Abbey - partway down the road

Abbey has set off on the long trip back to France. He arrived in May with a diagnosis of sidebone as the probable cause of his lameness. He had been shod with remedial shoes and pads, as you can see.

He was actually landing heel first but was tipping rather than loading evenly. Its most likely that this was a factor in the sidebone developing and its changing this balance that is the key factor in improving his hooves and soundness. 

Here is the same foot today, after 12 weeks. I've highlighted the key areas in the photo below but you can see that the heel is less under-run and the new angle of growth is about a third of the way down his hoof. 

However, it won't be until that new angle has grown all the way in that Abbey will have the foot he needs on the ground. 

Here is his sole shot with his remedial shoe and pad on - hard to spot what is going on but once the shoe was off its a bit clearer. 

For comparison, below is the same foot today - a much better frog but you can see that the medio-lateral balance is not yet quite right - if you were to draw a line through the middle of the frog the sole isn't symmetrical.

He's not doing badly though for his first 12 weeks. From now on he should steadily get more capable as he grows more and more of that good hoof.

Caudal shots to finish - again, you can see that the digital cushion was not symmetrical suggesting that the medial side (on the right of this photo) was not loading as much as the lateral side. 

Today there is better digital cushion development and the two sides are beginning to even up - in another 12 weeks Abbey should be a lot further down the road!