M's 5 week pics

M, the scholarship boy, has now been here just over 5 weeks. 

He arrived, as regular blog readers know, with a slew of hoof problems from the usual palmar hoof problems ("navicular", toe first landing and therefore presumed ligament and tendon damage) plus thin soles, long toes and under-run heels with the added fun of an old hock fracture LH, unexplained lameness RH and historically bad cracks. 

The latter at least are ancient history, since he came out of shoes a few months before he arrived here. So all we have to do is try and improve the other stuff...!

Here is his RF the day he arrived. His owner had made big improvements to his diet and he has also had treatment for ulcers - which as an ex-racehorse are almost a given for him. So a lot of the good groundwork was already in place before he landed at Rockley.

Here is the same foot 5 weeks later - gosh, look, its a lot wetter for a start...More importantly if you look at the top of the hoof there is a steep new angle of hoof growth and there is more development at the back of his foot. Of course, M has a long way to go. He's at an early stage but its clear he is both capable of growing - and trying to grow - a much better hoof capsule. 

Here is his RF over 5 weeks - from day one, which you've seen before...The key points are the frog, heel buttress and bars. 

This is a couple of weeks ago. Slightly better bars, heels improving and something wacky happening with the medial aspect of the frog...

Today - heading in the right direction and looking a bit more organised, thought the sole is still pretty rubbish. Still, give him time...

This is the LF palmar/caudal shot, day one compared to today. Its still a desperately week digital cushion with high heels but is better than it was. I have no idea why his hair looks black in the lower shot - can only assume its the light since as far as I know his hair colour hasn't altered(!)...

Barefoot isn't the answer

When I first experimented with taking the shoes off my horses (and like many owners I tried it because there were no other options left) I honestly thought that going barefoot (and of course a "barefoot trim") was the answer. 

Taking shoes off seemed to be the last piece of the jigsaw - but how wrong I was!

Over the years its become increasingly common  - as barefoot has become more popular - for people to email me or post on forums a comment like: "My horse has been barefoot for x months and its still not right" or "I tried barefoot but it was no good for my horse". 

Like me all those years ago, these people thought barefoot worked like a magic wand - you take the shoes off and bingo, everything sorts itself out. 

I suspect this blog may be partly responsible for people having that impression because they see the rehab horses here improve fairly consistently, but here is the point: 

Taking a horse barefoot isn't the last piece of the jigsaw, its just the tip of the iceberg.

Once shoes are off horses' feet can (and often do) change radically - but its not inevitable that they will do so.

Nutrition

The foundation for any successful barefoot horse is good nutrition and this is one area where we've made huge progress. At the time "Feet First" came out, most people thought that "barefoot" was a type of trim. The book was an attempt to give owners a more accurate picture of what factors influence hoof health and practical ideas on how to improve the health of their own horses' feet. 

Many were initially sceptical about how big an impact diet has on feet, but trial and error - and seeing the effect on their own horses  - made most owners well aware of its importance. 

For sure, if you ignore nutrition (unless you are very, very lucky) you will struggle with soundness. I posted about the some of the nutritional "challenges" here and generally the more "red" factors you have to deal with, the more careful you need to be.

 However, even nutrition isn't the last piece of the puzzle. 

Biomechanics

Right from the early years I have had rehab horses who arrived out of shoes but with ongoing lameness problems. Often vets and even owners say something like "Its already barefoot and its still lame so how is what you do any different?"

The common denominator among the horses who arrive here - whether shod or barefoot - is that their biomechanics are compromised. Generally, horses are landing toe first and/or have poor medio-lateral balance; naturally some have nutritional/metabolic issues too, which complicate things further, but the biomechanical problems are common to all of them and its these that have led to the "navicular", DDFT and other injuries that are then diagnosed. 

The hype about "barefoot" has grown a lot in the last few years and there are still people (like the ones quoted above) who think its all about taking the shoes off. They are then puzzled when the same lameness persists out of shoes - but the answer generally is that the biomechanical problems have not been resolved and so the damage and injuries persist. 

Someone called me only the other day about their 4 year old horse which went lame in shoes with a "navicular" diagnosis. He had improved somewhat after she had taken the shoes off but was far from 100%. Her words were "You hear all these stories  about barefoot successes so I don't know why its not working for my horse."

I haven't seen the horse, but since she had already sorted out his nutrition, its most likely that the horse's biomechanics were still compromised - the way he was moving was still causing stress or injury. 

Believe it or not, its possible for barefoot horses to have biomechanical issues, just as its possible for shod horses to be perfectly sound. It all depends on how the horse is loading his feet and whether he is landing correctly. That in turn depends on the strength of the horse's hooves and how he is affected by trimming or shoeing. 

So what's the point of this post? Its just a reminder...Don't lose sight of the whole horse. Its a very complex puzzle and there is no one aspect which will give you all the answers. 

Nutrition is vital - but its one part of the puzzle. Feet are vital - but they are one part of the puzzle.  Movement is vital - but its one part of the puzzle. Good biomechanics are vital - but they are one part of the puzzle. Fair and correct training is vital - but its one part of the puzzle. A good environment is vital - but its one part of the puzzle. Well-fitting tack is vital - but its one part of the puzzle. You get the idea!

What you will find is that if these aspects are individually right, then you will gradually get a "virtuous circle" of improvements - in health, in behaviour, in ridden work. What is less successful (though its easier in the short term especially if you are confident in one field and not in the others) is to focus on one aspect to the exclusion of the others. A magic wand would be much simpler - if only life were like that!

