Where's the "REAL" Foot? (Part 2)

Ok, raining today, so I have time to post again :) Here are the back feet... They were shorter to begin with, but still had the same issues going on, that the front feet had...This picture is right after I was all finished. He was still standing under himself a bit guardedly, but after I had his owner walk him around on his new feet, he stood normally when asked to just stand again. Goody goody!



This is before the trim...length of feet is much more normal and from the outside they don't really look all that bad (though when I first started, the back feet were long and high heeled as well as the fronts)






















This is pretty much what both feet looked like on the bottom. That long sole/bar growth and not much frog (though much better than the fronts). The "divot" at the point of the frog was normally not present though, same for the flakiness at the front of the bars...sole looked uniformly even (thus, again, no guideline for me to know where to hack away at it).





















When you look closer, you could see that there was a crack separating sole material in the sulccus...before, it always looked like the "crease" you can see just above the actual crack...solid, with no access into the hoof. Now, when I put my nippers in there, I could just easily peel back the bar and frog material... So again, I had a guideline to work with















After peeling off that first bit, I was able to trim him up the rest of the way. I suspect all that false sole and some of the thrushiness was causing abscessing in there (since in both this foot and the front feet you can see the "holes" left) and that allowed the sole to finally start peeling away (though I never saw any exit holes either in the sole or the coronet while trimming him).




















And the left hind pretty much finished with the trim... big difference to before!




Then I did the right hind..(forgot the "before" pics on this one..) This seems the most intact of all the feet, both from the frog and sole aspect of the foot...



















And the end result from the side and on the ground... feet not a whole lot shorter, since they were much better off than the fronts to begin with, but looking "normal" from the bottom at least again :)

Where's the "REAL" Foot? (Part 1)

Once every 5 weeks or so, I drive about 1 1/2hrs north to Crescent City and trim a number of horses up there. For some odd reason, I have seen the most crazy feet up there. Especially trimming at the local fairgrounds (this was not there though)...LONG heels (basically both 4 feet would look clubbed) and bars grown all the way around the frog, retained soles, thrush that has taken out most the frog, etc etc. Sometimes they are quick and easy fixes, sometimes slow...but usually I know what the fix IS... Well, one horse I do is an old TB gelding. Ex racehorse and generally well taken care of, but also had those LONG heels and feet that most the horses up there have. He'd had these for many years (though done at about every 6-8 wks most his life) and had a history of bad and multiple abscesses every year throughout the winter. I started working on him last year in the spring I think it was, and was pretty baffled with his feet. I knew there was "something not right" (as you'll see in the pictures) and that his heels were too long (which I DID manage to bring down over time so he at least wasn't looking like he had 4 clubbed feet), and of course the horrid frog thrush issue (still working on that, but owner is unable to soak feet and treat them properly, and I live too far away to come out and do it for her). But he also had a hoof capsule that was too long (see pic...4 inches..now...can you believe they were actually LONGER when I first met him?!?!) and what looked like retained sole... BUT (this is the important part), when I would carefully cut at the sole, I would immediately hit what I thought was "live" tissue..it really looked like live sole and not that crumbly dead sole material you can cut away. Without X-rays (nearest vet with those capabilities is 2hrs from her and was not going to happen) I was afraid to start chopping away. I feared that he might have a descended coffin bone and I would screw him up worse than he was, if I cut into the sole willy nilly. So I would just shave a little off his soles every time I came up, keep his angles as good as possible, and hope his feet would eventually work themselves out. Better safe than sorry in my book...(he never was lame during this time, or looking foundered, or anything, btw)
Well, my patience has paid off. Yes, it has taken a LONG time for the feet to begin their correction, and someone with more experience may have fixed it sooner (not available in our area) but this time when I came to trim, I finally had the sole ready to come away mostly on its own and I was able to drastically reduce the length of his feet. We still are not anywhere near perfect (thrush will be our worst problem now), but he has somewhat "normal" feet now! Here is the photo journal of the day :) I'll post the front feet first, then tomorrow the hinds.


