I am thrilled with the changes occuring now!

Today I trimmed Sonny's fronts & the positive changes are amazing!

 

Firstly was the sight of soil trapped in the sole this morning. For the average person looking under a hoof, that would be a normal sight. But for me & Sonny, it is the first time I have seen that for at least 2yrs. His feet have been so flat that not a grain of soil could be caught under his hoof.

 

 

I had to soak his feet in boots for about 4hrs before I did the trim . I put his boots on first thing this morning when they came up from grazing in the long grass which had a little moisture in it from overnight dew. It made today’s trim so much easier, particularly being able to remove all the flaking material off the sole. I took this shot during the trim to show how much is flaking off now.

The general quality of the walls is vastly improved. They no longer bend under his weight. Now there is enough wall height & strength to raise the sole off the ground allowing room for the frog to thicken up some.

 

 

 The sole of LF is receding which creates a wider rim of wall, evident in the photos of that hoof before I trimmed half of it off today. The LF is the white hoof & it has been bigger than the RF for some time. It's great to see it now coming back to the same size as the right. This shot was taken before I rasped the walls.

 The other thing I have been watching with great excitement is the bony column now rising up through the hoof capsule. It is evidenced by the lower pastern now not showing any signs of sidebone or ringbone that people said he had earlier last year. I always felt it was just the sole so thin it had let the bony column fall down somewhat. I'm really glad to see it reversing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I'm also realizing Sonny is much more comfortable if I leave some wall height after the trim so the frog doesn't get flattened so much & it keeps his soles off the ground so he can walk easier. He is even walking across my stony driveway with relative ease. I can't remember how long it is since he could do that.

 

Finally I think I have now found the bar roots although it's still a way to go before there will be bars. I cropped & enlarged this photo of what I think is the root of the RF bars.

 The periople of the LF is getting shorter & the hairline is getting closer to the ground even though I am leaving the heels a tad taller. I'm assuming that means the inner structures are beginning to regain correct alignment.

 One of THE most amazing things is that the RF sole actually now has room for the frog to have some thickness to it. That means the 'founder' is most likely gone/finished/abated. Use whatever word you please! It doesn't mean the hoof is out of danger as it is still quite sore inside. I guess the internal structures are yet to regrow properly.

 

 

There is now actual inner & outer wall to bevel. It's so much easier to trim when all the components of the hoof are in place! Although I did get carried away when doing the RF & took too much off as can be seen in the above photo. I was trying to hurry as the sun had caught up to where I had set up under a tree for the trim & I was getting hot. The day was already in the high 90's (35C) at 9am. The heat here is still quite oppressive with really low humidity.

 

Please compare this photo above with the one at the top of the far right column of this blog entitled 'Sonny's worst hoof'.

All in all I am really thrilled with the progress now evident in his feet.

Here is the link to the rest of today’s photos which are all dated 21-01-2013

http://photobucket.com/2013_January_Sonnys_Feet

 

I have found some really firm durable rubber matting which might make suitable pads for inside his Trail boots so we can start some riding again. Tomorrow's plan is if the day is cooler as predicted, I'll put his boots on him with the newly cut pads & see how his legs & feet feel after a couple hours of wear. The rubber is quite firm being bonded from 2 different layers yet there is a little bit of yield in the top brown layer. My main interest is to see whether the rubber holds it's shape or if it completely submits to the shape of his sole & then starts going flat. The bottom black courser layer is quitre strong & stiff. The matting is made from old vehicle tyres.

 

                                                                                                                  

      

 

2 Steps Forward, 0 Steps Back This Time!

You know the saying 2 steps forward, 1 step back? Well more things are taking steps forward than stepping backwards.  Actually there haven’t been any steps backward during this latest trim cycle.

 Sonny even walked freely across the stony driveway on his way to where I was doing his trim this afternoon. You can see the pretrim shots at the link to my Photobucket album at the end of this post. There is wall all the way round all hooves to share the weight now. That’s amazing I think!

 I’ve cleaned out the collateral grooves again today. In the pretrim shots you can see how they had filled in again. Linda Harris says it is old jammed up bar material coming down from up inside the hoof. Whatever it is it has to go. It does want to let go as you can see it starting to flake off in parts but still far too tight let go totally. So I am helping it!

I'm also still doing a shallow bevel to the walls around toes between pillars, just enough to releive breakover leverage. I redo it each week. It's been 6weeks since I did the first attempt at the rocker & bevel that turned out to be too much at this time for his front feet. However from just doing the light bevel there is a new tighter angle starting to appear below the coronet band which is a good sign the bevel is working.

 The shape of the sole/wall connection is improving markedly. There is a proper join now where the sole meets the wall. However there’s no discernible whiteline yet. When I see that I will know for sure the connection between inner wall & inside foot has been re-established successfully. Then I think he will be ready to ride again.

 I’ve been thinking I could start a little light roundpen work & riding soon but then thought about the absent white line. No whiteline means no proper connective tissue has regrown yet. It might be coming down but the hoof that is meeting the ground now was made in the coronet about 4mths ago, well after remedial treatment was started. The RF coronet band has a scare inside it also that causes the hoof to break away as it reaches the ground. Obviously that bit still has reduced blood supply to it inside the coronet band, therefore it can’t make proper hoof yet. So that might cause problems if I start asking for work while there is still a weakness in that hoof.

 It is bone dry here. You can see in the photos the grass is quite dead. The ground is rock hard as are the feet of all my horses. I am going through one dremel grinder stone bit on each trimming day. So one bit does 12 feet. Usually a grinder stone bit would last several trim days. I have been letting the trough run over to make a wet patch infront where they can stand on moist ground for a while. The little dam at the bottom of their current paddock is just a muddy hole.

The photos from this trim can be found here:-   www.photobucket.com/2013_January_Sonnys_Feet

 

 He's lost a fair bit of weight this year & I haven't been feeding any hay, just their small amount of pellets with minerals, salt & oil each day. There's still masses of grass in the paddocks but it's very dry. However there is still a lot of green couch in under it if they will just stick their heads down into the tall dry grass to find the green stuff.