No More Quarter Flares!

Yet more forensic work has yielded another discovery for me. Well, new knowledge for me anyway. :D  I'm sure others have known this forever, but I had to discover it for myself with the help of Linda Harris.

In one of her youtube videos she was telling us that the collateral grooves get filled up with overlaid or overgrown bars which get pushed up into the hoof capsule on either side of the frog due to upward ground pressure. This is clearly evident in her photos & fresh cadaver hooves. When that is bad, it forces the quarters outwards hence flares occur. The other way of seeing this excess bar growth occurrence is to note if the widest part of the hoof is where it should be about 1/4 to 1/3rd the way down the frog or more than half way along the frog. In Sonny's case his widest part has for a number of years been more than half way along the frog.

The usual method of solving the flaring is to 'relieve' the ground contact of the wall in the region of the quarters (slightly scooping the bearing surface of the walls). When this is kept done, it does indeed help stop flaring. But if not done every week the flares begin to return & the widest part of the hoof can end up way back towards the heels when the heels run way under.

Cleaning out the collateral grooves & lowering the bars also prevents flaring. As I stated in my last post, I have begun cleaning out his collateral grooves now that I have my dremel working again. When Cas was doing it she used her power grinder to clean out the collateral grooves also, but when she was away & I was doing it I only had the knives & the horn got very hard, too hard for me to remove the excess.

So now it is time to seek out the root of the bars which have been mostly absent for many years. What little there is points in the wrong direction, out towards the outer wall rather than towards the frog. Also there has been a lot of overlaid bar growing across the sole which I knew about but didn't remove due to it probably being half the thickness of Sonny's painfully thin soles.

However now that his soles would be thickening up on their own due to re-established hoof health, I can begin to remove that overlaid bar material. From time to time it does want to flake away by itself anyway, so I am just helping it now. It has been easy to see the black line where that overlaid material ended, so last trim I used the dremel to remove material just to that line all around the frogs on all 4 feet.

The other thing to comment on here is that since I have again been making a bevel on the ground bearing edge of the walls around the toe, I can begin to see a new tighter angle growing from the coronet band. It is about 6wks since I started the beveling & this new angle is well evident now (although the first time I did the bevel/rocker based on Linda's hoof markup I did take too much off & make him sore). Lesson learnt there, so now it is just the wall itself that gets a little bevel to help relieve leverage on the toe. That seems to work better as Sonny hasn't been sore since. Once there is even better hoof health & more hoof, I will revert to Linda's markup & do it properly by not taking the bevel so far back to under the P3.

No photos this time.  I was too busy with other things, being close to xmas. However I'll be getting more photos with the next trim in next few days.

I have applied these same hoof treatments to my other horses & am seeing improvements there too. Everyone is happy! It's all good.

Latest Trim, things beginning to look much better

 

Yesterday I did Sonny's feet again all round this time. Usually I don't get all 4 done in one go. But it's getting easier as his feet get better shaped, although they are very hard this time. I use a power dremel with a cylindrical abrasive stone bit. There is no way a knife will cut or scrape that hard horn!

I used my dremel to clean out the overgrown bar area along the collateral grooves & better define the bars themselves. I'm sure there is still too much in there but I took out about 3/16th to 1/4inch depth so that must help a lot. No rain on the horizon so the feet will stay hard for a while yet.

This time I only did a slight bevel on the wall under the toe only. I didn't bring it back inside the white line at all. I did rasp a little off the top side of the bevel after taking the photos (because I forgot to do it prior!) So the finished walls around the front of the hooves aren't quite as thick as in the photos. There is plenty if thickness just now, maybe a bit too much.

Sonny is still a little sore on his RF if he is turning to the right but otherwise he is moving ok although I wouldn't ask him to trot if he didn’t want to. However he will trot to the gate when it is time to come into the house yard for a bit of green grass! He's fine with boots & pads on so once I get this toe wall bevel right & the collateral grooves cleaned out properly which will allow the bars to grow correctly, he should feel much more comfy. It's amazing just how far overgrown the bars were. On some feet they had reached right to the tip of the frog.

Here is the link to the latest photos of all 4 feet pretrim & trimmed.

www.photobucket.com/December2012SonnysFeet

Here are a couple of shots with the rest at the above link.

 

 

The walls had grown down beyond the sole so I wanted to get the toe wall off the ground to get rid of the leverage. Since he tends to get a bit sore after a trim where I lower the heels (therefore crushing the frog a bit), I only do that on either fronts or backs, never on all 4 feet at the same time. He has to be left with something to stand on!

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To Clarify regarding the photo in previous post

In my previous post I showed the photo of the periople of Sonny's Left Front with the big separation across it.

I have now learned this is a good thing to happen, not a bad thing. It is a sign that his body is well enough to shed off the old heels & bars that built up inside the hoof over the last many months/years.

To do this the hoof forms an abscess that softens & weakens the connections between the good sole/bars/heels/frog & the old ones that need to be sloughed off.

When all that old sole comes away there will be a nice new well shaped set of bars, heel & frog. I'm sure Sonny will feel a lot better too.

So for the benefit of certain people & so called 'experts' who STILL see fit to criticize me from afar.... mind your mouth & your pen!

Those who dwell within their narrow minded stale methods are in no position to cast aspersions on those who wish to broaden their knowledge by becoming a student of more recent investigations & discoveries.

Great Big Crack across LF Periople

The photos tell the story.

