An update and a warning!

Very busy day yesterday, very busy day today, lots to put up and lots of footage to organise but for today you can have this fab update about Bailey W from Lainey:

"Time for a Bailey update. All is going brilliantly with Bailey. We have once again started our weekly dressage lessons and what a different horse! we are both loving every minute. He is balanced, supple, rhythmic, and most of all FORWARD. 


Our competition results are dramatically improving each outing and so much so that our instructor (who judges dressage) wants us to affiliate! 


Out hacking he is superb, and has the most amazing medium trot ever. We are both waiting for cubbing to start (which i am told is August bank holiday). I am over the moon, he has come back better than ever and amazing to ride........."

I have also however had an update that Sol is not doing so well, which is not great news, and it sounds as if the grass at home may be to blame so do continue to be careful with your grass folks - here its been raining all summer but if you're in a drier area do be aware that its still potentially very high in sugars...

6am on Exmoor...

There will be lots of news for the blog over the next few days, with George's owners visiting him and a new horse arriving later in the week.   In the meantime, more amazing light on Exmoor at 6am...

Andy and Bailey watch a nearly full moon, the sun rising, heavy clouds and a rainbow...

New recruits Jackie and Harry have a lovely morning - they are barefoot too!

This is the treasure we have at the foot of our rainbows :-)

Dillon and the wedges - continued

Everyone who reads this blog vividly remembers the shoes Dillon arrived in - in fact I can introduce him to people as "the horse who had those wedges" and they instantly gasp when they recall his shoes.

He had the full range of problems diagnosed on MRI - navicular syndrome, pedal osteitis, extensive ligament and tendon damage.  For practical purposes his landing was OK when he arrived but his medio lateral balance was poor and he had thin soles.

He had also been on box rest and although he has coped very well with much more extensive movement, his thin soles mean that the range of surfaces he can work on comfortably is still fairly limited.

He is making good changes to his feet though and his ability to cope with tougher ground should improve as his sole depth and the connection of his hoof capsule improves.   Here are his feet on day one and today, for comparison.

And the contrast in development of the caudal hoof, below after about a month

...and today after 2 months.

I got it wrong! 2 weeks of change

Nicky, the smallest rehab to date - a pretty little QH mare - has been here 2 weeks now, and Taz - the biggest rehab to date - a strapping 17.2hh ex-showjumper - has been here10 days.    Thats not long in the scheme of things and I wasn't planning to put up photo updates of them till later in the week.

In fact, if you'd asked me, I would have said their feet hadn't yet gone through much change but then I got my camera out and realised I was completely wrong!  Compare Taz's LF on arrival with how it looks today, below.

The toe is shorter, he has a new angle of growth and the nail holes from his shoes are already growing out and lower in the hoof.   He has NOT been trimmed!

Contrasting his RF in shoes with today, its clear that he is now begining to load his frogs and develop his caudal hoof.  Its too early for Taz to be working on hard surfaces but he is enjoying mooching about on the tracks with his pals and being out in the fields overnight. 

With Nicky, who arrived already barefoot but had long term lameness issues, the changes are ironically no less radical.

Again, her toe is shortening and she is beginning to grow a hoof capsule at a better angle.  Her heels are becoming more supportive as well - but no trimming has been done at all.

One of the most dramatic changes will be in her medio-lateral balance.  Now that she can load her hoof caudally there is a fairly clear shift in balance taking place.   The photo below shows her the day she arrived - frog is OK but her heels are high and she is landing toe first and not engaging the back third of the foot. 

In the photo below - the same foot today - you can see that the loading of the hoof has changed and the back third is working harder now - this is a good thing as it will start to take the strain off the DDFT and collateral and impar ligaments, which in Nicky's case were shown to be injured when she had an MRI in 2009 and have probably been aggravated regularly since then.

In the final shot of Nicky's hooves, you can just see the new angle of hoof growth and that  - once the new hoof capsule has fully grown in - she will have a hoof which gives much more medial support. 

Smart, soggy, chestnut boys

Amid the usual torrential Exmoor summer weather we had a visit on Thursday from Sarah, who came to see Zan...

and Kelly who came to see Dexter - luckily they both brought waterproofs(!)

Sarah had never visited Exmoor before, and as she put it, very politely: "It has its own micro-climate!"

Zan is delighted to be going out and about, no matter what the weather, and it was lovely to see Sarah having such a great time with Zan, whom I know she had been missing terribly.

Dex meanwhile had to show off to Kelly that he now knows everything about Exmoor, hunting, working on wet ground and rain...What a poser  ;-)

BTW, spare a thought for Andy, who has spent the last 5 days with his god-son on a camping trip (!) in the Lake District (yes - the place which has had nothing but gale force winds and floods all week)...So although its poured down here for 3 days I think I'd best not complain... 

Another tease, another perfect morning!

