He's back, he's bad...

...well, not bad exactly, but certainly on exuberant form(!).

The veterinary hospital are extremely pleased with the progress Paddy has made since his colic surgery last week and as you can see he is a whole lot perkier than he was this time last week!  So yesterday he had the all-clear to come back to Rockley, which is fantastic but rather nerve-wracking(!).

He is looking - and clearly feeling - terribly well and it will be interesting to see how well he tolerates the 4 weeks of box rest he needs for his surgery wound to heal fully. Fortunately he will be allowed out to graze in hand several times a day but he won't be allowed to do any "proper" work, even led from another horse, for the next month.

Having taken him out in hand yesterday, I suspect that we will all find the next few weeks rather trying but still its a big improvement from this time last week, when Paddy was in a much less happy situation.  He is now back in a box in the barn where the others can all come in and chat to him so he is getting lots of grooming from Taz and making faces at new boy Thomas, whom he regards as an alien intruder.  I never thought shovelling sh*t for Paddy again would make me so happy!

Thanks so much to all of you for your good wishes and thoughts, which I know both Paddy and Debbie (and I) appreciated enormously.  I am sure they were a big factor in getting Paddy through the last week :-)

A quick sort out

Glory be, and thanks to some bright little satellite whizzing around the earth's orbit, we are back online  - yippee!!  So far, so good, but I am really hoping that this new provider will be a whole lot more reliable than the previous bunch.  We shall see.

Anyway, that means that a whole load of stuff which has been sitting on my computer can now make it up onto the blog.  First up is Paul, who will be going home on Sunday, 4 weeks after he came back.  He was a rehab here almost exactly 2 years ago; more on him here.

When he returned it was clear that  - despite 2 years of being successfully barefoot - several things had recently gone wrong with his feet, possibly due to an injury he suffered, possibly due to trimming, possibly due to some other factor we may never identify.

Although he has a robust caudal hoof and excellent hoof capsule, his landing had shifted in less than a month to being flat/toe first and his medio-lateral balance was off, resulting in lameness on his LF.  As a result his frog had weakened - his heels may look high but in fact its his frogs which have atrophied.

For me, there were 2 alarm bells when I saw his feet in October.  He had laid down a ridge of sole and  his feet were loading unevenly, weak on the medial side and overloaded laterally.

Comparing his LF over the last 4 weeks, you can see how much rebalancing has gone on.  His frog is now working properly again and is developing rapidly.  You can also see from this photo that at this stage, his bars and the ridge on his sole are absolutely crucial to the stability of his hooves - to trim these would be madness!

Its interesting to see how much change can happen in a short time - particularly in his frog and his medial hoof (on the right in these photos).  The speed of the change is at least partly due to the fact that Paul already had strong feet which were used to hard work - he just needed to be allowed to sort them out. 

Now look at the difference in his frogs - this is why - with him at least - it was a case of building frog, not lowering heel.  I have not touched his feet with a rasp or nippers or a hoof knife. 

As his landing improves, his frog responds - these photos are just over 2 weeks apart...

and the photo below is today.  It doesn't take long if there is a good foundation in place. 

Both his owner and I thought that he would be quick to turn himself round and put himself back on the "virtuous circle" of a good landing which in turn will allow his medio-lateral balance to rectify itself; as he has done so his lameness has rapidly improved. 

As always, better biomechanics means healthier hooves  - and healthier hooves means better biomechanics.

I have a lot to catch up with, so there will be more soon.

Out and about

Lea was down to see Taz for one last time before he goes home next Sunday.  We had one ride out in thick fog but a much nicer time the next day when it was mild and still.  I decided that Lea and Taz needed a last Exmoor work-out so we set off to do some proper hill work.

Edward came with us so we had Flynn and Paul out as well, both of whom found it very entertaining to be out somewhere new, even if the terrain was a bit of a challenge at times.

Lea and Taz have a slight issue with potential decapitation by beech branches as Taz is WAY too tall to go underneath them.  Luckily Lea has her high viz on so if she is left dangling 10 feet above the ground she will at least be easy to spot.



New boy Thomas

We had a new horse, Thomas (who is 3/4 TB and 1/4 Welsh pony, a feisty mix!), arrive at the weekend, whose footage I will put up as soon as I am back online properly. He has been out of shoes for a while but he was still loading his hooves as if he was shod - in other words peripherally - and landing toe first. 

As you can see, even though I was nearly taking photos in the dark, he has the typical caudal hoof of a "navicular" horse with high heels and weak frogs - I will try and get better photos in due course(!). 

Thomas has spent the last few days meeting the rest of the gang which he has found quite exciting; he has been on his own for the last year as his companion pony died so to find himself one of a much bigger herd is a lot to take in and he has to do lots of walking and trotting around to find out what on earth is going on when the horses are spread out round the various yards and tracks. 

Good news...

Paddy has been off his drip and on normal food and water since Sunday and food is now going all the way through from one end to the other - yay!!!

Rarely has horse poo been the subject of such anticipation or been so happily received! It's great news though I fear the novelty will soon wear off :-)

Sunny day scrapbook: part two

We had a beautiful weekend  - sunny and warm, perhaps the last one we will have before the snow and ice descends(!)...Clare was down to see Paul, who is going home next week, and reminded me that she has never been down in bad weather - I find it hard to believe myself...

I took Zan, who was loving the sunshine, along with the dogs, who are fairweather opportunists as well. 

Paul putting his best foot forward...though his other feet are looking pretty good too...

Sorry for the haphazard blogging but I am hoping and believing that it will be back on via satellite later this week. 

A quick Paddy update - I spoke to the vet today and he is still doing well  but has not yet got full gut function back, though we are hoping for more progress soon. 

Paddy can eat!

Paddy can now eat and drink :-) I am sure that has improved his well being enormously and more importantly it means his gut is functioning again.

Its a great step forward but it's only the first step on a long road.