Again today it was late before I started so I only got Sonny’s fronts finished & hinds started. I was waiting for the day to get cooler & ended up working in the orchard shade so only sole shots again today. Tomorrow I'll get out the big board so they can stand on it for the upper hoof shots.

 The soles have gone rock hard overnight so it was really hard to get knife purchase on the horn. In anticipation I had sharpened the hoof knife & managed to cut my glove with it but not the sole!  

Then there’s that new big heel crack opening up right across the periople. If you have already had a look at those new Hoof Distortion videos  on youtube by Linda Harris, you would have seen this very crack across the heels of one of the hooves she was using for demonstration.

I will do more tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the photobucket album where you can see the other shots of the finished front feet all dated 20Nov2012.

http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 

In this shot below you can see those overlaid bars. I have been leaving them a bit as I didn't want to take too much out of the soles due to them being thin. I know Cas keeps telling me to take out more, especially those lumps in the collateral grooves. However this dry season has made the soles rock hard, too hard for me to use the knife & I had only started using the dremel recently on their fronts. I hadn't got to the hinds yet. But the rainny weather gave me the opportunity to do them. So this afternoon I did both Sonny's hinds just to get all that bar out. Tomorrow I will do more.

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What an Improvement I'm Seeing Now!

Yesterday I had another lesson in new knowledge. I finally found the lady whose website & youtube channel is known as The Happy Hoof. She is Linda Harris (sorry I don’t remember which US state). She invited me to join her web group.

Linda has just added a new series of videos to her channel called Hoof Distortions. She has the dried hooves of 2 known horses with various distortions that are reasonably common. However Linda’s take on what caused those distortions is much different & hence the trim method to recreate a good hoof.

When I saw them I had a cold chill as I realised they were exactly what Sonny’s feet would look like inside. I started to understand what has caused his mechanical founder. Linda showed how the PERIOLE (the heel bulbs) get very tall as can be seen on Sonny's heels quite clearly. Internally there may be 2 sets of old bars & sole growing, poking up into the back of the coffin bone, squeezing & killing to sole corium, jacking up the heels & causing all sorts of distress. It's from leaving the bars laid over or not recognising overlaid bars & keeping them short before they grow internally due to the horse's weight on them. Linda invited me to join her group & I am to provide history & photos & eventually new xrays so she can advise me about what different trimming might be advantageous. I have sent the link to Cas to get her opinion also.

If anyone wants to view these videos, find them here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKcimcR9MZQ&feature=relmfu

there are 9 in the set all about 7-10mins long. I was riveted for the whole series. It is so informing to see the inside of the hoof.

 So with new info in hand it was time to trim the horses again. I have been using the dremel with reasonable results except the last time when their soles were so hard nothing could grind them. We have had rain over the last couple of days so I took advantage & got out after the humidity dispersed. But by then I was racing the light. I got Cassie done all round, a little off the soles of Jude’s fronts, then had to move on to Sonny’s fronts.

By the time they were just roughly done I was shaking from working so fast to beat the fading light, so the photos are a bit blurred but even so you will see there is a huge improvement in sole shape. Since I was down in the orchard working in the shade there was nowhere to stand him to take upper hoof shots, so today there is only sole shots. His feet are nowhere near finished, just the first rough going over to remove overlaid bars.

I have taken out much more than I would usually take out of the sole. I know Cas removes what I think is a lot with the grinder. There are lumps that grow in the collateral grooves which are apparently overlaid bar material. However I never realised it caused so much damage internally. Once seen never forgotten I can assure you! Please go see those videos. It’s a wonder many horses can walk at all!

So I now know for sure that all that overlaid bar material MUST come out. The true bars are way under all that. That’ll be why all my horses shed sole parts so often, mostly the back half of the foot. It’ll be why Sonny keeps getting abscesses that make his heels so sore.

Today after that nice soaking rain for 2 days all feet were much easier to use the knife on. I easily lifted more than 5ml deep of overlaid bars. I could see the dirty join & the hoof was soft enough to lever it up. They aren’t often soft like that. Such a great opportunity & such timely knowledge.

I will finish their feet tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the photobucket album where you can see the other shots all dated 19Nov2012.

http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress, Slow but Steady!

Today I rode Sonny again for a few minutes after several weeks off while his feet go over an abscess.

His feet seemed to all get a bit sore when he got an abscess in the LF several weeks ago. So I eased up with his work & just did the tricks he likes to do.  I couldn't find any good reason for the abscess. There hadn't been any rain, I didn't ask him to do any hard riding & I hadn't changed his feed or minerals. Cas keeps reminding me that an abscess is a good thing, being the outward sign of internal healing. But something must have caused the inflamation in the first place to need healing.

Early last week I saw him galloping around & the next day I called them all up in the morning & he came bucking & farting & galloping too so that is a good thing. I decided his feet must be feeling a lot better so it was time to start working him again.

Since I found a good grinding style bit (like a rough sharpening stone) to use in my electric Dremel it has been a lot easier to do all my horse’s feet. Just now with the weather as dry as it is & the ground as hard as it is, their feet are rock hard & shiny as. A knife & even a rasp just scoots right off the hard plastic-like sole. I usually am not able to do their feet when they’re in this condition. Soaking makes no difference. But the little grinding stone bit makes light work of the hard surface horn. Once under the outer shell the horn is quite malleable.

