before and after pics

ester

ester

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Although the most important thing is that he was lame (counter rotated pedal bones and possible coffin joint DJD) and is now sound and in full work :). I thought some might like to see Frank's before and after pics nearly a year down the line. Still having a bit of bother with one of his front frogs again, not helped by the weather and it is improving, I don't worry as much anymore and just let him get on with it. The befores were the day shoes came off, the afters are about 3 weeks after a trim :).

near fore (the lame foot)

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near hind (his wonky foot which has evened out a bit)
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off fore

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off hind

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and the lad himself.. it's hard work this hacking lark and he is sure that someone mentioned retirement, but my sister took him to the beach on Friday, we had a lesson yesterday and he did a 2 hour hack today :D

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Yes I am also intrested to know how long it took before he became sound my horse has been barefoot for about 10 weeks, he was diagnoised with a similar condition to your boy. Currently he has an abcess :-(
 
He had steroid + HA injection Jan 2012 and a second one about 6-8 weeks later just before the shoes came off as the first one had helped until we upped the work (after introducing trot work he became 3 or 4/10 lame). The second jab meant that when we started walking he was pretty sound not sure whether I would do the same again or just start walking.

We did a lot of walking to start with as I wanted to keep that soundness as was worried if we lost it that would be it (and having had him 8 years he deserved the patience) and lots of straight lines (partly as he was landing laterally quite badly anyway), I think we did some trotting on good ground in May (and he was sound) and cantered in August, circles end September.

He hasn't had any other treatment for the coffin joint since last Jan :) and he is wonkier than behind than in front these days (old age stiffness).

The only other thing is that he did need to see his back lady/masseuse more frequently when transitioning.
 
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Thanks ester, I am so pleased barefoot has worked for your boy - it gives me hope for my mine one day! Prior to the abcess he was sound in walk but not in trot.
 
Roonat fwiw I didn't trot him up properly for a fair while after we took shoes off so I wouldn't necessarily be able to say for certain if he was or wasn't. This was mostly due to lack of a suitable surface for straight trot ups and given that we had quite soft ground in the summer I decided to see how he felt one day.

He walked out fine to start but went quite footy after about 6 weeks once he had worn the edges down and was standing on his feet proper (he had flat soles at the time too) so was booted much of the time with short in hand walks/hacks to the soft grounded bridleway we have. This has got much better as he has acquired some concavity to his soles :), he is good on most things now apart from the odd road scalping on top of tarmac.

I have found it awfully worrying at times tbh, and am still quite surprised it seems to have worked as I had prepared to retire him really (he is 20 this year).
 
Victoria1980x - Yeah I am a member of the above forum. Oberon is my personal mentor - I would be lost with out her, I owe her allot she has been so generous with her time and advice. No it's not an easy option but for my boy its his last chance. Fingers crossed for your horse too. **
 
I reckon she is a good mentor to have :D. We are still learning about F and trimming as we took a little more off before xmas and he wasn't so happy again so last time he just had a quick rasp and a roll and he was much happier :).
 
Thanks again ester it's really nice to hear your story as someone who has been through it. My boy is booted for turnout and hacking as he has such thin soles and I just can't risk another sub solar hematoma which would set us back months. He can manage in the school barefoot and I usually spend a couple of evenings a week walking him around the yard in hand on the smooth concrete for about 30 minutes. Did you ever have any abscess's with your boy, this is my second one since i went barefoot in december and it's a different foot!*I think oberon has a degree / master and a phd in barefoot
 
no, we were lucky in that respect. We thought he was brewing one on one day (bank hol- quick text to lovely trimmer!) because he spent a lot of the day stood on our small patch of pea gravel... It turned out he had just been galloping round the track on the hard ground too much the night before (we can hear them out our back windows). Other than that he did have one possibly exit hole but no lameness. What you're doing sounds like a good plan. Keep at it :) I think its as likely (if not more) to work than anything else.
 
Roonat said:
Victoria1980x - Yeah I am a member of the above forum. Oberon is my personal mentor - I would be lost with out her, I owe her allot she has been so generous with her time and advice. No it's not an easy option but for my boy its his last chance. Fingers crossed for your horse too. **
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I'm jealous :mad: :D
 
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