Gemini - the sole shots

You asked for sole shots for Gemini and here they are. A good frog, on the whole, but not a perfectly balanced foot.  

 Some might call her feet flat but in fact they aren't. The soles may look flat but the collateral grooves are deep which is normally a sign of good depth in the hoof capsule.

There are still lots of aspects which need to improve and it will be fascinating to see how her feet change over the next few weeks.

Short blog, busy week...

 Short blog today as we've had an even busier week than normal down here. Its a good job my nephew Sam has been here to help because there is not only all the work with the rehab horses to be done but lots of fencing.

Its great having the tracks, and in the weather we have had this winter they are even more invaluable as they provide well-drained turnout no matter how much rain we have had. But having horses on them and a huge amount of annual rainfall inevitably takes its toll on timber and we had to replace a whole section of track this week.

I say "we" but have to admit that Andy and Alan did all the work on this, and very smart it looks too. Now all we need is for the fog to lift...!

Gemini and the clues to an unbalanced foot

New horse Gemini arrived yesterday. She is unusual for several reasons - firstly she is a very young horse, only just 4 years old, and secondly she has never been shod. 

This meant that she had some big advantages over many of the other horses who arrive for rehab but it also meant that it was going to be interesting to try and work out why her feet were causing her problems (Gemini has been 2-3/10 lame for several months and has been diagnosed on MRI with navicular bone and collateral ligament damage). 

Lateral shots of her lamer leg don't look too bad  - in fact there is lots to like, not least the strong hoof capsule and balanced hairline.

From the front, however, we get the first clues that her hoof balance isn't quite right for her. From this angle the hairline no longer looks so balanced and there is a hint that she has a medial weakness in her hooves.

Here is a fascinating caudal shot. With most horses who have been in shoes for some years you wouldn't see this level of good frog development but Gemini has it - at least on this leg, though her LF is weaker.

Her frog is loading and she has a heel first landing on this foot. However, a shot of her foot from this angle confirms the same medio-lateral imbalance as we can see from the front and sure enough she is landing on the lateral side of the foot when she walks.

More on Gemini soon...

Here's hoping...

Although we are still facing horrendous weather here (though no flooding, since we are so high up, so we are a lot luckier than many), there is a glimmer of light on the horizon - well 2, actually.

The first comes from the Met Office who are saying that as long as we can all get through the 80mph winds we are forecast today - and of course the 40mm of rain - then its going to start to calm down over the weekend and we may even have a break from the storms next week. Wouldn't that make a pleasant change?

If its true I might even be able to catch up on the backlog of filming which has been put on hold for most of this week and last week - so watch this space!

The second and more guaranteed ray of sunshine comes in the form of SB, who is down for half term - yippee :-) 

[ETA: photo comes from this time last year - look how dry and sunny it was! Ack, ack ack...]

Hoof prints in the snow

A snowy morning here though its not going to lie - but Knightley, Brigitte and I were the first ones out on the lane. 

Brigitte's prints - not bad at all for a rehab horse - great frog definition on her RF and even her LF is getting there. 

Knightley muses on the view, or possibly on the desperately scratched and grubby state of my camera lens...

Brigitte's 11 week update

Time for Brigitte's update though its hard to believe she has been here 11 weeks. I've taken some footage of her and thought stills from it would the easiest way for you to see what is going on.

 Here she is on arrival, a very toe first landing on 3 out of 4 feet with the fronts being the worst. Most horses start to land heel first fairly quickly but Brigitte's feet were so under-run that it has taken her the best part of 10 weeks to start to change.

Even today, she is only landing flat, not clearly heel first, but now that she is beginning to use the palmar hoof more correctly it should continue to strengthen. 

When she arrived (above) her feet were very distorted - in fact they were so under-run that they were narrower at the base than at the coronet. The deviated hairline is another clue that things were far from well. 

Eleven weeks on we are making progress. However though the toe is shorter the palmar hoof is still weak, proved by the fact she is still reluctant to land heel first. 

Sole shots give a clue to where her feet are heading - interestingly they look more symmetrical from this view today but less symmetrical from the top. Its clear that balance for Brigitte has to be set using internal markers not external angles!

Notice as well that the bars which extended right round the apex of the frog have disappeared as her foot has become stronger. I have not trimmed them as they were an essential support while her foot was weak and unbalanced. 

Brigitte landing from Nic Barker on Vimeo.

Lots to catch up on

Sorry the blog was a bit truncated last week - storms and power cuts are thankfully over (at least for a day or so...) and we have re-battened down the barn roof (which was threatening to take off last Wednesday!) so normal service can now resume.

Pride of place today goes to Kate and Rolie who were out competing at the Regional Dressage championships this weekend. 

They did brilliantly, coming 6th with 69% in their Prelim class and topping that off with a 4th now a 3RD place (he's been upgraded!) and 70% in the dressage to music!

Very well done both of you - you both look fabulous - and here is their triumphal video :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxrOguMudyQ#t=30

On a completely different note, I had a great meeting last week with vet Chris Tufnell of Coach House Vets. I've known Chris for a little while through the horses he has sent down here so it was great to finally sit down and talk hooves with him and farrier Luke Silcock.

We have a few interesting ideas in the pipeline so I will keep you posted about how we get on!