I have been trying to use the info I recently learned about how the sole tubules grow to slow the forward growth of the sole at the toe. To that end I have been regularly (every few days) removing the little bit of sole  (about 2ml wide) that wants to grow across the lower edge of the wall, then making sure I don’t rasp too much off the walls so that I leave enough wall height that wall & sole equally bare the total weight. That seems to be allowing the sole to bunch up behind the wall rather than be forced to run out under the flaring wall at the toes. It also does the same thing where there is a break in the wall like where the old splits are growing out & in a couple of places where Sonny has broken out the side of the hoof a little.

I can see that the growth style of the soles in general is changing & the walls are now inclined to begin wrapping tightly to the bunched up edge of the sole on some hooves.

Another thing I am starting to see is much less of what appeared to be sidebone (or maybe it could have been ringbone) mostly on his front feet. I think the inner structures are actually sitting higher inside the capsules now rather than how they were previously where they had sunk right down. My take on it is that the soles are thickening thereby pushing the inner structures higher, heading back towards a more correct place. Still a long way to go, though. Originally I thought he would be ready for more xrays about this time but I think I will leave it until maybe end of January or ealry February 2013 to allow more remedial time.

Over the last 10 days I have done a little on Sonny’s front feet 3 times, each time to relocate the  heels back more. I use the Dremel to carve shape into the heel platforms because his feet are so shiny they slip around on the slopes clad in this dry crisp (lawn)short grass.

Removing the lumps that grow on each side of the frog where the bars should end has been helping too. I feel they cause the sole to grow warped or more to the point they are deformed bars growing warped into lumps. Cas used her grinder to remove them but I couldn’t do it properly until I got the Dremel working again.

There is still old blood up behind the toe wall of the RF. When I take that little bit of sole off that creeps out across the bottom of the wall I can see the blood colour still growing out. The distance from the tip of frog to toe inner wall on the RF hoof is still longer than the same measurement on the LF. However when seen from above the RF is a slightly smaller hoof all round. It seems like the RF is beginning to shed parts of it's sole too. Or perhaps the sole has worn off (grown out) to reveal old sole abscess damage.

I like the way the LF sole in particular is beginning to show a good seam connection to the wall. It will soon start that bunching up or convex shaped process that the Happy Hoof lady was talking about that is so important in growing sole depth. The RF sole/wall connection is still quite raggedy most of the way round. However the inner wall is now starting to bind & actually curl a bit more tightly to the sole rather than flaring out flat. So that has to be a good thing.

Just on the subject of the Happy Hoof Lady. I have left messages for her on her youtube channel but had no reply yet. However she does reply to people occasionally so there is hope yet. The link to her channel is in my previous post.

 Here are 2 shots from today’s photos with the rest at this link:-  http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 This is the first time I have taken a full set of photos all round all 4 feet since his founder I think.

Remeber that if you want to talk to me about a particular photo, each is numbered individually, so just copy the writing off the photo & I can open it in my photo album on my computer & know exactly which photo you are talking about.

 

                                                                                   

 

 

Lessons Learned This Week About Sole Tubules

Question:   Why does the sole run forward from under the toe wall?

Answer:   Because I have rasped/trimmed away too much wall too often.

Explanation of above comment by way of the following story:   

Somehow I was led to a video on youtube where a woman was explaining why horse’s feet go flat. I don’t know how I came to find it. It’s just one of those things. Why I didn’t find it or a similar thing 1 or 2 years ago I have no idea. Why no-one could answer this question is also dumbfounding to me.

This lady talked about how the sole tubules grow (something I’ve not found in any other farrier or trimmer YT video or in any literature or any website). She said they grow out of the sole usually fairly perpendicular but when the wall is taken away they ‘get loose’ & escape by running along flat out through the space where the wall is gone. If the wall is persistently removed all the sole tubules change direction permanently & run along the plane of the sole. This is particularly bad if the toe wall is removed consistently as the horse’s movement causes the tubules to push forward, thereby causing them to run out under the wall.

This then stops the wall from growing straight down to the ground anymore so it flares out. Eventually the flaring is so bad it can no longer contain the sole at all. As the walls extend further forward applying more & more breakover leverage & tearing around the toe, lamella wedge grows to fill the space. This flaring causes the sole thickness to diminish as the tubules are worn off faster than they can be replaced. Tubules that grow flat wear off faster than tubules that grow perpendicular. This wearing off process eventually makes the sole very thin & the inevitable result is that the internal structures get closer to the ground & the sole flattens. So there is this continual flattening & thinning process going on which can easily lead to founder.

The other thing about flattened tubules is that as they wear they let in moisture which can run right up to the live tissue causing all sorts of rot & fungal problems as well.

Laminitis is associated with this condition because the internal structures are under much more stress than usual. The heels run under since they are being dragged forward by the sole tubules & flared out toe. They end up in a place they aren’t supposed to be causing side wall flaring & much internal trauma, hence laminitis, abscessing & fungal issues. Of course laminitis can be due to gastric problems as well.

 

 

I uploaded these photos in full 1500pix sizing so all the tiny details could be seen clearly. To see the full sized photos click on these links & it should jump to 100% size.

http://i340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/October%202012%20Sonnys%20feet/Soletubuledemophoto.jpg

http://i340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/October%202012%20Sonnys%20feet/Soletubuledemophotoenlargedsection.jpg

 

If that doesn't work for you click on the this album link & you will find these photos there.

http://photobucket.com/oct2012Sonnysfeet

Here is an enlargement of part of that photo.

 

Interestingly the pattern of tiny dots of the worn off sole tubules looks a bit like tanned pig skin.

