Introducing Arnold

Arnold, like Reine, arrived last week. Its a bit back to front: usually I organise for horses to go home before new horses touch down but because of the RRR (which is THIS WEEKEND!) I wanted the new horses to have a full week here, settling in, with no other comings and goings. 

So Arnold whizzed down from Cheshire last Friday and had lots to deal with. Not only had he just come out of shoes but he had also been on box-rest, which is difficult for any horse and particularly for an active young show-jumper.

Arnold had been competing till very recently but has now been diagnosed with a lamenesss which blocks to the navicular bursa. His landing was distinctly toe first and to me his medio-lateral balance is clearly off, especially on his RF.  

Although he is out of shoes he has lots of dead sole and his feet are relatively long. That's ok, as he is already dealing with dramatic changes to the way his feet are loading and it will not help Arnold to make these changes even faster or more abrupt. The dead sole will be gone within a few days but it will be a more gradual and gentle change. 

The good news is that Arnold's hairline is balanced and though he has long toes his heel is not really under-run. The toe first landing is most likely due to his rather narrow frog but it will be interesting to see how his hooves develop over the next few weeks. 

A similar story on his LF though it appears on the face of things to have better medio-lateral balance. 

Not such a good hairline, however, compared to the RF and again the proof of the pudding will be in how his feet alter over the coming weeks.  

Meanwhile, the good old welcoming committee of Charlie and Felix have done their job as perfectly as ever and Arnold is beginning to enjoy his new hippie liefstyle...