Comparison Photos

This is a set of interesting photos for comparison showing how I have finally been able to reduce the length of Sonny’s toe. Previously I didn’t feel that there was enough integral strength in the capsule to remove so much toe. He was always sore or there were still imperfections in the ground bearing surface of the wall like at the quarters.

However over the last couple of weeks it has all come together mostly due to me leaving more heel. I think because the sole at the seats of corn & his frogs are also so thin from the very wet conditions, he is feeling the ground too much & damaging his internal structures in that region. So leaving some height gets that area off the ground somewhat & *may* even induce some extra thickness to develop. That would be nice! In anycase he is far less sore with an extra 1/4inch of heel height that if I take the heel right down t the point where the periople flap crosses the heel horn.

Yesterday I had to move the horses to the front paddock due to too much rain & the back paddock getting far too wet, therefore causing even more damage to their feet. Jude went down all of a sudden & I discovered her legs were swollen & the wet had eaten right through her frogs & seats of corns too. I guess it had been happening for a while but it never looked that bad. I had to give her bute.

Once they realized I was opening the gate to the front paddock they came galloping, bucking, farting, flagging & trumpeting to me & continued for ages. Even Sonny was putting on a good turn so that was proof that my decision to give him more height at the heels was the right one.

The one issue that I haven’t been able to resolve to date is the angle of the heels which is too shallow. Taking them down to sole height hasn’t fixed it, just removed the underrun heel. Some say the heel angle won’t fix itself until the toe is short enough. So now that I have got the toe right, I might see an improvement in the heel angle.

That would be nice too!

One thing I am a bit concerned about is that he may now have a permanent integrity problem with the lamina connections of the lower dorsal walls. So even if I can keep the toes this short, it may not be enough sometimes, thereby allowing angles to run wild again at the drop of a hat. Time will tell no doubt.

If you click on this photo it will be shown really big.