Prince's palmar progress

I took these photos of Prince earlier in the week, when he had been here for exactly 2 weeks. I know lots of you were interested in how his feet might change so here are some early spoilers!

Lots of long. weak hoof wall has already broken away and if you look closely at the back of his foot  - despite the feather - you can see that he has, if anything, a less under-run heel now than he had in shoes. 

The same on his RF. Its interesting because although a lot of the weak hoof wall has already gone, Prince is hanging onto his long toe for the moment. There is a reason for that, as you will see from the next photos, and there is therefore a reason why I am not trimming it off. 

These photos compare his foot in shoes and one week later - already the frog had improved. 

Give him another week and there are some more subtle changes - symmetry is a little better, the frog is opening out, the bars are less crushed and the long toe is reducing.

Now imagine if you had simply whacked back the toe before all those subtle but important developments to the palmar hoof had begun. The weight would have been immediately shifted back - without anything being there to support it. 

These photos are a great illustration of why we are much better making changes at the horses' pace - and backing up the toe no faster than the palmar hoof can strengthen. 

And here it is again, in his LF, for good measure. 

After a week, toe shortening, palmar hoof improving but frog still contracted and heels distorted. 

Another week on, a shorter toe, a more balanced heel - but this all has to happen concurrently for it to be effective.