Ok, here are the front feet.. looks like the ruler is past the foot, but it isn't. They are on the same "plane" and the photo just makes it look funny. Hard to take pics, hold ruler, and keep horse still




















On the left is about how it has looked for the last 6 months.. heels are not hugely long anymore, but not normal either. Frogs gone, but not really any wall growth...on the right, even when cutting into the foot, it looks "live" and like I shouldn't touch it (that long hole on the outside wall was not there...sole had a uniform look to it and I was just afraid to go hacking away at it without x-rays, even with the frog WAY down there (cause of the frog damage, it was hard to know where the frog SHOULD have been). This is the right front and the second hoof I did.




















This is the left front and the first foot I picked up. You can see where the sole (dirty blackish, reddish area) had come loose by itself and gave me the clue that it was time to finally help it along. I had just started cutting at it when I realized I should take pictures of the process :) So now that I had a "guide to tell me where the real sole level was, I was happy enough to (still carefully) start taking out the false sole.





















After getting a basic cut halfway around, I took some pics to show the difference in wall height. You can see some bruising at the toes as well...





















Then I attacked the other side with my nippers and hoofknife (remind me to sharpen the knife..uggg... I just am not very good at that and it is always duller than I would like...I don't do knife work much, so usually not a big deal, but this was a pain!)





















And then after cleaning it up a little bit more...wow...there's a real foot under there!



















And after taking off some minor flaring (the foot actually never flared much...just grew down a long hoof capsule...)





















And the final product, next to the "before" on the other foot... now we are a whole inch shorter!






















Now back to the right front...I didn't have a lost piece of sole to guide me here (though I did mark off 3" on the hoofwall as a general guide)...but I noticed while picking away at the sole, that it seemed to be "loose" at one of the cracks in the bar area...and sure enough, I could get my nippers under there and pry/cut it up. That gave me the start I was needing...

















I was able to work quicker on this foot, since I had my confidence up from the first one :) This foot is in a bit better shape too...less bruising and cracking.




















Not too bad when all is said and done :) It will be neat to see how they continue to develop...He walked and trotted completely sound when we were done. Whoo Hoo, I must have done ok then!















More tomorrow....suffice to say, the back feet were similar... weird feet...but kinda neat. Even though it tweaks me out when I hit stuff like this (you don't get this in farrier's school, LOL), the head scratching and eventual fixing of it makes me learn so much. Each new "weird" or hard case make me that much more confident in how I can handle different feet, and it is partially what makes the job so fun... just doing normal trims is good, but doesn't make you stretch and expand your skills much after you hit a certain plateau. You can do "prettier" jobs and such and get better at catching things like slight imbalances...but after a while there is eventually only so much you can improve (which I am not at that point yet by a long shot, LOL...just looking into the future though, as I hate being bored! :P) So this is the extra goodies that make life interesting. I so love my job :)

Horsekeeping

Arrow Lane...my ponies' home :) It is about 1/2hr away from my place, but only 35$/horse/mo

One of the important elements of barefooting, involves horsekeeping...or how we house our horses. A healthy bare hoof needs lots of movement and if possible, access to different terrains. To be healthy, a horse needs open spaces, if possible grazing (if no health issues like Insulin Resistance exclude this), a variety of terrain, and horse companionship. This doesn't guarantee perfect feet by any means (a lot more is involved), but it will help immensely and help with the over all health of the horse. A horse is not meant to be locked in a 12x12 stall (or even a stall with a run) and segregated from other horses. It was meant to interact in herds and roam 20 miles a day in search of food and water and escaping predators. Of course sometimes we just can't provide 100 acres and a herd of horses over lots of different terrain. We often do not own our own property and have to board our horses where ever we can afford. But often we get caught up in how we were taught horses SHOULD live (after all, who wouldn't want a warm and dry stall, deep in shavings, a blanket on when it is cold, hang out near, but not with other horses that could kick, bite, or harass the poor horse?), but not the reality of how they really DO live (cold to a horse is not cold to a human...horses are the most comfortable at 40F...when we'd be shivering!...and even with some pecking going on in a herd, horse friends are much better than loneliness) . Anyway, I am not perfect either, but I at least try to provide freedom to move in a large area, and other horse companions.
The mares have the best deal most the time, I think. Though at times like last night, listening to the rain beating on my window and the wind howling, my human mind worries that they have no blankets and only some trees to shelter under (which since I am not there, I don't know if they will choose to go up in the woods or not..). But it is not too cold and they look fine everyday after a storm, when I go out to feed them the next day. It sure is hard to fight what think is comfortable or not, and try not to put that on a horse. I do relent though when it get cold (under 40) or rains non-stop for more than 2 days...at that point, they don't get much relief and their coats won't dry out and they do get cold when the wet fur mats down and the wind howls across the pasture from the bay. So I often watch the weather forecasts and try to get their blankets on while they are still dry, if a long rain is predicted. Today it was only supposed to shower though, and it turned into a beautiful, sunny day. So they dried out nicely and my worries flew away. :)

