Ophelia's 4 week photos

I'm belatedly posting Ophelia's 4 week update - its hard to keep track of how fast the weeks are going! As ever, her initial photos are at the top and the most recent ones are below. 

Ophelia was quite uncomfortable when she arrived and had only been out of shoes a short time so I'd expect her feet to be showing more signs of change than Jazz had. In addition her landing was worse - clearly toe first - so you'd expect her feet to need to develop lots more, particularly around the frog, heels and digital cushion.

She has started to change her feet but is not yet comfortable landing heel first on hard ground so her work to date has been on the tracks and in the school. 

 Nevertheless, she is starting to show signs that her palmar hoof is strengthening which is encouraging.

 

This is her stronger foot at the moment and its good to see her toe shortening (without any trimming) as her palmar hoof improves.

 Her balance overall on this foot is better and its a stronger looking foot throughout.

 Again, signs of a more developed digital cushion but we need her to start landing more confidently on hard ground before we can introduce roadwork. We will film her this weekend and hope for clear progress with this. I'll update her footage once I have it.

So Ophelia's footage is now up here: https://vimeo.com/444147192 and she has now got a tentative heel first landing, which is brilliant to see :-) Onwards and upwards for her, I hope. 

Move along, nothing to see (apart from a better digital cushion) - Jazz's 4 week update

Well, we aren't cutting grass this week - or at least only lawns, not hay - so I've managed to update Jazz's photos, which I should have done at the weekend, when she had been here 4 weeks. 

Jazz arrived with a reasonably good landing and has continued to build up steadily to the point that she is now in ridden work and going out regularly on the roads. There aren't dramatic changes in her feet but overall they are looking stronger and more functional. 

She is a nice example of the fact that you don't need trimming to produce a stronger foot. Everything you can see here is Jazz's own work. 

The increasing strength is best seen from this angle, where the better digital cushion is obvious. 

Again, no dramatic changes but you can see from comparing the nail holes and band of old growth that her feet are growing at a reasonable rate. 

Again, the clearest indication of change is when you compare the shots of the back of her feet, which are a lot more developed. We've not included new footage as her landing is fairly well established but will add this next time. 

 

Rehab updates: Quin (also late, apologies)

Quin arrived the same week as Deluxe and like Deluxe I hadn't realised he has already been here 5 weeks, not 4, so this update is late.

Quin arrived already out of shoes and with decent looking feet but a toe first landing. In fact he is a good example of how you can't predict how well a horse will do by simply by appearances as, from the outside, his feet look stronger than Deluxe's. 

However 5 weeks on and he has not made such positive changes - this is not for any sinister reason, simply that he is not yet landing consistently heel first and so the good development of the palmar hoof that we saw yesterday in Deluxe has not really started to happen yet. 

He is landing better on this foot (RF) than his LF, though, and there is some improvement in his digital cushion, as you can see from the two photos above (older photo is at the top, as usual).

There aren't the same obvious changes that we saw in Deluxe because its taking Quin longer to heal - until the back of his foot is more comfortable he won't fully load it and until that point he won't really strengthen or develop it. All we can do is make sure he is on comfortable, conformable surfaces and allow his injuries to recover.

 Again no significant change, which is disappointing, but not surprising when we look at his video.

https://vimeo.com/437774846 As you can see he is landing just about heel first on the RF but toe first still on the LF. Downhill he can land heel first, so thats an encouraging sign that even though he has been slower to progress so far, he is still capable of improvement.

More encouraging is the change to his medio-lateral balance, which has got more even on the LF. I'll post more on Quin soon.

Rehab updates: Deluxe edition

Deluxe edition as in, his update - which should have been at 4 weeks but is in fact at 5, as I was convinced he had only been here 4 weeks. In fact he has made really good progress over the short time he has been here. 

He arrived in shoes and so its not easy to see how his frog have developed but he has already gone from toe first to heel first which is great to see.

 

Clearly this is a weak foot but there is a better, more robust foot growing in and Deluxe has a great attitude, so is happy to move around with the other rehabs and get as much stimulus to his feet as possible.  

What I like from this angle is that you can see, from the change in hairline, that his digital cushions is beginning to rebuild.

  

On the left foot a better palmar hoof already, compared to when he was shod, as well as a better stance. he is still very much finding his feet, literally, but its progress.

Again, hard to draw meaningful comparisons but its a foot which is heading in the right direction, as confirmed by his better landing. 

Better frog = better landing = better digital cushion = better hairline. 

Deluxe's comparison footage is here: https://vimeo.com/437773230