Itsy's first 3 weeks

Itsy has now been here 3 weeks. It was clear almost from day one that she was in a hurry to change her feet. 

Now we are 3 weeks down the line there is a clear difference not just in her frogs but in the overall shape of her feet. Its nice to see her heels coming back and her foot start to function properly. 

There is a big difference from the lateral view too. You can see the horizontal crack in her first photo and in the most recent photo its grown down and he weak hoof wall below it has broken off. That's not a problem for her and its nice to see her heels and digital cushion becoming more substantial too. 

Itsy's RF is her weaker leg - she is still lame on this leg in trot and its clearly caused her problems in the past. If anything, this foot is changing even more than the LF. Her heels still need to come back more and once they do so that will be a good indication that she is engaging her palmar hoof and landing heel first. 

Luckily Itsy has a handy stripe down her hoof which helps show what is happening. Its more upright and shows that her toe is shortening and her heel is stronger. Early days but heading the right way.

Four fun Friday updates for the price of one...

With so much to blog this week its only now that I can post updates on four former rehab horses which came in this week and which all made me smile!

First up Big Dave, who went home earlier this year; the biggest horse I have ever seen, let alone our biggest rehab horse at over 19hh. When I lunged him one fine sunny winter's day he memorably made me look like a hobbit!

In fact he is a gentle giant and this was just a display of joie de vivre and I am delighted to say that he has carried on going from strength to strength at home. 

His owner texted me this week to say "Dave is feeling better and better. Just checking its ok to do quite a lot of trot work on the road as he really wants to! I think his hooves are also getting better and better."

Bless him - I imagine the sight of Dave zooming down the road will clear traffic fairly effectively!

Update number 2 is for Storm who was here 3 years ago and whose owner, Kate, has just posted his annual update for her vets and any other interested parties (click on it to see a larger version).

The third update is from Kate and Rolie, who did so well when they started going out competing again last month. They have continued their fantastic run of form.

"Last weekend we went out affiliated and did our Novice Freestyle to Music routine. The judge seemed impressed and gave us 71% and first place which qualified us for the BD regional championships. This weekend we went to a different venue and did the same class and got 71% and 2nd place but a close 2nd to a horse that has been to the BD National Championships so I was thrilled!"

Let us know when the Champs are, Kate, and we will come and cheer you on!

Last but not least an update on Remi from Pip, who has created a blog for him which now also contains their first lesson report http://remi-rehab-journey.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/first-lesson-report.html

"Lesson was fab, he exceeded all my expectations. Walk, trot, canter. Canter nowhere near as bad as I expected. Needs lots of straightening and suppling work. But was a good start. Starting to feel like a normal horse in school. Loads to work on but a big step forwards today...

It felt very strange to be “riding him properly”. And actually the more I asked of him the better he went, so is a good sign...

I didn’t take a lot of the lesson in, as I was so happy to be actually riding him, and that he was happy and not feeling too bad. :-)

Instructor encouraging and v helpful. And Remi happy, which is great. Remi was very pleased with himself. "

Well done all of you - I am very proud of you and your horses!

Beanie's final update

Beanie went home at the weekend and I'm late putting his final pics up but hope Julie and Beanie will forgive me! First things first, I am pleased to say his landing has improved dramatically from the toe first landing with a short stride which he arrived with.

Comparing the two stills from his footage you can see that he is now landing heel first and has much better extension. This will improve still further as his improved hoof capsule continues to grow down.

Another thing that immediately caught my eye when Beanie arrived was his uncomfortable stance - pointing his RF and twisting both feet out. 

On the day he left he was much happier to load both limbs and was also standing straighter. He is a good example of a horse who needs to compensate through his feet and be allowed to develop asymmetries if he requires them, as otherwise his limbs take the strain. 

Here is Beanie's LF the day he arrived. The 2 biggest changes are in the heel, which is now much less under-run and has much better development, and the toe. The red line projects the angle of new growth (which is currently roughly halfway down the hoof capsule) and once this has fully grown down it will not only make his toe shorter but bring back his breakover. 

 The sole view confirms what we can see laterally. There is a much healthier frog and he is also developing better concavity although this will not be fully evident until his hoof capsule has completely grown down. 

The sole view today shows much better depth at the back of the foot through the collateral grooves and a clear line where his "new" breakover will be. Of course at the moment the hoof capsule at ground level (ie on this view) is still the old, stretched hoof. 

The red line shows where his breakover will be - as on the lateral photo - and the red shading is old, stretched growth that is likely to wear away as his new growth reaches the ground. For the usual reasons I would personally not be trimming this off now. Its doing no harm and removing it all now is likely to destabilise the foot and result in too sudden a shift in load. 

