Wally's 12 week update (or Two steps forward, one step back)

Wally has now been here 12 weeks and despite terrible weather has made good progress with his front feet. He arrived with a lameness which was related to his check ligament but to me it looked as if his feet needed quite a bit of improvement as well, especially when I saw how he was landing.  

Here is his LF on day one. Not too bad but with a contracted frog and underrun heels.

Its taken a long time for Wally to start landing heel first on this foot but finally his frog is ready to work as it should. You can also see at the toe that this will be a LOT shorter - around an inch further in - once his new hoof capsule has grown in.  The shots below give a better illustration of this. 

Day one his heel was obvioulsy extremely underrun. 

Today his heel is slowly coming back and there is a clear new angle of hoof growth. Project the new growth down and his toe will be about an inch shorter - its growing the new hoof that will bring his toe back. The nail holes, which were half way up his hoof capsule, have now grown out but Wally still has at least half a new foot still to grow. 

For an explanation of why it wouldn't be a good idea just to chop his toe back - and why the new growth won't be pulled away by the old, long toe - have a look at the feet in these links: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/bizarre-feet-of-legend.html and http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hes-legend.html).

These stills from Wally's footage show how his landing has changed from being toe first LF in February to the beginning of a heel first landing in May, below. 

The other factor which has changed but which is harder to show (thanks to Barney the vizsla getting in the way while we were trying to get footage) is his medio-lateral balance. 

You'll have to trust me on this (or take Newmarket's word for it, as they picked it up when he had his MRI!)  but Wally was landing on the medial side of his LF, which is very unusual and may have been a factor in his check ligament strain. 

His landing today (again, a still taken from the footage below) is better and confirms the heel first landing but there is a problem...Despite (or perhaps because of) his front feet improving, Wally has a problem with his LH. 

Its not in his foot, it blocks to his hock, and is only apparent on tight circles but its a worry. He is going to have shockwave treatment on it and we are able to carry on working him in the meantime, as long as his work is within the range where he can move soundly. 

Still, we and his owner would appreciate lots of good vibes from you guys  - it seems very unfair that no sooner has he begun to sort out his front legs than his back legs let him down...

The complete footage, for those who are interested, is here: