Hoofnerds - look what fell out of my rehab's foot today.

cptrayes

cptrayes

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I thought people might be interested in seeing this. I am part way through rehabbing a horse who will not stay sound in shoes. In spite of the fact that he has not had shoes on for around a year, his feet did not fix themselves. They have needed careful work to make them start to heal themselves inside. One of the first things he did when put into work was throw up bars that started at the heel and went right round the tip of the frog and down to the other heel in one piece. I call this emergency scaffolding because it's my experience that horses with weak internal structures often grow extra long or extra thick bars, but I've never seen a "one-piece" bar like this before.

So, after a month and a bit of constant work on hard flat surfaces (we call them roads round here :) ) and this morning the bars simply fell off. This is the one from around the point of his frog in one forefoot. It's about the size of a fifty pence piece.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t4ZVmNfjrvU/UKTrMtiZOcI/AAAAAAAAA7I/ullMl7QxCMc/s320/PICT0149.JPG

In the last month he has been very slightly unsound in his left fore outside edge, then it changed to his right fore outside edge, then it moved to again to his right fore inside edge and then disappeared altogether a week ago.

I'm finding him fascinating because I think he will prove that "barefoot" is not enough to heal a horse, or he would have come sound in the field in the year he was laid off - they need the right work too.




p.s. button pushers please note that this is not an advert. I am not a paid trimmer and have nothing to gain from this post, except perhaps a bit of abuse from people who will have a go at me for "working" a lame horse :rolleyes:

p.p.s. blog address below in siggy if you want to know more about him or follow his progress.
 
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Interesting. My mare is starting to grow a 'bar extension on one side of her poorly foot. It's been covered up with imprints though now. I was wondering what it was.
 
My lad is the same in shoes, just lame so he's took me into the world of barefoot :)
he's teaching me so much and I'm listening/Reading and taking in everything to try and keep him sound.
Everytime anybody trims him, even a tiny bit he goes back to square one so rightly or wrongly I don't know yet I'm just following what he tells me, iv left him alone. His feet aren't a perfect shape but he's sound and happy and striding out lovely even in this wet weather. Totally barefoot hacking would be fab but hacking in boots is exceptable by me as I never thought I would ride him again.

Good luck with your lad :)
 
Fantastic news TMG. Sound in boots is just fine for a horse you thought you'd never be able to ride again :) Don't worry about the odd shapes, he's telling you perfectly clearly that they are "right" as far as he is concerned by going lame when they are trimmed.

I had a discussion with a vet once about these horses that won't stay sound in shoes because they need wonky feet and he said "but how long will they stay sound?". My answer was "who cares, they aren't sound at all in shoes, every day is a bonus :D " But what we do know now is that Rockley have now been hunting two of them for about 7 years and they are both still going strong.
 
Solar did this at Rockley, its a fascinating process to watch! I still have the pieces that fell off on his stable windowsill, I'm oddly proud of them lol! He did it again after a farrier removed sole during a trim, needless to say I learnt a valuable lesson that day & his sole has never been touched since!
Hope it all continues to go well for your rehab :)
 
Nugget La Poneh said:
cptrayes - do you have pictures of the bars he grew?
Click to expand...

No I'm afraid not, dirty bars on a dirty sole don't photograph very well :o It was just a ridge of sole a few millimetres wide that went from one heel to the other, around the point of the frog. His bars are still longer than normal but the ends are peeling off too, and they will soon be a normal length of an inch or so.

The reason that one is so clear is because I have turned it upside down, that's the clean white sole side, not the ground side.
 
Lancelot said:
Solar did this at Rockley, its a fascinating process to watch! I still have the pieces that fell off on his stable windowsill, I'm oddly proud of them lol! He did it again after a farrier removed sole during a trim, needless to say I learnt a valuable lesson that day & his sole has never been touched since!
Hope it all continues to go well for your rehab :)
Click to expand...

Don't you find it fascinating how they do it almost like a sticking plaster, Lancelot? This bar wasn't a true part of the sole it was just a strip stuck on the top of the true sole. Real sole sheds by chalking up and crumbling off in wear. These emergency strips peel off like plasters :eek:
 
Kinda related but is this similar to where parts of the sole flake off? My girl is barefoot, she doesn't get the soles trimmed but occasionally (like every couple of months) fairly large areas of the sole flake off, similar in appearnace to those pictured her
 
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