Holly's feet

These feet belong to one of the new horses, Holly, who arrived last week. She has a history of front limb lameness, worse on the RF, which has been an issue off and on for the last year. 

She has had time in shoes and has also been tried barefoot with boots but the lameness has persisted. She has been diagnosed on x-ray with thin soles and on MRI with DDFT and navicular bone damage to both front feet, worse on the RF, with a poor to guarded prognosis according to the referral vet. 

To make matters worse she has also had hind limb lameness diagnosed with ultrasound revealing suspensory desmitis so we have lots to work on. 

However, although these are weak feet with a lot of room for improvement Holly has a much better landing than these photos would suggest.

Its a fair assumption, given the lack of development in her heels, frog and digital cushion, that she has been landing toe first for a period of time in the last year but she is currently landing flat or fractionally heel first which is an encouraging sign. More on Holly soon...