Firestorm's Feet: Humboldt vs Desert

Meet Intrigue's Firestorm and your humble (or not so) host, me...Natalie Herman. Storm is a 10yo Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse stallion. He has never had shoes and has big, hard, and beautiful (well, for Humboldt!) feet. He is my first foray into gaited horses, and is the sweetest, most gentlemanly and expressive horse I have known. He is the light of my life and I look forward to many great years of endurance gaiting on him. He is just at the start of his career (in fact the Death Valley ride over the holidays was hi FIRST endurance ride ever...), but I for see he will be just as tough and mileage accumulating as Oliver.
Me....well, I am me! This is prob the only picture you will see of me in a dress...I usually find "clean jeans and shirt" my formal wear. Most the time I am in muckboots and mud spattered jeans and shirts or fleecies or flannel PJ bottoms...comfort is key! :)
Here are Storm's feet after a week in the desert....






Storm's Left Front in Desert Mode









Storm's Right Front in Desert Mode










Storm's Left Hind in Desert Mode











Storm's Right hind in Desert Mode.




Both Oli and Storm got a touch up trim at the ride site, a few days before the ride started. Storm's feet show the same change as Oli, the frog starting to harden up and the sole is nice and smooth and polished. The front frogs on his feet have some crevicing, but with no thrush evident. He came with these frogs (in July is when I got him here to Humboldt) and they have been growing out bit by bit (his feet were a good bit too long, with flaring, when I got him as well, so that might have had something to do with it). This is again, what I would LIKE to see in our horses' feet. Unfortunately they look like this instead:




His left front in Humboldt Mode. Sole and frog pitting, frog tattering and mushy heel bulbs. Soft soles that even the hoofpick scratches up. Yuck. Still no thrush (yet), even in the deep central groove, but it is a pocket waiting for habitation...







His Right Front in Humboldt Mode...you can see lots of pitting and tattering of the frog. Soft sole, bars starting to peel (on both horses actually)...







Left Hind..frog has a better central groove, but all of the foot shows the same issues as the others.









And his Right Hind. Again...this is only ONE WEEK....give it a little more time...






Curiously, Oli has a little less pitting and his frogs seem a tad better. I think that is because he is out on the "driveway" section of the property, where he can get on gravel and off the mud/soil. Storm has to be kept in his stud pasture, so has no where to get off the soil. He has non-mud areas, but even those are still damp and are acidic soil... I think one of these days I am going to figure out a way to do a good experiment, where I figure out some kind of concoction that is more alkaline and soak or spread it on two of four feet in varying intervals, and see if it makes any difference. I suppose I could also throw lime in the pasture, but that would be a much harder experiment to control and get ALL the pasture more neutral or whatnot... any ideas????