Legendary hoof changes

These are the rather strange hooves belonging to Legend.  On the day he arrived he had already had his shoes off for 5-6 weeks.  He had suffered from a bout of stress laminitis following the remedial farriery for his navicular and this resulted in the very flat feet, long toe and collapsed heel. 

He had already started to grow a better hoof capsule - in the initial photos his feather hid the growth but I peeled them back yesterday and its more clearly visible and has grown down further in the last 3 weeks, as have the nail holes. 

As his owners pointed out when they saw him yesterday, there are actually 3 distinct bands of angle change, reflecting the different stages his feet have been through in the last 6 months.

Obviously, when you see a foot with a toe like that, the temptation is to get out the rasp and nippers and back it right up - which might well be a good idea if the only issue was laminitis.  In Legend's case, he has lameness which has blocked to his palmar hoof as well - in fact that's the primary problem.  Backing up his toe would make his foot look prettier but would also shift a lot of weight backwards, onto the frog and heels, and if they are not strong enough for the extra load, that will actually make him lamer not sounder. 

If you compare the photos, over the last 3 weeks his heels have started to become less under-run - the heel buttresses are slightly further back in the lower photo - but this is still a very weak, flat foot and although the frog is fairly healthy, the heels are still collapsed. 

The catch-22 is that Legend is still landing toe first, and shortening the toe would tend to help him land heel first IF his palmar hoof is strong enough - its a real balancing act and at the moment I am still tending towards not trimming him, as there are such massive changes already going on that I think he has more than enough rebalancing to cope with at the moment...

...as you can see in this shot, which shows how his balance is shifting not just in the dorso-palmar plane but also medio-laterally - look at the bulge in the new growth at the lateral aspect. 

For now Legend is comfortable on the tracks and in the field but definitely not on tough surfaces - which is hardly surprising, poor chap.  I do hope though that as he grows better feet this will soon improve too. 

All about Eva

Eva's owners came to visit this weekend - Eva has been here for just under 6 weeks and is still at a relatively early stage of her rehab but she was delighted to be out and about with her family once more...

 ...the only problem was - should she look at my camera or Paul's camera...?

On the first day, Paul was relegated to slogging it on foot, but the next day he made it back on board and Amy borrowed Felix.   

 I took Charlie, whom I thought would be very annoyed as we weren't hunting (he normally refuses to go exercising) but he was on surprisingly good form - he is fond of Eva so perhaps she has had a good influence on him.

 Eva made it up hill, down dale and through the water without incident and demonstrated her good manners by doing the odd gate as well...

...and due to the cancellation of Badminton, she even had some foot followers here to cheer her on and shut the trickier gates, which was a god-send - thanks Helen and Emily!

We also put her on a circle and as you would expect from a horse who has been diagnosed with a severe DDFT tear she still has issues with both her RF and LH - the RF has both the DDFT tear and a central sulcus split but both of those are improving.

Rehab, as always, is a progressive, slow change from one pattern of movement to another and Eva has to (literally) make gradual steps towards better biomechanics.

Eva from Nic Barker on Vimeo.

Looking at her footage, its interesting to look in particular at her RF and LH and the change in landing. I need to add her photos, and will get those up for comparison as soon as I can, but its been a busy weekend!

...the winner of the Rockley Scholarship 2012 is...

First of all, I must say that it has been incredibly difficult choosing the scholarship horse and quite heartbreaking to have to email the applicants who weren't successful - apologies to all of you, whose horses are no less deserving than the winner.

Every application which arrived was detailed, an incredibly committed owner telling the story of the horse they love. Each horse had a unique appeal and each one tugged at our heartstrings and could have been a worthy winner.

The applications had been carefully written and were supported in most cases by superb references - in one instance it was the vet who had suggested that the owner apply, which was really encouraging.

At the end of the day, though, we had the unenviable job of picking a single winner.  It took a lot of discussion but our choice was eventually unanimous.  The winner is...

...M, an 8 year old ex-racehorse who has had a long history of lameness, poor feet and remedial farriery that did not, in the end, help him.  He will be arriving at Rockley shortly and of course there will be lots more about him in due course.

Please keep everything crossed for him, and send lots of good wishes out also to the horses whom we couldn't accept this time.

