To Clarify regarding the photo in previous post

In my previous post I showed the photo of the periople of Sonny's Left Front with the big separation across it.

I have now learned this is a good thing to happen, not a bad thing. It is a sign that his body is well enough to shed off the old heels & bars that built up inside the hoof over the last many months/years.

To do this the hoof forms an abscess that softens & weakens the connections between the good sole/bars/heels/frog & the old ones that need to be sloughed off.

When all that old sole comes away there will be a nice new well shaped set of bars, heel & frog. I'm sure Sonny will feel a lot better too.

So for the benefit of certain people & so called 'experts' who STILL see fit to criticize me from afar.... mind your mouth & your pen!

Those who dwell within their narrow minded stale methods are in no position to cast aspersions on those who wish to broaden their knowledge by becoming a student of more recent investigations & discoveries.

Great Big Crack across LF Periople

The photos tell the story.

Again today it was late before I started so I only got Sonny’s fronts finished & hinds started. I was waiting for the day to get cooler & ended up working in the orchard shade so only sole shots again today. Tomorrow I'll get out the big board so they can stand on it for the upper hoof shots.

 The soles have gone rock hard overnight so it was really hard to get knife purchase on the horn. In anticipation I had sharpened the hoof knife & managed to cut my glove with it but not the sole!  

Then there’s that new big heel crack opening up right across the periople. If you have already had a look at those new Hoof Distortion videos  on youtube by Linda Harris, you would have seen this very crack across the heels of one of the hooves she was using for demonstration.

I will do more tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the photobucket album where you can see the other shots of the finished front feet all dated 20Nov2012.

http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 

In this shot below you can see those overlaid bars. I have been leaving them a bit as I didn't want to take too much out of the soles due to them being thin. I know Cas keeps telling me to take out more, especially those lumps in the collateral grooves. However this dry season has made the soles rock hard, too hard for me to use the knife & I had only started using the dremel recently on their fronts. I hadn't got to the hinds yet. But the rainny weather gave me the opportunity to do them. So this afternoon I did both Sonny's hinds just to get all that bar out. Tomorrow I will do more.

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What an Improvement I'm Seeing Now!

Yesterday I had another lesson in new knowledge. I finally found the lady whose website & youtube channel is known as The Happy Hoof. She is Linda Harris (sorry I don’t remember which US state). She invited me to join her web group.

Linda has just added a new series of videos to her channel called Hoof Distortions. She has the dried hooves of 2 known horses with various distortions that are reasonably common. However Linda’s take on what caused those distortions is much different & hence the trim method to recreate a good hoof.

When I saw them I had a cold chill as I realised they were exactly what Sonny’s feet would look like inside. I started to understand what has caused his mechanical founder. Linda showed how the PERIOLE (the heel bulbs) get very tall as can be seen on Sonny's heels quite clearly. Internally there may be 2 sets of old bars & sole growing, poking up into the back of the coffin bone, squeezing & killing to sole corium, jacking up the heels & causing all sorts of distress. It's from leaving the bars laid over or not recognising overlaid bars & keeping them short before they grow internally due to the horse's weight on them. Linda invited me to join her group & I am to provide history & photos & eventually new xrays so she can advise me about what different trimming might be advantageous. I have sent the link to Cas to get her opinion also.

If anyone wants to view these videos, find them here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKcimcR9MZQ&feature=relmfu

there are 9 in the set all about 7-10mins long. I was riveted for the whole series. It is so informing to see the inside of the hoof.

 So with new info in hand it was time to trim the horses again. I have been using the dremel with reasonable results except the last time when their soles were so hard nothing could grind them. We have had rain over the last couple of days so I took advantage & got out after the humidity dispersed. But by then I was racing the light. I got Cassie done all round, a little off the soles of Jude’s fronts, then had to move on to Sonny’s fronts.

By the time they were just roughly done I was shaking from working so fast to beat the fading light, so the photos are a bit blurred but even so you will see there is a huge improvement in sole shape. Since I was down in the orchard working in the shade there was nowhere to stand him to take upper hoof shots, so today there is only sole shots. His feet are nowhere near finished, just the first rough going over to remove overlaid bars.

I have taken out much more than I would usually take out of the sole. I know Cas removes what I think is a lot with the grinder. There are lumps that grow in the collateral grooves which are apparently overlaid bar material. However I never realised it caused so much damage internally. Once seen never forgotten I can assure you! Please go see those videos. It’s a wonder many horses can walk at all!

So I now know for sure that all that overlaid bar material MUST come out. The true bars are way under all that. That’ll be why all my horses shed sole parts so often, mostly the back half of the foot. It’ll be why Sonny keeps getting abscesses that make his heels so sore.

