Wednesday 24 April 2013

New boy Freddie

These feet belong to new horse Freddie, an extremely smart boy who has evented at a very competitive level. There is lots of good stuff going on with his feet - nice hoof wall, hairline not too distorted - but the aspect which jumps out at me is how collapsed the palmar hoof has become. 
He does have a digital cushion but its dropped and run forward, as you can see more clearly on the sole shot. The frog is also weak and distorted but - as we know - changes in feet can happen very quickly and Freddie is already trying to grow a better hoof, as you can see from the new angle at the coronet. 
Fortunately, although his frog is weak its not developed a central sulcus split and it looks as if it could "un-crush" fairly rapidly given the chance.
Hard to see on a two dimensional picture, but the digital cushion has become flattened and under-run though I am hopeful it will be a lot stronger in a few weeks. 

4 comments:

RedsMum said...

Ooh interesting, how old is he and what's his diagnosis ? Is he lame and for how long ?

Nic Barker said...

He's 13, has bony changes but hasn't had an MRI, lame since November, worse RF :-)

Unknown said...

How long has Freddie been without shoes? Do you know what type of shoes he has tried? Just as a matter of interest.

Nic Barker said...

Just a few weeks, Julie - his nail holes are still apparent. He has only been "normally" shod as far as I know.