of her caudal hoof, because you can see that the medio-lateral imbalance is already better than it was. Compare her RF hoof on day one...

...with how it looked yesterday - better structure, more even loading and stronger and more level heels.

This of course has a knock-on effect on her stance and how she loads her hooves.   She is a tough little horse, but even I was amazed at how fast this is happening!

Compare the way she is loading her hooves, between when she arrived (day one above) and now (below).