Hoof imbalance - how it affects the parts you can't see

I've been trying to come up with a way to illustrate what happens when hooves get out of balance, but I haven't been able to find any pictures that do what I need.  

The problem is that I have therefore had to get out my crayons and start drawing - which as you can see is not my strong point.  Needs must, however, and I just hope you can make out enough for these to be useful(!) - you can click on them to enlarge. 

This is a fairly familiar side (lateral) view of a hoof showing P2, P3 and the distal sesamoid (navicular) bones with the collateral ligaments which connect them in blue and orange.  These ligaments, plus the deep digital flexor tendon (in green) commonly show up on MRI as the problem areas in horses who have caudal hoof pain or navicular bone damage on x-ray. 

From the palmar view (ie: as if you were behind the hoof and looking towards the toe) it becomes more obvious why the medio-lateral balance of the hoof is crucial and why those ligaments have to be evenly loaded and balanced for the horse to be comfortable.  

Although ligaments and tendons can't be seen on x-ray, it is possible to see how poor medio-lateral balance affects the hoof.  The blue lines show the angle of the old hoof capsule.  The green lines show the ground line compared to the alignment of P3 and you can see that they aren't parallel.  

This has led to strain on the collateral ligaments which was confirmed on MRI.  In this horse, the problem was caught very early but if this sort of imbalance continues for more than a short while it can lead to ligament damage (and eventually bone damage) as well - of course - as long-term lameness. 

This isn't primarily a trimming problem - in this horse's case the foot was already short and any attempt to trim or shoe the foot level would have been invasive.  

However, when the shoe was taken off and the horse came for rehab, she started to grow a hoof capsule (the red lines) which followed her bone alignment.  Over time, this has corrected the medio-lateral imbalance internally, as you can see here now that the whole hoof capsule has grown in.  

Nico's last 8 weeks

Yikes, can't believe how the time has flown but Nico has been here for 8 weeks!  He arrived last November and had a slew of stuff going on both with front limbs and hind limbs and I first blogged about him here as there were a lot of changes happening with his feet in the first few days.

 By contrast, here are his feet the day he arrived...

And a month later.  

Even more importantly, contrast his caudal hoof on the day he arrived...

four days after his shoes came off...

 and today...

And last but not least his sole shots. again the day he arrived...

 His sole shots on the day he arrived...

...four days after his shoes came off...

...and today. 

Nico is definitely not out of the woods yet, and he is actually a good example of how misleading photos can be!  His feet look lovely but (in the case of his RF, anyway) are not yet functioning as well as they could do, although he is in work and making good progress.  More on Nico soon!

Movement - essentials

I wanted to put together some occasional blog posts with bullet points  - really basic but which I hope will be useful as quick summaries or reminders of the essentials in some key areas.

It seems sensible to start with movement - its what I obsess about with the rehab horses - how are they moving, how can I help them improve, what are the causes of unsound movement and so on.

So here are the essentials, as far as I am concerned:

• Landing: hooves should land heel first on a flat, level surface.  This is clearly visible in a healthy hoof and becomes more pronounced when the horse walks down a slope.  Conversely a toe first landing is normal when a horse walks uphill but is a sign of potential caudal hoof pain on a flat surface. 

• Loading:
• front limb hooves should load evenly (medio-laterally) when walking on a flat, level surface

• hind limb hooves will normally land laterally (this can usually only be seen in slowed down footage)

• Surfaces: a healthy hoof has good proprioception so stride length will normally adjust slightly as a horse crosses different surfaces (there is a reason dressage is not done on concrete).  However, a horse should not look pottery or restricted on a hard surface. 

• Gait: horses will, of course, alter their movement in response to pain, or its removal - a heel first landing can change to toe first, and vice versa.  Equally, stride length can increase as hooves load in a more balanced way or develop a better ability to shock absorb.  It can be useful (and interesting) to film your horse's movement regularly to monitor changes and give you reference points. 

"Dillon with the wedges" and more from H&H

A quick update on last week's H&H post - Nadia sent me a link to the H&H online gallery, and there I found the photos that didn't make it into the magazine ;-)

Charlie quite focussed - hounds were hunting a trail just in front of us!

This is the photo I think they should have used - wild riders in the snow!

More importantly, I know many of you fondly remember "Dillon with the wedges", who made a minor blog sensation when he arrived here last summer in these... 

Well, the time has flown since he went home - and an email from Nicky over the weekend confirms its now more than 6 months since he came out of his wedges:

"I have realised its been over 3 months since Dillon came home and it would be a good time to give you an update. This is also coupled with the fact that today I had the best ride since I brought him home and I am grinning from ear to ear!
 
There continued to be a few up and down moments in November/early Dec...realistically I think I was stuggling to do enough work with winter and lack of daylight hours...but I hope to be able to do a bit more work, especially when the clocks go back (yes I am counting down the weeks). He still has a small amount of flare but not so much now as his old hoof is almost grown out.
 