ETA: I've had a really kind email from one of the applicants who wasn't successful, sending M and his owner good wishes:

"Like everything with horses its way to easy to take things personally and everyone applying probably wanted it as much or even more than me. So logically we all need to support each other and our horses (we're all horse lovers after all lol)".

There are some lovely people out there...

Big Barefoot Bryan Bounces...

Charlotte has taken some video footage of Bryan back at home.  She had commented on how he felt in our school here but this is how he goes on a really NICE surface :-)

This was taken on only his second day back and its his second piece of canter work.  She is very diligently also doing roadwork and - all being well - Bryan will be going back to his vets for another MRI at the end of this month.  Whatever they find, that should be a fascinating day.

Drought and Domino

Despite the dire warnings from various government agencies, there is (of course) no sign of the so-called drought which is supposed to be gripping the south of England.  Our streams are full and though we had a beautiful day yesterday we are forecast lots more rain for the rest of the week(!).

The horses aren't bothered - they can get under cover and I'm still rugging them in bad weather - but they did love having sunshine to bask in for a day...

Eva, proving that she can cope quite happily with mixed company...

Legend, sunbathing and hanging out with Bailey.

Domino is absent from the scenic photos because he was at one of the other haylage feeders, probably relishing having it all to himself!  He's due a photo update though, so here are his comparison shots. 

Big change in loading and a much less under-run heel. 

Again, a big change in emphasis, from wide toe and narrow heel to a much more balanced foot.

Before and after: Buster and collateral ligaments

Time for photos on Buster, who is going home today. 

Apart from the fact that he has grown a lot of hair...(!) look at the difference in toe length and how much more supportive his heels are than when he arrived...

 And here is the same foot, solar view - in bar shoes on arrival...

after a few weeks...

and today.  Not only is there a massive change in the frog but look at how the symmetry of the foot is better now.  That's important because it reflects how the limb is loading the foot. 

Previously, there was too much load laterally and Buster had been diagnosed with collateral ligament strain.  Now, the hoof is much more supportive and as a result his soundness on this (his worst) foot has dramatically improved, as you saw in the clip I posted on Monday. 

Finally caudal shots, which give a better idea of how the back of his foot has strengthened. 

Look also at how the heels have lowered as the frog has become stronger - which is what we want in a horse working hard barefoot on varied terrain. 

Saffy, surfaces and striding out

Kate (who owns Saffy) sent me this great clip of her schooling. Saffy has been working since she left here last year but not competing, because Kate's just had a baby, but they have their sights firmly set on jumping again this year.

This clip is great because it shows Saffy's powerful trot and big movement  - Kate says she is moving even better now, a few weeks further into her schooling, which is fantastic news.

Looking at the bouncy surface in Kate's school and Saffy boing-ing along I realised this tied in with something I was talking about with Charlotte, Bryan's owner, when she was down to collect him this weekend.  She was commenting that Bryan felt level in our arena but wasn't demonstrating full extension. This was explained when she jumped off Bryan and felt how hard our arena surface is.

Its sea-sand and has some "give" but in wet weather (most of the time!) it packs down to be a relatively tough surface - level and smooth but unforgiving to weak digital cushions.  I find it very useful because it shows up lameness but rehab horses - who normally don't have completely healthy digital cushions - won't typically stride out quite as much as they would on turf or on a rubber surface.

So why would that be?  Its most likely down to proprioception - the same neural input which makes human runners shorten their stride when running on hard surfaces to protect their joints from concussion. Proprioceptors are nerves which are found in joints and in feet - and in both horses and humans proprioception is reduced by shoes.

In a barefoot horse or human proprioception gives awareness of the type of surface and the amount of concussion it is delivering to joints.  Once that horse or human increases speed on a hard surface then proprioceptors warn of increased concussion for joints; at higher speeds the best way to protect joints from this increased concussion is to slightly shorten your stride so there is less impact at each footfall.

If the horse or human moves onto more forgiving ground then they can increase stride length again without any damage - which of course is why dressage is performed on a nice, bouncy, surface rather than on the roads and why racecourses and athletics tracks have perfect surfaces to allow horses and humans to run their fastest.