The same new growth can be seen through his RF and again Beanie now has better development at the back of the foot. 

Not the best photos but you can at least see that the frog is much healthier and the heels less under-run. As with his LF, this foot will be a tighter, neater shape and have better concavity once the new hoof capsule is fully grown in. 

Finally, Beanie's footage over the 15 weeks that he was here. Lets hope he continues to go from strength to strength.

Thomas the Third

Thomas arrived on Friday but with such a busy weekend there has been no time to get his photos uploaded till today. He will be known as Thomas the Third on this blog, to save confusion, as there have been 2 other Thomases here before. 

Thomas has had a recurrent lameness which blocks to the palmar hoof and his coffin joint and has been assessed by his vet as being 1-2/10 lame on a circle in trot. On the day he arrived I couldn't get a photo of him standing square and his medio-lateral balance was poor, particularly on his RF, as you can see. 

Surprisingly, he was managing to land heel first despite long toes and under-run heels which is an encouraging start.

From the solar view there is a lot to like about his hooves - decent frogs and a reasonable digital cushion so lets hope Thomas the Third makes progress very quickly over the next few weeks. 

Bridge-building weekend

A blog break this weekend as we had a lot of fencing and bridge-building to get on with. Luckily the weather was fantastic and we had extra help from SB and Alan. We wanted to extend the track but to do so we had to cross a stream which - though it isn't very wide - has carved a 10 foot deep gorge. 

So a proper bridge was definitely required...These timbers don't look much from this angle but they are 15 feet long and 6 inches square and they weigh a TON!

Getting them in place and trued up was by far the hardest bit, but once that was done it all started falling into place...

...and with Al in charge of design and construction how could we go wrong?!...

A feat of engineering - and solid enough for anything!

The finished bridge and new fencing, all ready to go. 

I haven't forgotten the horses, of course, and they have also been enjoying the sunshine. We have a new arrival, Thomas the Third, whose photos will be up tomorrow, and updates on Itsy and Freddie are due this week too. More soon!

Friday fun

I love this photo - pinched from a video clip of ex-rehab Buster. Jenny sent it to me recently with a great email: 

"Kirsty took him to the Plumpton College Show today and they had a fantastic time. Things are just getting better and better. He is moving better than ever and his feet are doing him proud as he was sure footed and never slipped once on the quite damp grass. 

Here is some footage of his jumping class and they both look so happy. The jumps are small but it was a great start and it gave a huge boost of confidence to both of them.This time last year we were treading on egg shells, worried about everything as he had only been home for three months but look at him now. 

This is the pony that we were told would probably never trot or canter again. We went through such a heart breaking time, something I would never want to experience again but now things are so different. He is happy, relaxed and loving life and we are so proud of him. 

He is doing really well and he came third and fourth in the Working Hunter and the Ridden Cob out of twelve in each class and got a clear round. 

His feet look great and his hinds are changing shape as he gets fitter as there were a bit of a weird shape for a while but he is sound as a bell and loving life so we are going to have a great summer and are looking forward to the RRR."

Gotta love Buster :-) I can't wait to see him again and the reunion between him and his best buddy Bryan should be something to behold at the RRR!

The last of the twist - Ruby's 12 week update

One of the interesting things about hooves is how they adapt to support the limb in the best possible way - given the chance. Once a horse is an adult the hoof capsule is by far the most plastic - the most dynamic - element of the limb.

It is logical that for a prey species, like the horse, efficient movement is one of THE fundamentals of survival so having hooves which can adapt to facilitate the best possible movement is a great evolutionary advantage.

Equally, if feet become unbalanced and horses aren't able to balance through their hooves then in some cases they change their limb flight in order to try and compensate.

I've blogged before about Ruby, who has now been here nearly 12 weeks. I posted an early update on how her landing was changing here - http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/undoing-twist.html - and she was already straightening up but after another 6 weeks the further improvement is clear to see. 

The full footage is below but her movement is both straighter and has a more pronounced heel first landing.

I hope you can see from these photos nearly 12 weeks apart that her frog has re-orientated slightly - its a subtle shift but its been enough to allow her straighter movement. Ignore the asymmetric hoof shape - she is growing out old hoof wall and has "old" hoof capsule at ground level which looks odd. It should look much better in a few more weeks!

Ruby's feather makes it hard to see the angle changes clearly but there is a band of new growth which is better connected and no longer has the rings which she had in the old capsule.