How to Solve this Problem:

Initially the only way to get new hoof to grow down at the correct angle is to remove all the flaring & keep it removed by way of beveling the bottom of the walls so they aren’t in contact with the ground during movement. However as soon as the renewed hoof reaches the ground, the beveling method has to be modified to leave some wall in place proud of the sole plane as a barrier to the sole tubules. As the flattened tubules grow, they begin to run up against that 1/16^th inch of that little bit of wall left at each weekly trim. Soon the sole begins to form a low ridge like a roll right beside/behind the toe wall which in turn allows a slightly thicker height of wall to be left at subsequent trims. So the height of wall above the original sole plane gradually grows & the sole backs up behind it. Soon the tubules begin to turn & grow more perpendicular & eventually the whole sole tubules are again growing in the right direction.

It is this backing up process of sole tubules behind the toe wall into a rolled shape that gives rise to the concavity that is so well documented & sort after in the healthy hoof. The front of the toe wall extends well down past the original sole plane thereby lifting the rest of the sole off the ground into that concave shape, hence lifting the internal structures away from the ground & allowing the sole to thicken. In turn the perpendicular tubules wear a lot less thus thickening the sole even more. The internal structures & in particular P3 again attain their correct alignment to the ground by being pushed upwards by the rising toe wall.

The stronger the lift from the toe wall, the greater the relief at the quarters & the shorter & more upright the heels will naturally be.

 

What the Future Can Hold:

This is my new aim. Sonny has now grown a full set of new capsules all round. Now I need to be sure to leave a little wall (1/16^th -1/8^th inch (2-4ml)) each trim. It would be so much easier if his hoof walls were strong but they aren’t so that small height gets worn off within a day of the trim. The more height  I can leave the better I think.

To that end I have finally discovered a carving bit to fit my Dremel carving tools. I have both a cordless & an electric so I can go to the paddock & just do a tiny bit of hoof carving each day. The bit isn’t the big ones seen on other youtube videos. How I wish I could buy one of those here! But the little one I bought does do the job for now. I can carve out the extreme overlaying bars which all the horses have now & which must be uncomfortable for them. Sonny’s overlaid bars extend right up to the tip of the frog. My guess is the hooves have been growing those long overlaid bars as extra protection, more or less whatever they can grow is better than nothing. However now I need to remove most of it to allow the new tubules to grow in the right direction rather than being forced from behind to conform & grow forward.

I have some photos showing the sole after rain when it is really clean & there is this lovely wavy pattern fanning out in all directions from the frog. I hadn’t seen it before & no-one knew what it was. But I do now! It is the ends of the tubules that are now growing flat, all laying over one another with their ends worn off at a very sharp angle!

 So I think I have all the tools now to restore Sonny’s feet (& my other horse’s feet too) to their rightful shape, structure & hopefully health.

 

To Wrap Up:

 

This knowledge is so important I don’t understand why it isn’t rammed into every horse owner’s knowledge base. It is particularly important to those who wish to have their horses bare footed. There aren’t that many horses with such sound hooves that they are always perfect. Yes, the trimming instructions always say to leave a small ridge of wall above the sole, but that can only apply to perfect hooves. Every other barefooted horse has some degree of flare or miss-shaping & there are many methods now that rasp (round) the wall up to well above the sole plane. Their reasoning is that the sole must share the responsibility of the weight bearing processes. That is true but the sole can only do that when & if the hoof structure is totally correct in the first instance.  It’s the process of attaining that correct structure where the possible problems lay. Without this piece of knowledge about the way the sole tubules grow, it is impossible to reach any sort of correct barefoot shape.


If you want to watch the youtube videos that I found there are many of them not all titled consecutively so you have to hunt around a bit to find them all. Here are the links to 2 anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmAcRPtbhoE&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ceb4HYBXDk&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Here is her latest video which talks about a thing called the 'Toe Stay'. This link should open up a set of videos that autoplay one after the other as they are only a few minutes long each. It does look like the photos are old 3x2 format & her comptuer screen is wide screen so the photos are quite stretched horizontally making the toe look very long. However I think I have seen those photos online & the toes are definately not that sloping. About the 5th of that set of autoplay vids she talks at length about how the tubules grow & shows some really good photos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Wq-phzgbQ&list=PLB11900FC6C774F9C&index=3&feature=plcp

This link is to one of the vids in the autoplay series that shows the toe stay really well along with the toe ridge/roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCf5b0rqd7E&feature=autoplay&list=PLB11900FC6C774F9C&playnext=11


I still haven't discovered this lady's name! She's just known as 'The Happy Hoof'.


 

Photos again! woohoo!

 

Finally I have a camera to take photos again although I’m struggling to get a handle on the settings!

 The big thing this week is the new heel positions growing in again on the fronts. However it’s very slow because his feet are still not growing after winter.

 

He was a bit tender footed for a few days after this latest trim which I did last Sunday (5days ago). Today (Thursday) I tidied them up & ran over the soles with the dremel to clean them up for the photos. I also rasped more off the toes. If I used the 3rds measurement method the toes should be back even more but I’m not sure enough to do it because one toe looks a bit short now. And yes the toes aren't quite at the right angle. It was getting dark & my back was hurting so I couldn't bend forward enough to get the correct angle on the rasp. I'll dress them again in a few days.

 Last Friday afternoon I walked Sonny along the old highway bitumen road about 700m & back again at a good pace. He had front boots on. He wouldn’t get any sort of constant walking like that in the paddock let alone on the abrasive hard bitumen. I haven’t walked him since due to him being sore following the trim on Sunday. I will walk him again tomorrow as he shouldn’t be sore anymore by then hopefully.

