Thursday 3 July 2014

The Red Prince of Mischief

Prince has, according to his Facebook fans, this fabulous nickname and I think it suits him. He has been here 8 weeks and I should have posted his update last week but days ran away with me so here it is, slightly belated. 

Prince arrived in shoes and with very long collapsed feet. He was landing toe first and as you can see his shoes weren't doing a great job of providing the much needed "support" for the back of his foot. 
Once out of shoes you can see the main issues - contracted frog and heels, flat feet and a long toe. 
Photos at 8 weeks show a frog and palmar hoof which is developing and better concavity. The toe is still long and the frog and heels are still pinched but Prince has a lot of new hoof still to grow so that's not a concern for now. 
From this angle you can see the old dorsal wall and under-run heels, with the whole foot shooting out from underneath his limb
Eight weeks in there is a nice new angle of growth and the old nail holes have nearly gone. At this point many trimmers would want to take back the toe but that would only make matters worse for Prince right now. 

A trim isn't necessary in order to protect the new growth - that's way stronger than the old, long toe. In addition would overload his palmar hoof before its strong enough, which tends to make horses lamer not sounder. 
The same story on his right front, again with a good new angle of growth. The long toe is ugly but will be gone in a few more weeks. 

This foot was slightly less distorted than the LF but is still very weak. 
 Out of the shoe though you can see the asymmetry in the sole and the contracted frog.
At 8 weeks there is still a long toe but his breakover is way further back - nearly half an inch closer to his frog and this mirrors where his toe will be once the new dorsal hoof wall has grown down. 

More on Prince soon!


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