HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
We are now 7 weeks shoeless and I think she's doing rather well 
.
Near fore:
The biggest changes are on this one which poss makes sense as this is her poorly leg.
She is still wonky:
However the new angles look good, her feet are becoming concave, the white line is so much better and her frogs and general back of hoof I think look much healthier!
She had a trimmer out last week who took a little off the toe but left her square'er and left her bars to give her support. He was very pleased with her, said it all looks good and he can see no reason currently to go back to shoes with regards her medio-lateral imbalance. Was really pro choice about shoes as well which was nice, saying if we're struggling then shoes can always be put back on it doesn't have to be set in stone.
So I was very interested in what my normal farrier would think today when he came to do the other two... It was like talking to a brick wall
, was hopeful at first when he agreed that feet can do really well when given a break from shoes. Then spoilt it by not liking what the trimmer had done/ not liking how her feet are growing, specifically regarding the wonkiness to the inside edge. Then made it worse by making no sense saying that when the frog atrophies and shrinks this is what is pulling her heel in, which erm is what shoes did :confused3: her frogs are bulking up and widening now shoes are off :confused3:.
This is what he thinks will cause issues:
I can clearly see the issue with the 'kink' but will see how she goes, maybe she just likes it like that
maybe it will correct with longer out of shoes, but his statement about the heels and frogs seemed to contradict what is actually happening (the frogs and heels and windening now)...
Also had a point about how long her toes are, but agreed it would just make her sore to take any off, and side clipped shoes would be the thing to solve it. When I pointed out the lovely new steep angle growing in which would naturally bring her toe in as the old toe is worn away, said it wouldn't stay that way :confused3:? So still doesn't even remotely think what I'm doing is good, despite me saying she was lame in shoes and now sound, he did conceed that sometimes wrong looking feet might be ok if that's what the horse wants. So deflated, thought he'd like what she's doing with her feet but maybe I'm wrong, got the distinct feeling he thought she was only coping as she's in light work but she's now in the most work she's had since she went lame last year so clearly her feet are coping well...
On a side note the other two are pretty much self trimming now
.
.Near fore:
The biggest changes are on this one which poss makes sense as this is her poorly leg.
She is still wonky:
However the new angles look good, her feet are becoming concave, the white line is so much better and her frogs and general back of hoof I think look much healthier!
She had a trimmer out last week who took a little off the toe but left her square'er and left her bars to give her support. He was very pleased with her, said it all looks good and he can see no reason currently to go back to shoes with regards her medio-lateral imbalance. Was really pro choice about shoes as well which was nice, saying if we're struggling then shoes can always be put back on it doesn't have to be set in stone
.So I was very interested in what my normal farrier would think today when he came to do the other two... It was like talking to a brick wall
, was hopeful at first when he agreed that feet can do really well when given a break from shoes. Then spoilt it by not liking what the trimmer had done/ not liking how her feet are growing, specifically regarding the wonkiness to the inside edge. Then made it worse by making no sense saying that when the frog atrophies and shrinks this is what is pulling her heel in, which erm is what shoes did :confused3: her frogs are bulking up and widening now shoes are off :confused3:. This is what he thinks will cause issues:
I can clearly see the issue with the 'kink' but will see how she goes, maybe she just likes it like that
maybe it will correct with longer out of shoes, but his statement about the heels and frogs seemed to contradict what is actually happening (the frogs and heels and windening now)...Also had a point about how long her toes are, but agreed it would just make her sore to take any off, and side clipped shoes would be the thing to solve it. When I pointed out the lovely new steep angle growing in which would naturally bring her toe in as the old toe is worn away, said it wouldn't stay that way :confused3:? So still doesn't even remotely think what I'm doing is good, despite me saying she was lame in shoes and now sound, he did conceed that sometimes wrong looking feet might be ok if that's what the horse wants. So deflated, thought he'd like what she's doing with her feet but maybe I'm wrong, got the distinct feeling he thought she was only coping as she's in light work but she's now in the most work she's had since she went lame last year so clearly her feet are coping well...
On a side note the other two are pretty much self trimming now
.
.
. We've had discussions about flair before as Skylla had a decent flair to the inside last time she was trimmed, I said then that I was hopeful that when she's doing more work it would sort itself out, he properly poo-poo'd the idea and said she would probably need to be shod to correct it. This time round the flair has almost completely gone, she's been on bootcamp and is working more... 
