Photos
Zippy's back feet in particular had not been trimmed often enough and he had been left with heels way too long. I have already taken this heel down by about half an inch, while leaving the toe exactly the same as it was, yet you can see that we are some way off a good angle yet.
His feet don't splay but have stayed upright, and the result has been that his frogs have been suspended way up inside his feet and have atrophied, this one in particular. Don't be fooled by the photo. The grey V which is about the right size is only the base of his frog. His proper frog ends right where that little piece of straw is lying almost sideways across the point, and the sides are equally far off the base V. It's basically the inner triangle that you can see there - a tiny, shrunken little thing. I think I have probably only just got him in time to stop him having permanently small feet for his size. Which is just as well. A 17 hand horse with tiny feet is not what anyone wants to see!
This is Jazz's foot. I hope you can see it OK, I have taken the picture along one side of the frog. He has enormous depth at the collateral grooves at the side of the frog, so his pedal bone is well suspended right up inside his foot. But the rest of his foot is flat. (His frog looks proud of the sole in this picture but actually it is level) I don't know why this is, but I figure with the depth of the collateral grooves, the flatness pretty well has to be thickness of sole. I know he's sound on rubble, so that supports my theory I guess. I'm hoping that they will concave over time. A friend of mine had a warmblood with similar feet which have concaved over a year.
Now this is a thoroughbred foot on a very lightweight leg - I did buy her because she had good feet but I am absolutely delighted with Tia's front feet, especially as she is just the kind of horse who most people would say can't manage without shoes. I don't know if you can see how concave this is, but you can certainly see the shape and the thickness of the hoof wall and the strength in the bars and the huge heel purchase. None of the marks are bruising or stretched white line, it's all mud!
Tell me what you think :-)
posted by cptrayes @ 4:45 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hi Caroline
I think you're right about Jazz's lack of concavity being sole, I'd expect it to exfoliate over time given the right conditions. Tia's hooves are looking nice too! Zippy's hooves will be thankful you got to them in time, poor lad.
Amanda
Hi Amanda, I didn't know that you were still with us, nice to see you!
I'm glad you thin that Jazz has excess sole too. I wonder if this is a warmblood thing. I've only seen it three times, always on warmbloods.
C.
Been offline for a few days so only just caught up! I pop in periodically, it's great keeping up with what you're up to.
I've got 2 that I trim who have excess sole, a warmblood type though no-one knows her real breeding and a welsh D type (not sure if he is or not, suspect there's some other blood in there). Both of them had very tall hooves but no excess wall beyond the sole when I first started doing them, and both now have hooves half the height and still some way to go. It's very interesting trimming them, and very rewarding seeing the changes.
Post a Comment
<< Home