Dee's feet approx 7 mths in

ann-jen

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I'd be particularly interested in what people think of the right one!

For anyone interested this is how they started

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?651197-Dee-s-feet-6-weeks-on

Some positive changes, and some odd changes too I think! The frogs are better than they look in these pics (there actually is no big crevice in the middle!) and sorry for the crap pic quality. The iPhone seems very random to focus!
 

cptrayes

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Is she sound on all surfaces? That's what counts most.


Depending on how much work she is doing, I might be concerned that she still needs the support of bars which are growing up the sides of the frogs. I would have expected those to have disappeared by now.

She has a folded over bar on one. A lot of trimmers would say that is a problem and cut it out. I wouldn't, personally, it will go when it's ready.

The feet are very different from each other. Does she have any one sided issues?
 

ann-jen

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Up until about a month ago she was sound in all surfaces, but she is currently 'footy' on stony ground. I've put this down to the ridiculous amount of grazing we have at the minute :-/. She is turned out muzzled at night and stands in during the day with a small amount if haylage. Have just got a new muzzle with a much smaller hole to try to restrict the grass more as it's really lush at the minute. She is fed a small meal of chaff, micronised linseed and pro hoof.
She's ridden 6 days a week. Average week would be 3 hacks, and the rest on a surface schooling flat and jumping. She isn't doing as much road work as she was and wears padded boots when she does.
She was trimmed 2 days ago and as I wasn't going to be present I asked for the weird bar thing to be checked and as it hasn't been touched assumed it was ok.
Her feet have never been a pair, although the right foot originally was more upright on the medial side and had a flare at the toe which has disappeared. On the ground the feet look more of a pair than they did. But the right foot is a lot more asymmetrical on the solar surface than it was.
When she first went barefoot she made big changes initially then seemed to hit a stalemate for ages and then they have started changing again recently. The positive was losing the dcs on the frogs which although still poor are much beefier than they were. I always assumed she'd have to get rid if the underrun heels before the frogs improved. I think the dry weather has helped somewhat here.
She came from a dealer and the story was she had been out of work as her previous owner was pregnant, but I later discovered she also went lame at the same time. I decided not to panic over this as it may have been something trivial and the owner decided not to bring her back into work because of the pregnancy, but do wonder if something went un diagnosed in that foot at that time and then her feet were quite neglected at this point.
To ride on the flat she's a piece of cake. Better on the right rein but nothing major. Nearly qualified for the regionals at prelim (just hunting one more test >66!) but to jump she is very difficult to turn to the left (need a lot of outside leg!!!)
She's a lovely horse and has such a fabulous attitude to work that I took a punt on her feet at her vetting.
Very grateful for your comments. I know I need to possibly increase her road work. But any other ideas would be welcome! :)
 

Exploding Chestnuts

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My only thought would be to try some long reining maybe 3 short sessions a week to ask for long and low and try to re-model the musclature.
There does not seem a lot of concavity on the feet, not sure if i bit of hacking on tarmac would help overall.
Depending on condition/greed, I would try a bit more soaked forage so she is not hungry when turned out., and increase fibre intake.
 
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amandap

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All I can say is that bar (R foot left side) looks like it has snapped off and is hanging on near the heel buttress. I am surprised it avoided the knife tbh as it is laying on the sole near the wall. I don't know which is the best approach to it myself.

Have the walls been thinned in the trim?
 
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ann-jen

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Thanks everyone whose replied. I've sent the pics to my trimmer friend whose going to ring me tonight. If he's in agreement they aren't good enough for the stage we are at, or thinks I need to change anything drastically I think I shall change to him for trimming instead of the farrier (feel free to say I told you so lol!!!)
 

ann-jen

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Yes I have a sneaky suspicion that exactly what Steve will say when I speak to him later. Every time I've bombarded the poor man with questions he's just told me to leave them alone! Judging by his frequent facebook statuses he likes to leave things alone as much as possible!
 

ann-jen

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Also will speak to the YM re increasing her hay during the day. She's not a greedy horse unlike my other one so it might not make that much difference as she does tend to just pick at it through the day (whereas Jenny the gannet eats it all as quickly as possible and then starts on her bed :-/ lol) She has a salt lick in her stable (one of those Himalayan jobbies) which she does use.... although not as much as Jen again! Interestingly though Jen never really sweats a great deal unless worked very hard/its boiling, whereas Dee is a sweaty horse so you'd think she would use the lick more than Jen really!
 

Exploding Chestnuts

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I am not convinced by the argument that they will lick salt if they need it, my boy just did not like a salt lick, he rubbed his tail on the rock, but I put salt in his diet as "I"
decided he needed it
 

cptrayes

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I am not convinced by the argument that they will lick salt if they need it, my boy just did not like a salt lick, he rubbed his tail on the rock, but I put salt in his diet as "I"
decided he needed it

I was unconvinced by the argument that you need to add salt to the food of a horse with access to a salt lick. But my cob started to rub his nose, a symptom of head shaking, and they now say head shakers should be given salt, so I gave him some in his food and he has never rubbed his nose since. It could be confidence, but ......
 

Exploding Chestnuts

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I was unconvinced by the argument that you need to add salt to the food of a horse with access to a salt lick. But my cob started to rub his nose, a symptom of head shaking, and they now say head shakers should be given salt, so I gave him some in his food and he has never rubbed his nose since. It could be confidence, but ......
or possibly, coincidence?
 

ann-jen

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Whereas jenny the salt lick guzzler is a nose rubber! (Although I sometimes suspect the crafty old ****** uses it as an excuse to stop working lol)
 

Nugget La Poneh

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I was unconvinced by the argument that you need to add salt to the food of a horse with access to a salt lick. But my cob started to rub his nose, a symptom of head shaking, and they now say head shakers should be given salt, so I gave him some in his food and he has never rubbed his nose since. It could be confidence, but ......

Not to hijack - but nose rubbing?

In terms of frogs, all the reading I have been doing suggests leaving the frogs alone unless there are loose flappy bits that are harbouring infection underneath, which those feet don't seem to be (certainly not in the same as other feet shots posted here, including my own pony).
 

ann-jen

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Yes I think we are finally on top of the infection situation although it took forever and am sure it's more the ground drying out than any scrubbing and cleaning I was doing!
 

ann-jen

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Not sure if anyone is interested but.......
Barefoot trimmer friend came out at the weekend to look at Dee's weird foot/bar.
He filmed her walking and it appears that she lands fine on the other 3 feet but lands very subtly on the medial aspect of her RF so slightly skew-whiff. Its this slight imbalance that has caused her to grow the weird bar thing. I think initially he was going to leave it but then found a decent sized stone wedged underneath it! So the bar has been cut back and the depression behind the stone opened out (am thinking this was abscess waiting to happen!) And then trimmed a smidge off one wall to try to straighten her footfall.
He was also very complimentary about my farrier's job so far in terms of the foot balance etc. (which was a relief/reassurance!) Apparently she also has good sole depth which I wasn't expecting to hear. So some real positives too. He just thinks we should leave her to grow the wall down and thicken more at this point before considering rolling the toe etc. So basically we leave well alone for the next 12 weeks unless she starts to develop another weird bar thing!
 

ann-jen

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To add, the horse went out and scored a 70.2% dressage test BD the following day so must have felt good! First time I've ever hit the 70% mark! Good girl Deedee :)
 
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