Back to normal blogging - the first hoof update for 2013! I have lots to blog about but thought I'd start as I mean to go on, with more changing hooves.
These belong to Rocky, who went home between Christmas and New Year, in the teeth of pouring rain, flooding and some truly horrible weather that had dogged us for most of the month. The top photo shows him on arrival when he had just pulled off his remedial shoes.
Here he is 4 weeks later and the lower photo is how he looked on his last day - a shorter toe, a more robust heel and less deviation in the hairline.
But its from the sole that you see what is really happening with his medio-lateral balance. When he arrived he - like many horses - was overloading the lateral side and had little medial support. His sole was asymmetric and it was that which needed to change.
By the time he goes home the foot is starting to become more balanced even though he has another 3 months when he should continue to improve. If you look up his limb its also becoming less twisted - all with no trimming, but lots of mileage - interesting, eh?
2 comments:
I was just going to ask of you had used "scoops" to try to correct the deviated hairline. Always been dubious of the reasoning behind this myself as taking that part of the hoof out of loading on hard surfaces just seems to increase the point loading on heels and toe area.
Yes, I tend to agree, Bruce. Since most problems seem to stem from weak internal structures I am increasingly dubious of trimming being the panacea we all used to think it was(!)...
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