Thursday 11 April 2013

Wally's 8 week update - hoof growth and balance

Racing on through the horses who are due updates this week, its time for Wally who has also been here for 8 weeks. Regular blog readers may recall that he was unusual because his lameness blocked to the check ligament rather than the hoof but nevertheless his landing on his worst (LF) foot was unbalanced and he landed medially and toe first.
You can see that over 8 weeks this foot has started to change. The nail holes chart how fast his hoof is growing, as does the new angle of growth at the coronet which is much steeper than his old hoof capsule.
You can see that he is developing a stronger palmar hoof and despite his lameness not blocking here, I am hopeful that better foot balance and loading will lead to sounder movement. 
Interestingly, although his heels on the lateral shot are less under-run there isn't so dramatic a change on the sole shots - possibly because his toe is still long. The sole is healthier but not enough change yet in his frogs, which is likely to be partly due to his split central sulcus which we are still struggling with. 
I like to think, however, that his landing on this foot has begun to change even though he still has a lot of challenges to face. Let me know whether I am imagining things!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A lot more level I thought

Nic Barker said...

Ah, thanks Julie - glad I am not deluding myself :-)