 I’m still doing ground work with him most afternoons which he generally enjoys.

 

Here are a few photos with the rest at this link:- http://photobucket.com/oct2012Sonnysfeet

 

 

Big Ride Today!

Sonny had to return to earning his keep today. Yesterday we had quite a bad storm that produced a mini twister. It blew over some trees which landed on fences & required fixing straight away. The rest I left until today. I was going to walk around the boundary fences but decided to ride Sonny instead.

So wearing his Easyboot Trails on his front feet I rode him in a halter with the bareback pad on. I just wanted him to walk but as usual he had other ideas. He just can’t help himself! lol He pig rooted, farted, squealed, grunted, humped up, high kicked particularly going up or down a slope. There are much easier ways to get bucked off than when he does his high kicks when he is frustrated that I won’t let him go at the speed he wants to go at. Any amount of pre-ride work is always 5mins too much  or too little for him. He’s such a card!

So we mostly walked around the boundaries a total of a bit over 1000m (1km) on soft soil through a lot of long thick grass. I tried as best I could to find gentle slopes into & out of the creek so as not to overwork his front feet too much. I tried very hard to give clear signals for riding since it was his first ride in 19mths (& mine too) other than the few ultra short rides in the round pen during the last few weeks. I didn’t want to have to get firm with him for being exuberant but I didn’t want him going silly & hurting his feet. So if he went along 50m without acting up I stopped him & gave him a treat carrot ring. That is new for him.

So I watch to see how his feet are over the next several days. The new highway opened tonight so I now have the old highway bitumen road to ride him on to exercise him & his feet.

There still isn’t very much growth in his feet. They were looking good today so I didn’t trim anything off prior to booting him. He has a nice evenly thick wall around all feet now where it touches the ground. My new camera has arrived at the retailer so I will hopefully pick it up later this week. I can take some photos of his feet then.

I have been ground working him at a trot & canter (usually booted) around some road markers that I set up in various patterns including knee high jumps over logs. He likes that as it reminds him of gymkhana. I’m aiming to increase his exercise daily as much as my body will tolerate without putting him online or overworking his feet. For him I think online is not good as he develops lazy biomechanics. While I rode him today I could feel the muscles along his back working. He hasn’t used them for a long time. They used to just go limp & I could feel his backbone. So he must now be using his topline & HQ much more now. So the less online I can do the better I think. It would also be due to his feet not hurting probably too.

 

So yet another milestone! More good things happening.

 

 

Things looking up again

Well it's a little over a week since I noted fat build up on Sonny & his lameness.

Cas called by 2 days ago & was happy with the trim on all horses & I have done them all again since then.

Fatty Deposits
Sonny has lost the extra fat deposit since I reduced his feed again. I gave that bit of feed to Jude to get some weight onto her. His feet are better too with no apparent heat now. I've been just playing with him doing stick to me through minature gymkhana type patterns laid out using road markers. He likes doing those. He also likes doing the bow down exercise but so far it doesn't look like turning into laying down.

Boots
Cas thinks it would be better for Sonny to wear his boots when I do all the 'work play' sort of stuff with him. She thinks I should go back to riding him a few minutes at a time but do it with his boots on. I may have overdone him riding him without boots that time. So I'll have to buy a pair of Easyboot Trails a size smaller.

Going Walking Again
The new highway will be open next week meaning I will have miles of sealed road of the old highway mostly to myself so we can go walking along that to promote his feet to start growing again. Walking on the bitumen road will still work his feet without the prospect of stone bruises like happens now on the dirt road.

When he runs around the paddocks it's clear he is still a little lame on the right front. But his running around is happening more often.


Galloping
The other afternoon after play session, I told them it was dinner time which usually means they line up & await me. When I arrived with their feed they were nowhere to be seen. I called & whistled & waited several minutes. I was about to txt someone saying aliens had stolen my horses!! lol

Then I 'felt' them coming before I saw them! They had been attracted by something at the far end of the far back paddock & finally heard me calling from 10ac away, upon which they hightailed it back to me. They came at flat gallop right through all the tall dead grass 3 abreast. Sonny was kicking up so high & hard his tail hair was cracking like a whip. How he manages to gallop AND high kick at the same time is beyond me. lol

They ran right past me to the other end of this paddock before wheeling around & sliding to a stop with lots of trumpeting, prancing, tail flagging & rearing right in front of me. He didn't show much lameness then nor the next day so that was good.

So from now on when I do proper play sessions with him I'll put his boots on his front feet. Improptu sessions will be done barefooted.

Hopefully this last 2 weeks of small set backs has come to an end & we can move forward from here.

Rain (or lack of!)
It's been 2mths (8wks) since the last rain which was only a couple ml & before that it was dry for 10days. So it's pretty much been dry as a bone here for over 9wks. 8wks is the all time record, so that's been well & truely broken. A little may fall next week some time but it will be another week before any real rain is expected. I'm not bothered about it. It's fortuitous that this dry spell has occured. I couldn't have asked for better weather for the repair of Sonny's feet (& Jude's & Cassie's feet too really). The dry won't do any long lasting damage to the land or plants because it's only dry down a few cm. Under that the ground is still damp. The grass is very dry/dead but there is still plenty of it.

Also hopefully my next photos will be taken in 2 wks time using my NEW CAMERA!! woohoo (if it arrives on time that is)

Birthdays
Jude turned 15yo during the week & Sonny turns 13yo in 4wks time. Cassie was born on Melbourne Cup day 8yrs ago this year!

