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Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Happier hooves = happier horse

 I'm posting some early comparison photos of Flynn because, even after only a week, a lot has been happening.   When he arrived he was very unlevel as you can see from his original footage  - not to mention his vet's assessment that he was 5-6/10 lame.
He was overdue for shoeing so his hooves were long when he arrived, but look at how quickly they have changed in only 8 days.   His frog wasn't functioning as it should, and it was desperate for weightbearing stimulus. 
And for anyone who says horses' frogs shouldn't be weightbearing - Flynn is definitely sounder now than he was a week ago...And for the celery fans - no, he hasn't been trimmed :-)  
These changes are the function of movement on conformable surfaces - no tools required.
I'm not saying horses should never be trimmed, but for rehab horses, its better to let them build weak areas through correct movement rather than whacking off hoof wall and forcing them to load at our timescale.  Changes happen very quickly on good surfaces anyway.

Of course Flynn has only just begun to improve his hooves and this is only the beginning, but - though far from sound -  he is already feeling better than he was.  I took this footage as a quick assessment - it was literally seconds on a circle, but its a useful benchmark.
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1 comment:

  1. Media Wurzel27 May 2011 at 18:33

    Hi Nic. Wow! It is so good to see Flynn looking so much better on a circle already. A long way to go, but I am so pleased with his progress in such a short amount of time. His hooves really are changing quickly aren't they? I managed to view this on my mobile when I was away being a beaver (?!?!) but too knackered at end of day to respond (+ replying on my mobile is a bit faffy). Grateful for the footage and videos nonetheless. Hope to pop down and see him next week will check what days you said were busy and get back to you. I'm really happy something positive is happening with my oversize pony!

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