It is bone dry here, big drought, wet season gone awol, feet hardly growing.
It's been over 100*F / 38*C most days & yesterday morning it was 95*F by 8am so I did their feet in the shade rather than on the concrete so the standing photos are not perfect, sorry...sun just too hot.
The only riding I have done recently on him is a quick bareback & tackless demo.
Somewhere along the last several weeks Sonny's LF ran to a long toe & the heel seems to have collapsed. I think it was when I was experimenting with leaving a bit more heel to aid in sole development. Obviously that process only works if the capsule is in good shape first.
So there is lots of blood in the whiteline again. I am bevelling or rockering depending on whether I think he is sore or not. Bevel if he is sore otherwise rocker. These toes & heels have a mind of their own & are playing hard ball that's for sure.
The weakness on the medial side of the RF has grown out quite well with reasonable horn now reaching the ground. His hinds are very slowly changing shape. They are not quite so triangular now as they were a few months ago. That is a good thing & shows the rocker/bevel is working. There is still some flaring caused by collapsed heels but I think as the general capsule shape changes there will be less pressure on the heels & they will stand up.
Here are a few photos with the rest at the link below. I only took photos of 1 hind. My camera went flat!
You can see in both the front below that the sole is again receding away from the flares so next trim I should be able to take those flared quarter walls away & have a tighter hoof. At least he has bars on both fronts again now even if they are still cracked. It is a huge improvement. I have left some of the lumpy sole that is exfoliating so he has as much sole thickness as possible.
In 4 days time I will take the heels down on the fronts a little bit more. Taking down both heels & toes at the same seems to make him very sore. There seems to be some good heel platform developing now too.
RIGHT FRONT
LEFT FRONT
In this pair above you can see how I have got the growth rings level again. Those toes ran wild very quickly. You can see the bottom rings are ok then the middle rings show the wavy pattern then the top rings are level again.
LEFT HIND
The slight purple colouration in these photos below is the camera going flat! Not some funny colour in his feet. If I was stronger I could lever out the bits of overgrown bar that remain after the grinder disc has taken what it can reach, but those remaining bits are well below ground contact level so I leave them to aid sole thickness. They will fall out soon anyway.
This hind foot has heels that aren't too bad but the other has quite underrun heels again. They will get better over the next few trims.
Here is the link to the January album to see the remaining photos:-
The grinder is such a time saver & energy saver too, especially since both my shoulders have given up the ghost recently & rasping is just not something I can do anymore. Both my arms have become weakened with no shoulder strength. There is no way I could have done all my horse's feet yesterday if I had to do it manually. I wouldn't even have achieved one horse done, let alone all 3 horses done.
Yes the grinder is not perfect but for me in this time & place it is the saving grace. Once their feet are softened by moisture from rain I can get into them with the knife again & tidy them up.
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