Opinions on current barefoot pics (flare?)

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GermanyJo

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HI
would love it if the H&H experts on feet could take a look at these photos and let me know what you think.

bit of background

4 year old - never had shoes on .. came to me from Ireland last year with relatively long feet ... farrier only touched him once as managed to do enough in hand walking with him to get them tidied up with wear and some very very light rasping when we had anything flakey.

- current feeding - mostly hay , some turn out (half a day) , but it is on a Mud / dust paddock (depending on the weather) .. so not much grass. A token amount of oats (handful) when other horses are fed 3 x a day - 4th feed it given by me and is a small amount of Kwikbeet , salt and Prohoof.

Work wise, I broke him last year / end summer, not much work, then we had issues with the yard where we were .. all horses were scouring on the haylage , YO would not do anything about it .. so we had to move from what was a lovely yard with 24 hour turn out (winter large paddocks in a herd ) .. to another yard where he is in the box with half day turn out.

He has always had a small amount of flare on the hind feet .. not sure if the white one is always worse, or if the colour is sometimes deceptive (?) . I have noticed in the last months he has some flare now on the front feet (inside) .. this seemed to coincide with a growing spurt he had (? is that possible ?)

I have seen no difference in his ability to move over harder surfaces, frogs are good - they look wet and dark in the photos as I had just washed them, but there is definately no thrush there (I am very particular about even the slightest sign of that).
About 2 weeks ago his white line looked horrible.. I figured that maybe they were getting a little long and I should get someone in to trim ... the yard farrier was coming so asked him to have a look .... he called me and said if anything they were far too short and I should be careful that he was not too footy ?!

For a bit of a time map .. he was on antibiotics before and for a few days after our yard move due to the Scour (mid December) .. they were wormed at the end of October, again around Christmas and have been wormed again last week. (worm test in december showed no worms - test last week came back with a low to moderate count so will be doing another test in 4 weeks )

I would really appreciate feed back re the flare .. should I be worried, or should I just moniter? He is very slightly pigeon toed, and I did wonder if with the start of work again in the last weeks this is what his feet want to do at the moment ? .. I would rather a bit of flare now if he needs it than have splints appearing higher up :-)

sorry if the photos are not 100% .. tried to get the best I could , I can get some more tomorrow if you need another angle

front feet from front


[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0258_zpsop4x6hoc.jpg.html]

Left fore
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0264_zpsq464vqaa.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0270_zpsjfx67kht.jpg.html]

Right Fore
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0269_zpsqjb98bc3.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0267_zpsr4c1wlpg.jpg.html]

Left hind

[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0272_zpssilrzzpu.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0271_zpsr8djsg0l.jpg.html]

Right Hind
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0274_zpsgxedkolk.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0275_zpsclkwlh3m.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s282.photobucket.com/user/Germanyjo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0259_zpsv5feis14.jpg.html]


Strangely enough the feet look longer than in real life (?) .. plus when I look to the hind feet side on , they almost look like they are a bit bull nosed, in real life I have never noticed that ... or am I being too critical now ?

Thanks in advance .. all feedback gladly taken on board :-)
 
I am no expert but in general his feet look good to me, I guess the farrier is not used to barefeet as they certainly don't look too short, there is a bit of flare to the off hind which shows in the slightly stretched white line and his off fore has a less good frog than the near but nothing that would overly concern me if he was one of mine, a bit more exercise would probably be beneficial.
 
I skipped to the pics and wouldn't worry about them, I agree with the slight bullnosing in the pics and would query if you know of anything going on higher up in the right hind, it might be interesting to watch how he uses that one in walk.
 
Thanks for the feedback ester, last year my physio picked up some very slight asymmetry in the hindquarters... Right side was very slightly lower ( I think!) , but have never seen him looking unlevel, will keep a close eye on that
 
It's more that it might be the foot adjusting for something else rather than something affecting the foot if that makes sense, something just to keep an eye on. If he is sound then :). No worries ;)
 
Thanks also be positive. Think you are also right Re more work, since restarting him we haven't been on the roads and tracks as often, need to get that back in the routine
 
I would suggest that regular road work will help to trim them,, but I feel that he is unbalanced somewhere, so would want to look at him in the walk, is he tracking perfectly.
Make sure he is strong enough for his work, which I am sure you know anyway.
 
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think I will try to make a video so I can take a closer look , it looks a little like he is favouring the outside edge on the R Hind (the white foot) when I look at the wear on the photo above
 
havent forgotten about the video, went prepared to make one last night, but found him with a kick wound on a hind leg .. so will need to wait for that to clear up before I video his action :-(
 
Hi
I hope these videos are ok .. had to sit the video on the ground and hope for the best :-)
Here is the first one .. directly towards and away from the camera , excuse the slight spook at the end - I set my settings to speed 0,25 to watch better .. I am presuming you will need to adjust your own youtube setting speed ?

https://youtu.be/08zfWm_F1p0
 
Hey that is bloody good effort for first go! Interesting aren't they ;) I'll be interested in what others see too.
I would agree not landing heel first RF, now from the pics his frog doesn't look as good on that side/the heels are maybe taller/collateral grooves deeper. It isn't something I would worry about at this point, I would just do a precautionary treatment for thrush every so often (I like to use red horse sole cleanse if we get any raggedyness happening) and get walking. He lands it level from a front view.

Now left fore, I didn't spot very well in the pics but from the video you can see some medial (inside flare) he is possibly landing slightly laterally (outside first on that one) but only very slightly, less in the footage going away form the camera and it wouldn't worry me. Maybe he is balancing the right hind!? Frank is inclined towards this sort of shape, and my trimmer has always said it is partly to do with the angle of his knees- which mean he rolls off his foot slightly to the edge of centre. When he was lame he landed really badly laterally on the lame foot (not so bad on the sound one which is why I presumed some sort of collateral ligament damage causing the lameness) now he is actually better on the lame one and worse on the sound one last time I looked! I shall try and dig out some old vids for you just so you can compare.

Now the interesting one, watch yourself walk away from the camera and watch the flight of that right hind and where he places it compared to what he does with the left hind. To me he is stepping in across his body rather than straight. He almost swings it out slightly then places it slightly towards his midline. Does that make sense to you? Also in the pic of that hoof on the floor he has it under him and twisted out slightly, doyou think that might be his natural stance on it. Essentially I wouldn't worry about any of this and I hope you have found it interesting rather than just for my entertainment ;), I just know that the video put in slow mo really was the key to a bit of a lightbulb moment with Frank. I would absolutely not let anyone touch any of his flare but let him have some regular physio and crack on ;).
 
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, on the right hind I also thought he was landing a little on the outside first, but it was only obvious on the walking away view...I have some red horse cleanse, the right frig is also slightly smaller I think.
Glad to hear someone else saying to leave the flare, that was my gut feeling, but was worried if that was correct.
I can see how it could get obsessive taking these videos :-) think I might do regular ones and keep a foot diary 😂

Again, thanks for taking the time to check them out 😀
 
I think the outside first is more a function of him moving it left as he lands if that makes sense? Do it with your own feet ;).

outlook not working tonight and no hope of finding Frank vids without it but I will do!
 
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