The horse who didn't need £800 shoes

Some of you may remember a long post I wrote back in August about heel first landings and why they are important. 

The post was triggered by a conversation I'd had with a vet about a former rehab horse who'd become footy after moving to a new yard where the grazing was ex-dairy rye-grass. 

The vet had decided that the horse wasn't footy because of this change but that the problem was that he was walking on his heels. She proposed to solve this problem by having him shod with a set of glue on shoes priced at £800.

Fortunately for the horse, neither his owner nor farrier were keen on that idea and instead he was trimmed by the farrier and his owner decided to move to a yard with more suitable turnout but in the meantime, to avoid him having to be stabled for long periods, he has come back to Rockley for a few weeks.

He's now been back for a month and you can see 2 angle changes in his feet, the first from when he was taken off the rye-grass in August and the second, at the very top of the dorsal wall, from where he came back here - and incidentally has been turned out each night with no ill effects, which he has loved!

He is still walking on his heels - in fact his landing is fantastic, which is no surprise when you see his frogs and heels.

From this view you can also see that his long toe is already beginning to come back - his break-over is in line with the angle of new growth.

He has also gone from having weak thin soles which flexed under thumb pressure to having much stronger feet. As a result his comfort levels over hard, stony ground are improving daily and he is already happy to come out 4 times a week on roads and over gravel. 

Just goes to show that sometimes you don't need an expensive set of shoes, just a bit less sugar in your grazing :-)