Indicators of his diet

   

As can be seen from this photo Sonny isn't carrying any extra weight. However the pellets I'm feeding him are obviously too fatty for him. This next photo shows his sheath which a few weeks ago had no fat around it.

Also he has got very sore in his front feet agan.

 

  

A few weeks ago I had to change the type of pellets he was buying from 'pony' pellets with virtually no fat in them to same brand but 'horse & pony' pellets which are supposed to be pretty much the same except higher energy content according to the nutrition panel on the back of the bag. The pony pellets had a price increase of  almost 50%!! So since the horse pellets didn't have the price increase, I decided I'd buy them instead & just feed half the amount.

That works out to 1.25 cups or a bit less daily, just enough to contain the Supreme supplement & the 1tablespoon of salt Jenny suggests I feed him to counteract the potassium in the grass. Actually she suggests I feed him 2tbs salt daily but that small volume of pellets isn't enough to hold that volume of salt without him rejecting the feed as too salty.

He developed the same very fatty sheath last year when he was getting a Mitavite feed 'Promita' that was supposed to address all his mineral requirements in the dry season in this area. Obviously there is too much undigestable fat in the pellets & his body is storing it as fat in certain areas much like happens in humans...celulite! Once I took him off that feed he lost a lot of weight & his sheath returned to the normal shape it should be.

So I am wondering if the same undigestable fat or sugar is also causing the laminitis again. Perhaps there is a lot of hidden sugar in the pellets included to bring the energy quotient up to a certain level.

I chose this brand of pellet because they had the least energy & protien content & were just basically filler or something to eat for overly fat ponies, rather than have any sort of nutritious content. They were supposedly designed specailly for fat ponies etc.

Obviously these feed companies just can't help themselves, they HAVE to add all this crap oil & sugar content for some reason.

So I'm not sure what to do now. I have no idea what I can use as a feed to hold his supplement & salt.
Perhaps wheaten chaff? The volume of grain in 2cups of wheaten chaff shouldn't be too much for him surely?

We've had a bit of a setback

I think riding Sonny the other week was too much too soon. He wasn’t lame for a few days then gradually got worse over a few days. He’s reluctant to walk much now & really doesn’t want to walk on the road or even the driveway.

 There isn’t any extra heat in his RF but it is certainly a lot sorer than the LF. So I wait now to see if it’s an abscess. So far it doesn’t seem to be one. Actually it would be better in some ways if it was an abscess! At least it would come out somewhere then heal up. If it’s not an abscess it must mean something worse, ie internal problems or bruised sole.

 Today I have realised one reason why this may have happened. I ran out of the ProvideIt supplement some time back & while I saved for the next lot I fed Sonny the last 5 weeks worth of Dr Kohnke’s Cell Provide. At the time of running out of the ProvideIt  Supreme all the horse’s feet had stopped growing as per usual in winter. However within a week or so of putting Sonny back on the DK’s, his feet began growing again. They grew quite fast (which may or may not be a good thing). It was at that time that I began walking him on the road & the ridges began growing along the sides of his front feet in response to the hard ground. I was able to trim his feet weekly & be back walking on the road within a day or so of the trim. In previous years I have noted that his feet grew fast when getting DK's. I have no idea why the DK's might cause Sonny's feet to grow faster than the ProvideIt. Maybe, like humans, all horses are different & some things work better for some horses.

 When the new bag of ProvideIt arrived I put Sonny back onto that & I now realize his feet must have stopped growing within a week or so. However I had already trimmed him again at the end of that week & wondered why there was less to trim & not the heel growth I was expecting. I walked him a few days on the road & rode him that one time after the trim. Upon checking his front feet each day since the last trim I see there hasn’t been any growth at all & in fact his feet are wearing away again.

                                                 

 

 I will have to put his boots back on to do any ‘work play’ as he is getting too sore to walk. This afternoon he was reluctant to move much. His front feet are hot underneath. Now that the ground is very dry & hard his soles are wearing away faster than they can grow. The same thing happened last winter & I ended up with nothing to trim to correct problems.

 Trouble is, his Easyboot Trails that I purchased earlier this year are now too big because his feet have changed shape. So I can’t put his boots on full time like earlier in the year when I had him around the house yard. They are ok for just a quick walk or a bit of work play. But by the end of that at least one boot will have rotated 45degrees or more even with extra packing.

 The dry weather is becoming a double edged sword. We need the dry for healing purposes but it makes the ground very hard & abrasive. A bit of rain each week would keep the paddocks a bit softer to help him until his feet begin growing again naturally.

 So I’m in a bit of a quandary. If I put him back on the DK’s to get his feet growing I can get back on track again within a few weeks. Or I can do nothing with him until his feet naturally begin to grow again later in the year. However until then he will have to just hang around in the paddock on soft ground because I don’t have the right sized boots for him anymore & I have to hope his soles don’t wear away too much.

 Decisions, decisions!! lol

This afternoon I rode Sonny all the way up the driveway..180m uphill !

Woo Hoo!!

I’ve been trying to be dedicated about trimming Sonny every week as requested by Cas. All the horses got done again yesterday. Sonny’s back feet needed doing properly as they haven't been done fully since Cas was here except for some heel realignment. The fronts needed the heels taking back a little & the toes reshaping & shortening using measurement method (1/3-2/3).  I didn’t take any photos. But I rasped off almost all the remaining bullnose leaving just a little bit on the RF. I will take photos after next week’s trim when there should be 2 full totally new front hooves to show off!

