Why its not about the trim - Eager's final update

Eager went home on Friday  - apologies for the late update  - I really have no good excuse except that the days are so short at the moment that lots of stuff is just having to wait till I have more time.

Eager had pretty nice looking feet when she arrived (the upper photos of each pair) and she had never been shod but her palmar hoof was weaker than it should have been and not surprisingly this (plus her media-lateral balance) was the area where the problems originated. 

We were able to do a  lot of work with her fairly quickly and as she started with a baseline of a fairly strong foot she has made good and rapid progress. The lower photos in each pair show her feet after 10 weeks.

Unfortunately I had to take her final photos with a different camera to normal (its a lot bigger so I can't get the same angle as with my nifty little pocket camera) which is why the shots aren't quite true comparisons.

Nevertheless I hope you can see that her palmar hoof is stronger now than it was when she arrived. Her frog and digital cushion are more robust and have more width and depth.

As a result of this her toe is shorter and her foot is more supportive of the whole limb. I know this is something I always bang on about but I hope these photos show that these types of changes are nothing to do with trimming and everything to do with building stronger internal structures to the foot. 

Full marks if you also observe that her feet are also changing their media-lateral balance - and in fact this is the area where she had the greatest challenges.

Like many horses who come here she was also lacking medial support in her feet - this is something she is gradually improving but it will take another few months - until she has grown in a full hoof capsule - before that is in place at ground level.

Its all about the foot supporting the limb - and 99% of that comes from within the hoof capsule.