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 :)