Long hooves, bar shoes and slightly more than celery

These are Paddy's feet - he arrived last Thursday in bar shoes and because he was overdue for shoeing his feet were very long; I had asked his owner to leave his shoes on a bit longer as that was preferable to having him shod a couple of weeks before he came here.

As is my current practice, I didn't trim his feet at all once his shoes were off, even though his hoof wall was long, as I wanted him to have a bit of time to get used to loading his hooves in a completely different way.   By Sunday however he had already chipped off lots of the long hoof wall from his quarters, so I got out my nippers and tidied up, taking no more than he had already removed and leaving toe and heels well alone. 

This is his hoof on Monday.  Of course he is covered in mud, despite my attempts to brush most of it off (this is Exmoor, after all, and although we have had a beautiful day, the ground is not exactly parched).  Nevertheless, you can just about see that his hairline is less distorted and his heels are less underrun.  Don't forget, I haven't trimmed his toes or heels at all. 

From the caudal view you get a good sense of how the bar shoe was functioning - although Paddy's landing is actually pretty good, considering, his caudal hoof is in desperate need of development - which means frog stimulus.   On MRI he has lesions to his DDFT but thats not going to improve unless his caudal hoof strengthens.

The same foot today - muddier of course (!)...  His frog is still comparatively weak and his heels are high  - but at the moment he needs the latter to protect the former.  However, even after this short time, his frog is less contracted as the removal of the shoes takes effect.

Importantly, Paddy is very happy without his shoes and is stomping around on his newly discovered feet, which is lovely to see :-)  Footage of him soon...