Fixing Sonny's feet, From Foundered to Fixed



Fixing Sonny's Feet, From Foundered to Fixed



Friday, September 27, 2013

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 2nd 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:-
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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