Wednesday 17 April 2013

Undoing the twist

A quick update on Ruby, as her owner was here at the weekend and we spent a bit of time assessing how her movement has changed.

One of Sarah's concerns was that Ruby had started to dish before she went lame. Some horses just do dish, of course, but Ruby had previously moved straight and Sarah suspected the dishing in this case was related to her problematic foot balance.
As with all horses, we filmed Ruby when she arrived and the dish was quite obvious, along with a landing which was off balance in front  - she landed on the lateral side rather than completely evenly and flat rather than heel first. 
Six weeks down the line and we are beginning to see a straighter limb flight and the start of a better landing. These are stills taken from the footage below, for those who are interested in seeing the whole thing. 

Of course, it took quite a while for Ruby's problems to develop and it will take quite a while to resolve them but its nice to know we are heading in the right direction!

3 comments:

barefoot herd said...

Is this 6 weeks with no saddle no rider and on a track just allowing horse to sort its self out
?

Cathy said...

My horse lands on his lateral side too. A Vet pointed it out to me when my horse was walking on a flat surface. He leg also swings out and in. I had never noticed it before. At the time I was using a trimmer. Since then I have been trimming myself and slowly trying to get the hoof more balanced too. Could you share what you have been doing that is helping this horse? Is it just the track or are you riding? Are you doing any trimming? Thanks!

Nic Barker said...

She has been worked under saddle and in hand on various surfaces, not just the tracks. I haven't trimmed her at all :-)