Look at this!

Charlotte has posted this fab pic of Bryan on Facebook  - all that time on Exmoor was good for something after all - he doesn't mind the rain any more :-)

They were out competing yesterday, and its gets better - as Charlotte says:

"We even managed to cover our entry fees and win our first rosette as a bona fide barefoot competition horse. "

Woo hoo!  Fab news indeed - so very pleased and a credit to Charlotte's hard work and dedication!

A study in medio-lateral balance: Roo

Here are some interesting shots for the true hoof nerds amongst you...Sole shots for Roo, who has been here since 11th May. I said earlier this week that the best way to assess whether a hoof is balanced is to look at it from the sole - since that's where it meets the ground and where loading is defined. 

Here is Roo in shoes - her LF which was her better foot.

Here she is on 27th May - so just over 2 weeks later (and look - it wasn't raining!). You get a better view of the heels, which are slightly under-run and a better view of the medio-lateral balance. If you draw an imaginary line top to bottom down the centre of the frog and compare the 2 sides of the foot, the lateral side (on the left here) is bigger and suggests she was loading that side more than the medial side. 

By 24th June - about 6 weeks after she arrived - the heels are looking much better though there is still a lot of change happening on the medial side particularly. Now a line down the frog would show a more balanced foot, though still more loaded on the lateral side. 

Today (and of course its raining as it has been all week...) both heels are better still - though they will improve again over the next few weeks. The bars are straighter, the frog no longer distorted and the foot looks as if its medio-lateral balance is now fairly good.

Here is her RF - the lamer foot. You have to assess this one on your own :-)

At 2 weeks...

At 6 weeks...(clue: check out the heels, bars, frog and draw that imaginary line...)

This foot was worse to start with and so is not yet in perfect balance but I hope you can see that (as with the LF) things are heading in the right direction. Its interesting that on this foot she was overloading medially, which is unusual. The change in frog orientation is another giveaway, of course.

These hooves are a good illustration of what I was talking about a few days ago because none of these changes can be achieved by trimming. These changes are the result of better growth coming down, and changes from within the hoof capsule  - they are a response to better loading and better stimulus and can't be achieved with a rasp or knife. 

Celery, surfaces and another wet summer

I tried to add this earlier but Vimeo is not a happy bunny at the moment so I've switched this back to Youtube for now...Lots of you will have seen this before but I've added some more footage on surfaces and its a fun reminder of how well feet trimmed "by celery" deal with surfaces.

Keen-eyed blog readers will notice that this was from last summer, when I'd just started riding Felix with no bridle - lots of fun!

I was encouraged to be reminded that last summer was just as wet as this one and yet we all survived and eventually even managed to make fantastic haylage, so keep smiling, folks ;-)

Hoof balancing - don't try this at home

Some of you may remember a post I did a while back about hoof balance, in response to a comment that "a horse's leg is like a table".

If there is only one thing you should remember about balancing hooves its that your intentions are irrelevant. No-one, whether farrier, trimmer or owner sets out intending to do anything but the best possible job when they trim a horse. Unfortunately good intentions are no way of ensuring a safe, effective trim.

There are lots of factors to take into account when assessing hoof balance - and how hooves look from the top is perhaps one of the least useful. What really should determine whether a hoof is balanced is how it is loading and  - anatomically - whether it can be used in the most biomechanically efficient way.

While we can get a hint at some of the factors in play by watching the horse move, studying how its hooves land and looking at its conformation, that in itself is only superficial.

The only way of guaranteeing that the balance is right is to have detailed knowledge of every injury that the limb - and indeed the rest of the horse - have undergone. To react and allow for every stress and compensation that the limb - and the whole horse - have to make as a result. To allow for micro-trauma to tendons, ligaments and muscles that you can't see and have no way of  monitoring on a regular basis. To factor in a response to the terrain the horse lives and works on and to adjust growth so that is is appropriate for the level of stimulus the horse is getting.

Don't forget that all of these factors will change from day to day, week to week, season to season - and you begin to get an inkling of why balancing hooves is an incredibly complex job.

For example, here is a robot designed to be able to move on different terrain and maintain stability - pretty impressive for a human-engineered design. But imagine how you'd feel if your horse moved like this...

We can do lots of things very well but complex equine biomechanics is definitely best left to the experts - and of course I mean the equine experts, not the so-called human experts - if at all possible - and it will be possible for most barefoot horses in regular work...

A trio of updates and landings

To follow on from Eva's photos yesterday, I've added her footage - couldn't get it at the weekend but at least its here now...

I'm really pleased with how she has progressed, from a clunky, sliding landing (especially on RF and LH) to first a tentative heel first landing with a shortened stride and now - as her hooves are stronger, better able to shock absorb and loading properly - a confident correct landing with a better stride length.



This is for Rachael - obviously Dali at 4 weeks is not so far advanced as Eva but all the same he has made some progress. Initially his landing is poor on 3 out of 4 feet  - the only "good" one is the RH - but on the more recent footage his hinds are much better and even his RF (his worst foot) is starting to engage properly. He of course has a long way to go but its nice to see things start to re-balance.

Finally, Roo. I must admit I got a surprise when I looked at her new footage. When she arrived we filmed her, as always, and her dorso-palmar landing (heel/toe) didn't appear too bad - although she was tipping onto the medial side particularly of her RF.

When I added the most recent footage from yesterday, though, I was surprised by how much more solid and comfortable her landing looks. She has always been a very nice moving mare but now she really looks as if she is capable of covering the ground and - again -a better stride length.