Is It Time Yet? or Are We There Yet?

The time has come to start leaving a tiny bit of wall as a trial to see if it will help develop sole thickness.

 

Cresentric Sole Shape

Previously I have had to take off all the wall thickness plus more around the toe to get rid of the long toe.

However now that it seems I have achieved the desired result to steepen the dorsal wall, I now turn my attention to thickening the sole.

This is how I see the way the sole thickens:-

The sole is contained within a boundary created by the wall. As Linda Harris explained it in one her videos, the sole forms a cresentric shape where it connects to the wall. The sole pushes up against the wall & because the wall is strong enough & steep enough, it resists the forward push, instead forcing the wall to buckle a little where it connects to the wall. That buckling becomes the “Sole Stay” cresentric shape.

 Here are 2 old photos of Sonny’s feet from 2009 showing the cresentric shape at the sole/wall connection. Ignore the other pathologies. We are just looking at the ridge around the inside at the wall/sole connection.

 

 

 

 

Now with the benefit of 20/20 hindvision & a very sharp learning J-curve I see I had several opportunities to correct his feet all those years ago. Unfortunately without the right information that I was asking for those opportunities were lost.

 I’ll talk about those lost opportunities in future posts.

 So back to the current trim.

Once the dorsal wall is steep enough, it can withstand the forward push of the sole & heels which is driven by every step. The heels still have to join in the steepening but I can see the tubules are beginning to change direction although it maynot be all that clear in the latest photos.

 Here are 2 photos from latest trim to show the tiny bit of wall height I have left this time to see if it can withstand the forward push or whether it will yield & bend forward (in which case it will have to be removed). So it’s just a trial. If it works I’ll see if I can leave a bit more next trim.

   

 

 

This next photo shows the slowly changing tubule angles as new grows comes down from the coronet band.

I’m really excited about this positive improvement.

 

 

Toe Groove

 

 

The other thing I want to show is how I make the groove around the toe that removes the sole that grows over the wall which is driven by forward push of sole at every step. People become confused by this excess sole & think it shows the whiteline so they don’t want to trim inside it. However it is only excess sole & the whiteline is way inside that place. This excess sole grows across the lower surface of the wall when the wall is trimmed back to the level of the sole in an attempt to stop leverage causing the toe to run forward.

Unfortunately there is only 1 way to get the long toe off & that is to take it right back to the proper breakover & keep it there until the dorsal wall grows down steeper. During that process the sole can escape from under the hoof because there is no longer any wall to contain it. Because the heels are also run under as part of the total process of the whole hoof running forward, it applies a lot of forward pressure to the sole & wall. This forward pressure pushes sole forward out from under the wall & covers the lower edge of the wall. So every 2^nd trim I have to remove it. Slowly over time with diligence I have encouraged the dorsal wall to come under control & a new correct angle has grown down.

Now that the correct dorsal angle has been achieved I can begin leaving some wall height again to contain the sole. Only time will tell if it is the right time to start this next process or if it is premature.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

Sonny is still not standing properly but hopefully his feet are generally heading in the right direction. He’s still slumping in his forequarters which I take to mean there is still pain.

 

See all the latest photos in this album:-

http://s340.photobucket.com/user/claireT_2008/library/2013%20%20all%20photos/2013%20September%20Sonnys%20Feet/2013%20September%202nd%20Sonnys%20Feet

I’m sorry to say the “organize” feature does not work in Photobucket anymore (it used to work really well before they changed the format & updated the software!) so now the photos no longer stay in the correct order. I hate that. It’s important to be able to see the pretrim shots in order then the progression through the trim & also to see all the right fronts & all the left fronts together in order, not scattered all over the place.  }:^/

 

 

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Cool Feet!

What can I say? I'm ecstatic.

A week ago I noticed the heat disappearing from Sonny's fronts in particular & to a lesser extent in his hinds.

5days go I let them into a new paddock as per my usual paddock rotation, whereupon the 3 horses proceeded to gallop & cavort for a good 10mins. Sonny galloped the hardest I've seen in a long time.

My heart was in my mouth as every previous time he has cavorted, he ended up with really sore feet again & sometimes abscesses. But this time it was different because I already knew his feet were cool. So I allowed the exercise.

I waited 2days to see if his feet stayed cool & yes indeed they have done. So yesterday I trimmed him again. He is still sore when asked to turn a tight corner or otherwise use the sides of his feet.

The capsules are quite short now, the heels are still wanting to run under but I think it might take a little time for changes to be noticed there as  result of the toe being much shorter & dorsal wall more upright. Actually rather than the heels being run under they are just still too far under the foot.

I'm hoping to begin seeing heel changes in the next few weeks now that the toe shouldn't be dragging them forward anymore.

3 interesting things I noticed this last week:-

1. The RF medial quarter wall is very weak & breaks away easily which in effect disconnects the toe from the heel so the toe can't drag the heel forward. That medial heel is now growing at a straighter angle. So I am experimenting with applying a stronger relief to the lateral quarter to see if the same thing might happen to that heel.

2. A sole callous or toe callous has developed right behind the toe wall. I am leaving it for now as best I can because it arrived right when I noticed the heat go from the feet & it is clear it is lifting the sole off the ground a little. So I am leaving a tiny bit more heel height to keep the angle of sole plane right. Otherwise the toe would end up jacked up with more sole under it & the heels still flat. That might cause a negative palmer angle. I've included a couple of photos of that callous.

If I see it begin to push the toe forward I'll rasp it off. Previously it has caused the toes to push forward but now with a steeper dorsal wall perhaps the callous will do it's correct job of lifting the sole off the ground instead.

3. A week ago I started my horses on a new mineral supplement & already I can see changes. I am wondering if these cool feet are part of that change. As per the vets instructions I am giving Sonny twice the dose for first 3wks then reducing it back to normal dose after 6wks.


Apart from that all my horses are in the throws of shedding old soles. With Sonny's thin soles I have not tried to remove the old sole. We will get rain eventually & the old sole will soften by itself. In the meantime it affords him extra sole thickness & protection.

Next trim I expect I can shorten the heels a tiny bit, particularly if I start seeing a growth change in their position in relation to the foot.


So here are the collages I made;-

All in all I'm very happy with progress. The thing that would make me even happier was if he stopped being sore on the sides of his feet as that would indicate to me that riding might be around the corner again.  Yippee!!


Here are the 2 photos showing the toe callous.

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A Little Breakthrough re the Heels

The photo says it all pretty much.

No amount of heel shortening or toe shortening has had any affect on the angle of the heel tubule growth so far.

Yesterday I was looking at his feet again & I noticed this differing tubule angle.

The difference must be due to the wall being broken away so it's not able to transfer the pull from the toe through to the heel.

The medial quarter wall is very poor quality due to compromised blood supply in the coronet band. Hopefully it will re-establish new blood supply soon.

Maybe I should heavily scoop all the quarters for a few weeks to see if there is a difference in heel growth. Now that he is on a new supplement to cause hoof growth it might not take too long for any change to be noticeable.

I think the whole old sole is getting ready to slough away too. It will be good if that happens cos it has gotten so hard I can't cut into it anymore with the knife. But this happened last year too.

The recent 6-7wks of dry weather has been great for aiding hoof healing & just so the horses aren't standing in wet grass all the time.