Forgive me for I have sinned....

[HufflyPuffly]

So remember the wonderful success story of Doodle, the cushings horse who made it through the wilderness of a barefoot rehab to become a lovely sound retired horse of leisure?

She might have developed a crack on a hind hoof, that whilst I was away for 5 nights decided to expand and track up to very nearly the coronet band! Just one of those things, the weather being wet/dry/monsoon/slightly damp/ back to dry has not helped matters! So unfortunately we've had to shoe the hoof to stabilize the crack to allow it to grow out, as it is a hind hoof she's had to be shod all round! Doodle is beyond smug at this, even more so as she got to stay in to ensure the glue was 100% dry for her carbon fibre patch.

After the farrier had removed all the gunk and debris that had wedged itself in:

Some putty to fill and provide some structure, along with a shoe to stop it splitting further:

Carbon Fibre super patch, she best keep this on!

One good thing is this should only be temporary whilst the crack grows out (plan is for three cycles only), and two her feet look so healthy in shoes now! Just a bit nervous at the thought of transitioning her back to bare, but we shall just have to cross that bridge when we get there.

So of my three horses, the advanced dressage horse, the aspiring eventer and the retired layabout it's Doodle who is now fully shod, sods law in perfect motion there!

 

[oldie48]

Looks a super job! How did you find your dressage/eventer horses coped with the transition to BF?

 

[SEL]

That (probably expensive) carbon fibre patch looks like the kind of patching up my grandma used to do on granddad's jumpers!

Has there always been a weakness around where that crack formed or did it come out of nowhere?

 

[Gloi]

Leaving the walls too long on the quarters is the usual reason for cracks to form unless there was always damage there.

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Looks a super job! How did you find your dressage/eventer horses coped with the transition to BF?

So the other two, Topaz has had times with shoes on when we were jumping in grass but once we switched to dressage we left them off. She is luckily a horse who literally steps out of the without noticing!

Skylla has never been shod, come next year and we try to event for real she might need them but we’ll see.

That (probably expensive) carbon fibre patch looks like the kind of patching up my grandma used to do on granddad's jumpers!

Has there always been a weakness around where that crack formed or did it come out of nowhere?

😂 I’ll tell the farrier that 😂. No her back feet have always been super and were bare before the rehab for her fronts! So an out of nowhere one, it wasn’t there before my holiday!

Leaving the walls too long on the quarters is the usual reason for cracks to form unless there was always damage there.

She was coming up for her trim but nothing excessive, her backs have always been super. Interestingly there was the tiny start of a similar crack on the other back hoof, so not sure what’s going on. Once we’ve grown this out we can maybe make sure she never goes long 🤷🏼‍♀️, but she doesn’t now so who knows.