tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415492346905673232.post5631424940952988678..comments2024-03-14T06:57:29.577+00:00Comments on Rockley Farm: Ella's first 4 weeksNic Barkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06885459438592023135noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415492346905673232.post-38310411476468802962015-06-08T07:25:37.479+01:002015-06-08T07:25:37.479+01:00Peter, your explanation is more scientific than mi...Peter, your explanation is more scientific than mine but yes, I think you are along the right lines. What seems to happen with these horses (who of course all have a diagnosis of injury to soft tissue in the palmar hoof) is that shortening the toe shifts weight bearing to the palmar hoof. <br />Thats the right place for it to be of course but if there is too much load too soon then it results in a less sound horse. Leaving the toe to grow shorter naturally allows the weight-bearing to shift more slowly, as the palmar hoof strengthens. <br />The fear of course used to be that leaving a long toe would result in leverage which would damage the hoof capsule but in practice thats not a problem for these horses, largely (I suspect) because the new hoof capsule is stronger and has better integrity than the old growth which is at ground level. Nic Barkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06885459438592023135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415492346905673232.post-25492727905016356592015-06-05T00:49:47.805+01:002015-06-05T00:49:47.805+01:00What gets me is that people comment on the conditi...What gets me is that people comment on the condition of a bare foot and say it needs tidying up (chips etc) and yet when a shoe is removed most feet have loads of cracks and broken bits, they are just hidden by the shoe.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07681288220308918596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415492346905673232.post-26436561541887709822015-06-04T11:04:13.652+01:002015-06-04T11:04:13.652+01:00"The toe looks long here but, as ever, its co..."The toe looks long here but, as ever, its counter-productive to back up the toe on a horse who cannot yet land heel first."<br /><br />Nic, not sure why this is, but I can see that bringing the toe back would result in a smaller footprint and that as he load down the bone column is a constant then there will be a greater load per square unit on that footprint and therefore proportionally more load on the heel than there was before the toe was brought back. Am I on the right lines here please?PeterWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267538014061428983noreply@blogger.com