Barefoot post- thoughts please!

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KatB

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This is the album of madams front feet most recently. She has been trimmed about 3 weeks, and had shoes off for about 6 weeks. She is intermittentedly lame in front, and we are currently investigating what may be causing this, but x-rays etc have all been done... She is getting better and better on a variety of surfaces, and is sound in the school so has been doing some light work. Her right foot is the black foot, and her left the paler foot. Sorry they're not great, I haven't had chance to wash off her feet to take pics!

Thoughts on them would be very much appreciated...
 
There's lots to like imo. Decent caudal hoof for a foot recently out of shoes. There is flare present - what's the diet like?

It's tough to see how deep the collateral grooves are from those pics - do the rads show adequate sole depth?
 
Twostroke, she is on a low sugar diet now, but is a complete pig and will eat all the grass she can find... she is now on just speedi beet with micronised linseed, is on a very bare paddock in the day and gets a haynet at night. She has a very flat pedal bone, although my farrier was working hard before her shoes came off to increase the concavity of her foot, and it's not hideous now... I am looking at supplements to help her mineral balance...
 
Oh, and the collateral grooves are quite deep, I was surprised how deep actually when i went delving about with a hoof pick! is this a good thing?! I'm thinking probably not...I'm ok at hoof balance etc, but sole "conformation" i'm not great at... :o
 
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Collateral groove depth tells you how much sole you've got. You're looking for collateral grooves to be 3/4 of an inch deep - that will mean you have adequate sole depth. So deep is good :).

Sounds like you're doing all the right things. A decent mineral supplement as brucea suggests is always a good idea. Other than that it's down to stimulation. As long as the work is kept within the horse's comfort limits, then the more stimulation you can give the foot, the better it'll get.
 
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