 

Each afternoon I’ve been doing some 'work play' with Sonny including Marijke de Jong’s ‘Straightness Training’. Sonny prefers to do that in the18m wide round pen rather than along straight fences in the play area. So with the special halter set up with the long reins on it, we go around the outside & the inside of the round pen doing travers, renvers, haunches in & out, shoulders in & out. All this is done from the ground with me using the long reins. Then some liberty through the weave pegs followed by a short ride 1 lap of the round pen with a weave through the pegs all at the walk only. He was a bit sore after previous trims when I asked(or rather I allowed him) to trot 2 laps of round pen on the day following the trim. All this roundpen work is mainly to work his feet. It causes him to use the whole of his hooves, particularly the edges. Apparently if he can do that without getting sore it means the internal structures are repairing properly.

 

He wasn’t sore at all after yesterday’s trim, nor did he limp at all during today’s play session done without boots. So after our walk out along the road & graze back 200m to the gate with no sign of soreness I decided to ride him bareback up the driveway on the grass at a brisk walk. It will be very interesting to see if he is sore during the next few days from today’s effort. Over the next couple of days I won't ask him to do any 'work play', just mess around with the big ball & getting up on the stump.



All in all things are going really well. Still no rain at all. That's 6.5wks without rain. It's a record. All this dry weather is an absolute gift. He's got 5months before the wet season starts properly in February so that should be after another full cycle of hoof growth.


Happy days!!

Getting Closer!

I rode Sonny 1 lap of round pen 2 days ago!


After our regular walkies along the dirt road to strengthen his feet, we made our way to the round pen. I put his boots on front feet & did some liberty 'stick to me' with circling around me & spins as we walked around the pen. I was purposely causing him to us the sides of his front feet.

He seemed to be handling that ok so I asked him to trot a few slow laps changing direction through the center each lap. Total 4 laps. Then I asked him to go to the mounting block & I laid my weight over his back. He looked surprised! :-D No wonder... he hasn't been riden since Feb 2011. Anyway I slid onto his back & after a few seconds for him to adjust to the weight I asked him to walk 1 lap of round pen & back to mounting block where I got off.

I watched him closely for rest of that day & next for signs of soreness. I didn't walk him on the road yesterday incase there was soreness inside. Today due to my plans to trim him again I didn't walk him either. After the trim I moved all horses back to front paddock where the footing is more rough with small stones & pea sized gravel where they tend to rest mostly.

I was filling the trough while I pulled some weeds when they galloped past me & thundered down the side fence to the front where they put on a good rodeo. Including Sonny! I was glad to see that he was feeling good & didn't seem to be as badly affected by this trim as much as previously has happened. I'll keep a good eye on him & check for heat in his feet during next few days because all the things he's done over last few days could cause soreness, more damage or another abscess.

Here are a few photos from today's trim with the others at this link:-

http://s340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/August%202012%20Sonnys%20feet%20photos/

I didn't rasp the heels as short as earlier this month because I can still see a slight red glow through the sole when held at the right angle to the sun. This low angled sun at this time of year seems to shine right through the horn. I tis plain to see his soles are still very thin. The ridges of horn that developed as a result of the previous round of walkies on the dirt road & which were rasped off at previous trim have started growing back. I tried not to remove them this time as I think they will help to create sole thickness. However the photos of the trimmed hooves do show where the rasp touched those ridges along each side of both feet.

Updated trim

What a difference a few days makes!

It's only been 5days since I trimmed him & I have done more today on the fronts.
After talking with Cas I have lowerred his heels a little. The frogs are proud of the sole now but will flatten in a day which will make him  a little sore. I need to repeat the process again maybe in another 4-5days.

There is a lot of heel growing now. Well I mean the heel butress leathery stuff is again turning into heel horn which can be rasped down to the right height progressively.

Here are some shots I took today after rasping the heels. The low angle of the sun makes the shots easy to see well.

ProvideIt Supplement

Also more of the ProvideIt supplement has arrived so he will be back on it tomorrow. It will be interesting to be able to compare the quality of the hoof growth during the 3wks without the supplement. All the heel horn & quarters horn is new hoof grown with the ProvideIt supplement. What is still the toe area was grown using Kohnke's Supplement.

When I was taking these few photos the sun was shining in at that low angle from behind him & I could see the horn on the quarters was translucent.

Latest Front feet Trim

Here are the shots of the front feet latest trim done today. I'll do the back feet tomorrow I think/hope!

When I tried to lower the heels to where Cas said they should be, I was unsure how much sole thickness I should rasp off because the frog is already standing proud of the sole & I was concerned about making it too sore. Sonny is usually sore after a trim & I think it is often due to the frog having to squish down once the sole around it is rasped away to get the heels to the right height.

I will ask Cas what I should do. In the meantime I rasped them just to the current sole level but it is clear they should be lower. In actual fact they have moved back again but this time the sole has stayed put. I guess that means it is thickening so I don't want to rasp it off. His feet have started growing again which is a little unusual for him in winter.

What all that means is it is time for more xrays but I need to save for them for another month yet since the vet requires to be paid within 7days of the service!

The shots of the toe of the RF are very interesting as they show the top edge of the old lamella wedge where an old abscess hole has broken away. I had to rasp a lot of that old lamella wedge away today & it was like rasping eraser! I'm sure a more adventurous trimmer/farrier would probably have cut it all away to tidy the toe up better but I'll just let it grow out a bit more yet.