Today after that nice soaking rain for 2 days all feet were much easier to use the knife on. I easily lifted more than 5ml deep of overlaid bars. I could see the dirty join & the hoof was soft enough to lever it up. They aren’t often soft like that. Such a great opportunity & such timely knowledge.

I will finish their feet tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the photobucket album where you can see the other shots all dated 19Nov2012.

http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress, Slow but Steady!

Today I rode Sonny again for a few minutes after several weeks off while his feet go over an abscess.

His feet seemed to all get a bit sore when he got an abscess in the LF several weeks ago. So I eased up with his work & just did the tricks he likes to do.  I couldn't find any good reason for the abscess. There hadn't been any rain, I didn't ask him to do any hard riding & I hadn't changed his feed or minerals. Cas keeps reminding me that an abscess is a good thing, being the outward sign of internal healing. But something must have caused the inflamation in the first place to need healing.

Early last week I saw him galloping around & the next day I called them all up in the morning & he came bucking & farting & galloping too so that is a good thing. I decided his feet must be feeling a lot better so it was time to start working him again.

Since I found a good grinding style bit (like a rough sharpening stone) to use in my electric Dremel it has been a lot easier to do all my horse’s feet. Just now with the weather as dry as it is & the ground as hard as it is, their feet are rock hard & shiny as. A knife & even a rasp just scoots right off the hard plastic-like sole. I usually am not able to do their feet when they’re in this condition. Soaking makes no difference. But the little grinding stone bit makes light work of the hard surface horn. Once under the outer shell the horn is quite malleable.

I have been trying to use the info I recently learned about how the sole tubules grow to slow the forward growth of the sole at the toe. To that end I have been regularly (every few days) removing the little bit of sole  (about 2ml wide) that wants to grow across the lower edge of the wall, then making sure I don’t rasp too much off the walls so that I leave enough wall height that wall & sole equally bare the total weight. That seems to be allowing the sole to bunch up behind the wall rather than be forced to run out under the flaring wall at the toes. It also does the same thing where there is a break in the wall like where the old splits are growing out & in a couple of places where Sonny has broken out the side of the hoof a little.

I can see that the growth style of the soles in general is changing & the walls are now inclined to begin wrapping tightly to the bunched up edge of the sole on some hooves.

Another thing I am starting to see is much less of what appeared to be sidebone (or maybe it could have been ringbone) mostly on his front feet. I think the inner structures are actually sitting higher inside the capsules now rather than how they were previously where they had sunk right down. My take on it is that the soles are thickening thereby pushing the inner structures higher, heading back towards a more correct place. Still a long way to go, though. Originally I thought he would be ready for more xrays about this time but I think I will leave it until maybe end of January or ealry February 2013 to allow more remedial time.

Over the last 10 days I have done a little on Sonny’s front feet 3 times, each time to relocate the  heels back more. I use the Dremel to carve shape into the heel platforms because his feet are so shiny they slip around on the slopes clad in this dry crisp (lawn)short grass.

Removing the lumps that grow on each side of the frog where the bars should end has been helping too. I feel they cause the sole to grow warped or more to the point they are deformed bars growing warped into lumps. Cas used her grinder to remove them but I couldn’t do it properly until I got the Dremel working again.

There is still old blood up behind the toe wall of the RF. When I take that little bit of sole off that creeps out across the bottom of the wall I can see the blood colour still growing out. The distance from the tip of frog to toe inner wall on the RF hoof is still longer than the same measurement on the LF. However when seen from above the RF is a slightly smaller hoof all round. It seems like the RF is beginning to shed parts of it's sole too. Or perhaps the sole has worn off (grown out) to reveal old sole abscess damage.

I like the way the LF sole in particular is beginning to show a good seam connection to the wall. It will soon start that bunching up or convex shaped process that the Happy Hoof lady was talking about that is so important in growing sole depth. The RF sole/wall connection is still quite raggedy most of the way round. However the inner wall is now starting to bind & actually curl a bit more tightly to the sole rather than flaring out flat. So that has to be a good thing.

Just on the subject of the Happy Hoof Lady. I have left messages for her on her youtube channel but had no reply yet. However she does reply to people occasionally so there is hope yet. The link to her channel is in my previous post.

 Here are 2 shots from today’s photos with the rest at this link:-  http://photobucket.com/sonnysfeet_november2012

 This is the first time I have taken a full set of photos all round all 4 feet since his founder I think.

Remeber that if you want to talk to me about a particular photo, each is numbered individually, so just copy the writing off the photo & I can open it in my photo album on my computer & know exactly which photo you are talking about.