Another tease for all you frustrated bods whose hunting seasons haven't started yet :-)

I took this photo from Dexter - you can see that despite only having hunted 3 times he is becoming quite the professional - and his mate Charlie is taking his job of being nanny very seriously :-)

Its a wonderful time of year to bring out horses who are new to hunting as its mostly quiet and peaceful and they have ample time to think things over and realise that hunting is actually all about watching hounds and learning to negotiate the terrain, not manic galloping about :-)

If you look closely, you can see who the horses and the field are all watching...

Can you see them yet?

Dexter received many nice compliments on his third time out because he has behaved impeccably so far.  Of course I can't take the credit for his beautiful manners as its mostly due to Kelly and Yvonne and all the many events they have taken him to over the years :-)

I was particularly pleased though that he seems to be perfectly happy having hounds all about him - its not a position I would intentionally put a new horse in, but when it happened by mistake he was very calm and acquitted himself admirably, true to his kind nature.

Here's to lots more mornings like these, despite the 4am starts(!)...

The hoof is a mirror of whole horse health

I had a lovely email last week from a lady who had contacted me a while ago.  It got me thinking about what I write on the blog, and the fact that sometimes I maybe don't explain things as clearly as I should, for which I apologise and which I will try to correct in future blog posts(!)

"I contacted you earlier this year to ask your advice about my much loved but very laminitic/I.R. section D mare.  You very kindly helped me and pointed me in the direction of other useful websites & blogs.


As usual we had tried the conventional treatments (bute, heart bar shoes with gel pads, box rest, starvation diet, etc,) all of which helped temporarily but we were back to square one once we tried to go back to her normal routine. My vet was suggesting months of box rest, which I was against on welfare grounds. By this time the veterinary & remedial farriery bills were into the thousands and no longer covered by insurance, I was at loss as what to try next. 


A friend suggested I look on the Horse & Hound website where there seemed to be an argument raging about barefoot vs shod horses and Rockley Farm was mentioned. After reading your past blog posts and buying ‘Feet First’ I thought” what have I got to lose?”, and contacted a local trimmer. This was against the advice of both my vet and farrier, so I remember feeling very apprehensive.

However, after a lot of research and creating a mini track at the top of our field, I bought some padded old mac boots and turned her out for the first time in weeks. This was at the end of December last year and despite some minor setbacks (due to my lack of willpower regarding treats!) she has gone from strength to strength. She only wears her boots in front now and only on long hacks, the mini track has now expanded into a track and paddock which she shares with my daughters horse (now also without shoes!) I know you don’t really approve of hoof boots [I don't use hoof boots and they do have drawbacks but boots can be a boon when used correctly, as they clearly are here -  thats a blog post for another day!], but they have been invaluable for her.

Sorry this is turning out to be so long, but to cut it a little shorter we are now back in full work and she is sounder than she has been for years, which makes me wonder how long the laminitis had been rumbling, masked by her shoes? I still watch her, very basic, diet like a hawk and have made hay from the unused part of the field, which I will have tested by Forage Plus so I know exactly what she needs. I am finding that the more work I give her the happier she is, which considering how very lame she was, is nothing short of amazing! My trimmer has been a wonderful support as well, as going against the vet and farrier was very difficult for me.


You never seem to write much about laminitis on your blog, so I thought I would let you know how your book and blog has helped my wonderful horse."

Its an absolute joy to know that the blog has been useful - I never realised when I first started it (purely so I didn't need to share quite so many of my thoughts with the dogs and horses) that it would grow to be something which other people might find a help, so thats an amazing bonus.

The comment about laminitis got me thinking though - because its true, I don't write about laminitis on the blog.  So why not?  There have been several rehab horses here who were previously laminitic, but honestly, laminitis is not something I focus on specifically.  And the reason is that what we do here to ensure that our own horses are capable of high mileage barefoot, or that rehab horses can grow healthier hooves, is as applicable to laminitics as to any other horse here - because realistically, ALL horses in domestication are prone to laminitis.

It became clear to me very early on that if you have a hard-working barefoot horse, hoof health has to be optimal.  If hoof health is to be optimal then nutrition, biomechanics and exercise have to be optimal.

Put simply, if you are aiming for a very healthy hoof, you have to pay such close attention to your horse's diet, hoof loading and work levels that - just by doing that - you will also be dealing with the most common hoof problems (ie: laminitis, navicular and white line disease).

Horses and their hooves need the same things for health - to cover many miles per day on varied terrain and to eat a high fibre, low sugar diet with a good mineral balance.  This is safe for laminitics because its safe for all horses - its what they have evolved to require.

If you can provide this for your horse you will also be providing it for his or her hooves and you WILL have not just healthy hooves but a healthy horse.

Hooves are a mirror of overall health - a horse with dire hooves is just telling you that there are other underlying problems.   The lady who emailed me was spot on - her horse probably HAD had sub-clinical laminitis for a while but at a low level, so she did not display lameness till it had become a much more serious problem than footiness or sole sensitivity.

Sort the diet and the biomechanics, add in lots of good quality exercise and her horse can be a horse again - and both hooves and horse benefit :-)