As usual here are 2 shots with the rest at the link following:-  http://s340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/August%202012%20Sonnys%20feet%20photos/

No rain for 16 days! Whooppeeeee

What a difference a week makes!

Most of the ground is dry on top at least. Even the grass itself is showing signs of drying off a bit. Of course several frosts in a row will also help to dry the grass too!

For several days each afternoon I have been walking Sonny along the dirt road a short way. I walk him about 100-200m before he tells me his feet are hurting too much to go further. It's quite a hard dirt with some very sharp loose stones on top that he doesn't seem to be able to see & then steps on them. I don't want to cause stone bruises so when he says it's too much I let him walk on the grass again.

I have made a task of it & given it it's own name with a little carrot slice reward every 20-30 steps. We go 'walking on the road' out the front gate. Going left is the shorter 100m to the bitumen then graze back along the side of the road. Going right out the gate is 200m to the bottom of the hill & again we graze back along the road side which has quite good grass. It's a combo of subtropicals with about 50% rhodes & due to the tall overhanging trees, it's shaded most of the day. He really likes having that feast so it's the reason we go 'walking'. I'm hoping to increase the distance over the next week or so once he's got over the next trim. That always seems to give him sore feet for a day or so.

It's 4wks since Cas did his feet & I have done one quick trim since. I'll do another in the next few days as soon as my arm is working again. I have been mowing strips through the long grass to move the electric fence around so they get more of that old long grass to graze through. At this time of year I would usually buy round bales of rhodes but none available this year. Just small heavy squares of lucerne.


Sonny learns to bow down!

Sonny has recently begun to understand what I want when I ask him to bow down on one knee. It has taken his whole life to be comfortable allowing me to take his leg away to the rear & for him to follow the feel. I think the next step of going down on both front knees or even laying down might happen quite quickly. That seems to be the way he works. Anyway I need to take it slowly as he seems to get a bit disoriented while he is kneeling down. I only do it once then walk him around a bit till his mind 'comes back to me'.


.

Rain, more rain, Hoof Changes & Walkies

It’s been a good couple of weeks since I posted here. It’s just as well Sonny’s feet have slowed their growth rate for winter because my arms & back are shot! I really needed a break.

I left the trim an extra week so Cas can see what I would have normally trimmed off. As it turned out she was an extra week getting here so his feet were a tad long compared to how she would like them to be. In anycase there wasn’t much to remove. 

But the toes do have to be shortened more than the white line indicates because the old hoof is almost gone & the new hoof is yet to show so the white line is gone around the toe now. So now it is up to me to keep this trim going good as Cas has work commitments now for 8-10wks until November. Hopefully during that time the rain will let up & the ground will dry out & his feet will start getting a good work out.

Sonny has been not wearing boots for a week or more now mostly due to so much rain but also because the ground is so soft & it is a good chance to start getting him used to going barefooted again.

He has had a sore LF for 2wks & I have been waiting for an abscess to emerge but none has. Now the soreness seems to have abaited. He was a bit sore after trimming & I gave him a bute yesterday afternoon because he seemed off colour.  Way out of character he laid down in his shelter while I discussed how to trim Jude & Cassie with Cas. He didn't get up when Cas was using the grinder on Jude. He actually had a sleep! He was dreaming & whinnying in his sleep. lol Also I think because he is still being paddocked alone & the mares go off way down the back paddock where he can't see them, he gets really upset. So much so that he won't lay down & sleep. He spends the whole night running around & screaming. With so much rain all night it would make it very uncomfortable so he was probably dead on his feet & having that nice soft dry hay bedding, he just couldn't resist the need to sleep.

This afternoon I got him in to do some liberty play & practice knealing down on one knee which he finally learnt a week ago. After a short session he became enthrawled by something way across the hills. He seemed unusually high spirited & trotted a little which was nice to see. I decided to take him out down the road for a walk. He hasn't been out the front gate for a year I think. I booted him all round & we went for a nice walk which he thoroughly enjoyed. He stood tall, eyes bulging as he gawked at all the cattle in paddocks along the road. So he must be starting to feel better now.

I took the pretrim photos on the morning Cas was to trim him but the rain didn’t let up & Cas was late. She did him but it was dark by then. Too much rain next day or 2 until today when I was able to get him out of the paddock, remove his boots & get some shots outside where there was some light. My old video camera doesn’t have a flash. In today's photos you can see a white line around his coronets. That's from having his boots on all the time during all this wet weather. On the day I took the pretrim shots I let his feet dry before I took them but today I had to take the photos straight away.

He is getting a little hand feed although he has finished the supplement. He has eaten the whole house yard right down so I am planning to move him to the front paddock as soon as the rain lets up & the long grass dries enough for me to mow lines through it to stake the electric fence along to divide the paddock on half. He will be able to see the mares all the time & still get plenty of exercise in a slightly less soft, sloping paddock. Hopefully he can go bootless there too right from the outset.

Anyway here are 2 photos with the remainder of the pretrim & trim shots at this link. http://s340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/July%202012%20Sonnys%20feet%20photos/

Both Cas & I feel it is better to leave that bullnose intact on the RF a while longer yet to protect the soft live tissue under it. There is quite a gap between the old & new hoof. I will rasp a little off it's thickness each week until the new hoof appears at the toe. Also as I wrote on one of the photos there is a new series of new heel positions appearing so there will be another set of dramatic changes to the shape of that hoof over the next 4weeks or so. It's quite a different shaped hoof to the LF just now.