I was quite conservative on what we did and as I was limited to how often I rode kept mainly to roadwork as I thought this would be best for self trimming. In hindsight I was over cautious and around Christmas time I decided he was doing well and used the opportunity of a bit of time off to start doing a bit more. Consequently he found it all very exciting, especially out on our boxing day yard ride with the 4 others from the yard which stopped off at a pub - lets just say he was keen to get there! (although the drink for me was helpful dutch courage for the ride home!) Just after that on a ride round some fields my nerves took a bit of a knock as he was leaping about and ready to take off at the slightest hint of a bird flying out of a bush and on the way home we cavorted down the road in canter. 
 
I think he was telling me something - that he wanted to do more and was bored.  So between me, the YM and another friend we have continued the increased workload over the last few weeks and he has been hacked 5 times a week rather than 3 sometimes 4. So far he has remained sound with the increase in workload and it has improved his behaviour and overall demenour, very small things but I notice them - he is standing much quieter when tied up, less fidgeting while waiting for others to tack up/get on etc.  So the reason I am so happy today is because I was brave and we went on our longest ride since we came home and over some quite stoney tracks (for Kent anyway, we generally only have roads or fields/grass tracks!) - he coped fantastically and I was really pleased, whats more we had several canters at my request and without prancing for the rest of the ride, whats even better was he also felt great! 
 I feel like today we turned another corner, in me realising he really can do it and our time at Rockley really was only the beginning and it will last. (I hope that makes sense - I do fundamentally understand barefoot is a long term solution to the underlying problem so it should last but I was convinced it would all go wrong when I got home as I'm not knowledgable enough or with the set up to maintain it) Here's hoping that we are onto the next stage of our journey now. "

All I can say is very well done Nicky - fantastic news :-)

Charlie and I made it to Horse and Hound!

Only 3 years (I think) after the editor first rode him** for a day with the Exmoor Foxhounds, finally there he is (with me) in the hunting report in this week's edition! They even managed a photo!

Not only that, but we get a mention (thank you to authors Paul Scott and Simon Derby) for hunting all our horses without shoes :-)

 It was a very exclusive day, with only about 6 of us out (we are all in the photo!) in the snow before Christmas, but none the less magical for that.

Thanks to Lainey and Nadia for telling me where to look :-)

**Actually I've looked back and it was October 2008(!) - here's the post: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2008/10/gales-and-suchlike.html

A couple of encouraging conversations

It was good yesterday to have a conversation with a vet about a new horse, who should be coming down at the end of the month, and she was very positive about sending him down.  This is partly because she had also been to see one of the rehab "old boys", Ginger, who was here this time last year.

Her practice looks after both horses and she had been to see Ginger to give him his vaccinations.  In the Project Dexter table, Ginger doesn't have a formal veterinary assessment because the vet who diagnosed his lameness wasn't the same vet who saw him before he came here, and the current vet is different again.

[There is an interesting piece of research which shows that vets are very consistent at spotting lameness BUT its not so easy to get consistency between individual vets, which is why, for Project Dexter, the same vet has to see the horse at each stage].

What was lovely was that this vet told me that Ginger had "fabulous" feet, looked wonderful and was perfectly sound - brilliant news even if we can't include it in the project :-)

Only a few hours later, just to cheer me up even more, I had an email from Nicky's owner to say that her vet had come to see her because of an ongoing issue with her hock - she had spavins before she came here and though they have improved they haven't completely fused, according to the surgeon - a matter of time, and continuing work.

The good news is that her vet had re-assessed her front limb soundness and was impressed with her, especially as she is working 5-6 days per week when the vet, before she came, thought she would struggle to stay paddock-sound.

Useful things: really, truly waterproof jods!

Admittedly these are unlikely to be useful for those of you who do your riding in Texas, Essex, Suffolk, Kent etc but for those of us in less blessed climates, these are the business. 

Andy gave me  a pair of cream ones for Christmas and I've tried them out in some truly disgusting weather out hunting and they do absolutely what it says on the tin.  They are quite warm anyway but if you stick a pair of thermal leggings underneath then you have serious comfort and insulation :-)

I've come across so-called waterproof jods before but no others have actually done what they promised so I've always relied on overtrousers instead but these look much better and are much more comfortable.

They are manufactured by Townend and are made of softshell - full details here for the ladies' version: http://www.townendonline.co.uk/products/Townend-Shower-Proof-Fleece-Lined-Ladies-Breeches-.html
and here for the men's: http://www.townendonline.co.uk/products/Townend-Shower-Proof-Fleece-Lined-Mens-Breeches.html


They aren't cheap but if you spend a lot of time riding horses in the rain then I highly recommend them.  Obviously you have to be a bit careful washing them - the label says you can use detergent but I don't trust that so I use Nikwax TechWash, which doesn't destroy the waterproofing.

I've now thown caution to the winds and bought myself a black pair for everyday.  I got mine from this place, who were delightful to deal with and had one of the best prices at the time: http://clippityclobber.co.uk/shopping/mall/clippityclobber/Product/imp-softshell-ladies-winter-breeches-from-townend-ot5772-1239248

The only thing to beware of, if you are buying online, is that the legs are cut very narrow and the material isn't terribly elastic so unless you have very skinny legs you will need to buy a size bigger than normal, particularly if you want to wear thermals underneath.   Alternatively, of course, just don't ride in terrible weather...(!)