Humphrey's 4 week update

Continuing with the updates its time for Humphrey to feature on today's blog. 

Over the 4 weeks he has been here he has gone from landing toe first to a better, heel first landing (his footage is below) and although he still needs to build his palmar hoof up further you can see the changes in his photos as well. 

 Dry feet always photograph better than wet feet unfortunately but he has a broader frog today (below) and his toe is shorter as well. 

A clearly better digital cushion and this should improve again now he is consistently landing better. 

 He is also happier to load this foot now than he was on arrival and again a better landing has allowed the palmar hoof to build. 

 Again, a better frog and more balanced foot, both good signs. 

Humphrey's footage is here: https://vimeo.com/manage/327023706

Mac's 4 week update

Emma came down to visit Mac at the weekend so we seized the opportunity and took photos and video after we had all been out for a ramble up the road.

 Mac has been out of shoes for a good while but had struggled to develop a confident heel first landing; when he arrived he was ok on the RF but not on the LF and historically his issues have flipped from foot to foot. 

He also had a media-lateral imbalance on this foot which meant he was landing slightly to the outside. This has now improved and the photos also show a more balanced foot today (the lower photo in each case). 

He has only just started landing better and its not completely established yet so I would want to see further improvement in his palmar hoof over the next few weeks. 

Apologies, the angle doesn't make for a good comparison but this is the foot he was landing better on when he arrived. 

He also had better medio-lateral balance on this foot so not surprisingly there are fewer changes. 

Mac's updated footage is here: https://vimeo.com/327741570

Billy's 4 week update

The current rehab horses have been here 4 weeks this weekend so its time for a proper assessment of how they have got on so far and what progress they have made. I'm starting with Billy as he had the most problematic feet when he arrived.  

The other horses had all been out of shoes for weeks (or in some cases months) before they arrived but Billy came in bar shoes and pads. Initially therefore he had a bigger adjustment than the other horses as he had to go from a sole and frog which were completely covered by a thick pad to bare, and from taking all his weight on the periphery of his feet to loading more centrally.  

This meant that he took longer than the other horses to become comfortable on tough surfaces. As his palmar hoof was particularly weak he has also taken longer to go from landing toe first out of shoes. his landing is flatter now than it was initially but he is not yet heel first (he had an exaggerated heel first landing in his bar shoes).

However, he has made some good progress over 4 weeks and I am particularly pleased with how his comfort levels have improved over the last 10 days or so. He has grown out his nail holes and the new hoof growth is looking stronger and more supportive.  

He has also started to grow a more robust frog and his toe is beginning to shorten as well. His heels are still under-run but as he can now move more correctly on good surfaces his palmar hoof should strengthen fairly quickly.  

Billy's footage shows that he is getting close to a better landing - he has it on a good surface but is not quite there yet on a hard surface: https://vimeo.com/327427793

2 week comparisons: Sisco's update

Google in their infinite wisdom decided to make some changes to the blog site that hosts this, which meant it signed me out inexplicably and when I signed back in it gave me a whole host of very old photos instead of the current ones. All most peculiar but we now appear to be back in business so here is Sisco, with apologies for the delay. 

Sisco was extremely toe first when he arrived and had very long under-run feet in front. It is of course going to take longer than 2 weeks for this to change significantly but if you compare the original photo (above) with his 2 week shot his stance is better now.

His feet still look long today but the time he has spent on the tracks has made his frogs work harder, which is an important first step in his recovery.

Basically you need frog stimulus to improve the frog and digital cushion and its this that allows the horse to become more comfortable using the back of the foot. 

Two weeks is nothing, really, so all we can hope to see at this stage are hints that things might be changing. A hairline which is less distorted in the lower photo is this sort of hint. 

Here again there is a harder working frog in the most recent photo but its still a weak and under-run hoof. 

A little more depth at the back of the hoof - another hint and a hope that we are heading the right way. 

2 week comparison photos: Mac

I'm posting Mac's photos today but with apologies that its only his RF - for some reason I didn't upload the left ones so will need to try again.  

Mac has been barefoot a long time but his landing has never been as established as it should be in a long term barefoot horse. Our aim is to improve this so that he has a solid heel first landing which can then be built on. 

He is moving confidently on the surfaces here and in the school but although he is heel first on the tracks he is not quite there on a hard surface like concrete or tarmac. 

I'll be filming him again quite soon and will post as soon as I have an update. 

May 5th workshop

New workshop date for May in Powys - full details are below, contact me or Sara to book. 

I'll also be running a date at Rockley later in the summer, probably August, and will post the date here when its live.