Stefanie the Saviour!

left front

right front

right hind. Notice crazy double barring!

left hind. Notice nice sole near toe now!

Stefanie managed to make a special trip (of about 380kms!) out to see us and take a look at how Ace's feet are doing in real life. Lifting each hoof was like Christmas, slowly peeling back the wrapping of dirt and mud to find what lay underneath. 

All in all his hooves are looking much better. As mentioned he has been protecting his feet by building an absurd amount of barring along his whole quarters. Good news! On the right front the bars were beginning to peal, indicating he no longer needs them.Here is a visual of the before, during and after.

As well as the bars, the sole had previously been built up so thick, in a "Band-aid" kind of way, not a nice thick smooth, healthy way. Well the edges of this thick growth are starting to lift, giving hope they too will peal and reveal a new healthy sole underneath! Stay tuned....

Now the part that most worried me as a layperson was the length of his toes. They were crazy! I was nervous how much we could go back, knowing in the past his x-rays showed not much room for error! Well I learned something new (or rather understood something new, as I know I had been told). there was this weird line between the toe hoof wall and the crescent shaped "ugly callous". It was gummy and cheesy (no smell!) and it turns out -this is the lamiliar wedge!! This mysterious thing I thought was inside, covered with wall and sole, actually grows out the bottom too! So she brought back his toes with all indications that the time had come and the long toes were soon to become a detriment of their own (fine balance here, folks!) So here is one done, one not. The length is still a bit on the long side, as he is on rocks, mud, etc and we have to be kind. We reduced the hair line to toe tip length from 3.5 inches to 3 inches when all was said and done.

Feet not perfectly square, but you can see the difference clearly.

The other thing I had reinforced is the amount of that bevel on this new mustang roll. It really is a bevel, not all rounded off like I was doing and quite marked. He now has more hoof wall thickness, allowing more of an effective angle to add surface area to the hoof wall. This should create inward force as he steps into the soft ground, creating the "snowball effect" of packing his hoof together rather than letting it spread.

I thought this was a great shot of the bevel. Plus see the new hoof angle coming down from the hairline! 

One of the most remarkable things Stefanie pointed out, that I had not realized was a great thing, was the heel bulbs on a few of the feet, good height, and strong. Funny, those ones looked funny to me, as I had been looking at poor ones for so long!

So now we work on bringing in the toes and increasing the strong back of the feet. Hopefully the sole will shed and reveal beautiful new sole, indicating the health of the foot is back (or there, did we ever really have it?!)

The best part of the whole process was seeing, even after a substantial trim like this, that he is sound and strong on all 4 feet. So many times horses are tender after every routine trim. Doesn't that worry you? The foot is a pretty amazing thing and I am excited to be on this educational journey learning more about it! I hope his boots will fit again and we can get out on the trails, he has been bugging me for a ride now that he is feeling better! ;)

Stefanie will be doing another clinic in April for those who want to come learn more about feet and trimming (Shameless plug, but hey -it IS my blog!)

We hope to hit the trails soon! This is us heading out on my Birthday ride (4 hours), which was the ride when we realized we had a problem.