Thursday 18 July 2013

Mina's first 5 weeks

Mina has been here 5 weeks and is working well so its time for an update. On arrival she had remedial (reverse) shoes which had resulted in a distorted hairline but its good to see that is now levelling up again. This is her worse foot and the one on which the medio-lateral balance is changing the most. 

Unlike many horses Mina had a reasonably strong palmar hoof when she arrived. You can chart how much hoof she has grown since day one by looking at the position of the nail holes, now almost grown out. 

The shoe and pad hid her feet pretty effectively but as you can see from the lower photo taken a few days after the shoes came off, she had a pretty good foot but the sole is asymmetric, which usually indicates a problem with medio-lateral balance. 
Comparing the same foot today her frog is stronger, her heels are more supportive and the symmetry is beginning to improve but there are still changes she needs to make - more soon!

4 comments:

jenj said...

Wow... amazing changes as usual! Do you know what caused that very deep event line in her foot?

Helen said...

So lovely to see her feet changing - for the better, of course! Many thanks for the update. I tried to post last night to say don't worry, harvest comes first but the technology defeated me! Many thanks, Nic.

Helen said...

Re-looking at Mina's photo I'm struck by how quickly the fissure in her frog has grown out. It was the result of thrush under her silicone pad in August last year and was very deep. I thought it was progressing ok but seeing how it's grown out in just 4/5 weeks without shoes when the previous progress had taken 10 months is a real eye opener.

Anonymous said...

HI Nic

From MInas pics you say that that you suspect that there is a possible problem with medio-lateral balance.. can I ask in these situations is that something that corrects itself as the foot changes or do you have to intervene in anyway ie surfaces or exercise,terrain etc

Thanks em