The back gate of my pasture...I often feed from here in the winter, as there is less mud to go through and the hill on the left shields the horses from the wind howling off the bay at least a little... The girls are on the hillside near the woods, and the woods extend a ways back. Sometimes I think there is a bear or cougar that prowls through there, as the girls are really wary of the woods on some days and will pop up their heads and go flying away from there when I can't hear or see a thing...















Here is a closeup of them from the bottom of the hill...and the top. You can see how they have certain "paths" that they use to travel around the pasture. The rain has made them show up well. I spread the hay in smallish piles across the sides of the hill...it drains water well if it rains and it makes them work a little more by moving across the hill and eating at a slant...















This is the other side of their pasture..the brown corner is their favorite loafing area, and most years it is past the fetlocks in mud. This summer a local tree service dumped a bunch of wood chips in there (look into that if you have mud...they often have to pay to dispose of their woodchips and will give em to you for free!) and that has helped IMMENSELY... The other picture is of their water source. There is a seasonal creek that runs through the pasture from about October-May/June and creates two ponds the ponies can drink from. They also have a water trough (to the right of the right pond) that is hooked into a well and has a float valve that keeps it full all year long. Often I will feed on the far side of the hill, and they will graze and eat hay there, and have to wander around/over the hill to get water a few times a day.















This is the loafing area...from one direction........and the other... There is still a little mud in some areas, but it is mostly water/chip mix and not that muckboot sucking stuff that it normally is. The chips were a mix of Redwood and Eucalyptus...it smelled really good for the first few months. The gate is the bottom gate that we usually pull the horses in an out of the pasture from.















The girls and the ponds from up top again, The house up top is the pasture owner's (I rent) and the barn on the left is where we keep our hay and tack. The pasture on the right is rented by another couple that have four horses and also rent a large pasture behind the barn. On the left is another pasture that runs up to near the barn and has three horses in it as well, rented by another gal. I REALLY wish I could own this place! So much land! I could rotate pastures, put an arena in in the pasture behind the barn (pretty level back there) and Bayside is mostly out of the fog zone in summer and gets pretty warn...oh well, one can dream... Here is also a pic of our gate area...we need more chips here :( We also keep a halter per horse here. I know a lot of ppl say not to leave out halters cause of thieves, but there are never horse thefts around here. Heck, you can't GIVE horses away here and there is no real livestock auction close by that would be worthwhile to take horses to, even for sale to a meat buyer. It would take more in gas and hassle to drive to an auction, than it would prob bring in for the sale of the horse. Besides, we have had the horses escape and go walkabout across the street and such, and to have halters right there helps with passersby or the land owners or whatever...














Here they are today (the other pics were yesterday)..I fed on the front side of the hill this time. In the right picture, you can see a good example of the hill principle...Jazz has to tuck her butt under her to eat on the slant. This works her muscles while eating and teaches good balance and use of her body as well. A win-win situation :) As you can see..no, I do not have a mud-free environment...they don't have gravel or other rough stuff to walk around on (thus we use boots when riding on hard/sharp footing), and not a shelter in site besides trees. But they have fresh air, lots of room to move and run, grazing (in late spring-summer I have to be careful as they otherwise get TOO much grass), and fresh water. And they have each other to build a small herd. So all in all, they live a pretty good life :)

And now....for some panoramic shots...my camera has that feature and I thought I'd play around with it a little. I also embedded a video at the end of this post, that gives a good walk around view of the pasture area :)