Kiara's 3 month update

Kiara has been here since the end of November, so a little over 3 months, and its time for an update. When she arrived several of you commented on her feet which appeared a bit bull-nosed. I thought at the time that this was probably mostly the effect of how she had been shod and trimmed and sure enough, it is growing out. 

In her latest photo, above, you can see 2 angle changes. The first is the line you can see around the top third of the hoof, extending to her heels. This is the really strong new growth which is at the steepest angle. Further down there is another angle change, less severe, and finally at ground level the last of the bull-nosed old hoof wall. Her hairline and the new growth give a good indication of how her hoof capsule will be in another few months - much steeper and shorter with a really strong palmar hoof.  

Some nice changes in the sole shot with a  much stronger frog and much more concavity. This will improve further as the new hoof capsule grows down. You can see from the dark inner line round the sole where the new hoof capsule will be - this is already effectively where she is breaking over and the old hoof wall is wearing away as it grows down. There is no need to trim as the new growth is far stronger than the old and is already setting her foot balance. 

She had a fairly good frog and digital cushion for a horse who had been shod for many years but still they can improve out of shoes!

As with the left foot, the bull-nosed wall is growing out and the new, steeper angles can be seen. This was her more compromised foot, which had quite an extensive solar abscess when she was in shoes but that too is now growing out. 

Although her frog was fairly good in shoes you can see how much it has developed in the last few weeks.  Her bars are a function of the fact that her sole was compromised by the abscess and they will normalise once her new foot has grown in. For now they are providing much needed stability so, again, its best not to trim them.

It wasn't a terrible palmar hoof before but its more balanced and working harder today. Kiara is now back hunting, though we are only letting her do a couple of hours for now. Next season I hope she will be back all guns blazing!