The last of our new arrivals...

 ...is Donovan, who arrived earlier today and has already settled straight in, despite arriving during this unusual heatwave. The new horses must be wondering whether they have arrived in Spain instead of landing on Exmoor (but of course we know it won't last - rain is coming on Saturday, yay!).

Donovan has recently come out of shoes, as you can see from the nail holes, but despite that he has reasonable frogs. 

However his lameness blocked (as with all the horses who come here) to a palmar digital nerve block on both feet so we know that the back of his feet is where we need to see better development. Currently he is landing fractionally heel first but with a clear lateral landing on both front feet, so his medio-lateral balance is where we are likely to see the biggest change.

His feet look untidy where they have chipped but this will sort itself out over the next few days and won't cause him any problems. 

Quite an impressive frog on this foot but his heels are quite under-run and we would expect to see this improve as his new hoof capsule grows down. 

I'd expect to see some changes in his digital cushion as well once his landing improves - there will be more on him soon.