Welcome to The Thoughtful Horseman, dedicated to Healthy Horsekeeping in San Diego, California

Riley's toes (front feet) are extremely flared. If you look at the top inch of Riley's toe, right below the coronet band, you'll see that the angle is much more upright than the wall below that...that's because only that top inch of the foot still has good white line attachment. Our mission is going to be to let the foot grow down while maintaining that good connection. I gave Riley a strong bevel, (we call it a "mustang roll") from the quarters all the way around the toe. This will prevent pressure from continually pulling the wall away, and give that good attachment at the top a chance to grow all the way to the ground. It also hastens the "breakover" of the foot -- the moment when the toe rolls and the foot leaves the ground -- helping the horse land heel first, and eliminating stress on the tendons in the foot.

Riley's soles have been carved; they are very, very thin. Farriers routinely invade the sole plane; our trim will never touch it. It will take at least 3 - 4 months for the foot to grow and callous adequate sole to protect the coffin bone, the sole corium, and the lateral cartilages. This will make him sensitive...especially on hard or rocky ground, and especially during extremely wet weather. If he will be working at all, or if he is turned out, he would benefit from hoof boots and pads.

03-02-08

Good progress so far. We have LOTS of sole starting to shed out, and better collateral groove depth. Still working on clearing up the deep fungal infection in Riley's frogs. I was able to bring the heel on Riley's left front almost where I want it; on the right front, which shows more dorsal flaring and overall a less healthy foot, I left some extra heel height to keep him comfortable with heel first landings.

Riley stands patiently for his treatment with Cleantrax solution to eradicate the deep, persistent frog infection. Well, okay, we bribed him with hay, carrots, natural fly spray, and a good currying, but he was still a good patient for the 2 1/2 hour treatment!

Frogs MUCH healthier. Mediolateral imbalance on RF coming under control. Flare growing out. Heel height good; a little long on RF still but getting there. Riley received a White lightening soak after his trim today. He is still landing mostly toe first without his boots...hopefully a few more chlorine dioxide soaks will get that heel/frog pain under control.

Now that the frog issue is pretty much under control, we're working on getting heel height optimum. Still very little sole depth under P3, so today I gave Riley a 1/4" heel bevel to encourage a healthier sole plane. He spent 20 minutes after his trim trotting around looking very fit, landing mostly heel first, but made himself a little sore in the process.

It's been a loooong road for Riley, but today he finally shed out another big layer of sole, and is showing some concavity at the front of the foot. I refreshed his heel bevel and re-rolled his toes. We've been booting Riley several days per week to try and maximize the number of good, heel first landings he's achieving.

(Right Front, 1st row before trim 01-12-08, 2nd row after trim 03-02-08, 3rd row after trim 03-25-08, 4th row after trim 05-06-08, 5th row after trim 06-20-08, 6th row after trim 07-14-08, 7th row after trim 08-10-08, 8th row after trim 09-15-08. Click image to view full size.)

(Left Front, 1st row before trim 01-12-08, 2nd row after trim 01-12-08, 3rd row after trim 03-02-08, 4th row after trim 03-25-08, 5th row after trim 05-06-08, 6th row after trim 06-20-08, 7th row after trim 07-14-08, 8th row after trim 08-10-08, 9th row after trim 09-15-08. Click image to view full size.)