Jenny
Jenny is a brave little TB mare 9 years old. Her new owner took her on in April 2010 as a ‘quiet’ riding horse. She was very thin, but what had really alarmed her new owner were the feet. As you can see below they were in quite a state. One of the hind feet still had a shoe hanging on by a few nails.
She had recurring abscesses and a split toe wall in the right front foot with the coffin bone sunken down and bulging into the sole. Both front feet in fact had dropped soles and all four feet had bad white line disease and thrush in the frogs and an overall poor horn quality. Before coming to her new home she was ridden almost daily on roads including being cantered...
The right front was so badly split that with each movement you could see the split separating right up to the top.
The first trim was all about starting the return to the correct foot balance by balancing and bevelling the heels according to the angle of the coffin bone and to reduce the lever forces onto the quarter and toe walls by trimming them back to sole level or just above. However, the heels were the only things protecting the week internal structures of the back of the foot so I was careful not to lower the heels too much. This first trim really was primarily a set-up to let things settle down and to re-assess at the next trim in 4 weeks time.
The owner was not going to ride her just yet and as Jenny was staying in a paddock we did not boot her at this stage. |
Before The First Trim
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First Trim
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Second Trim
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Coming back after 4 weeks for the second trim I was pleased to see that the crack was starting to grow out and the hairline at the coronet had settled down. Both front feet showed a little concavity and improved sole depth. The owner said Jenny had been a little tender when she was led over a gravelly area but otherwise seemed comfortable.
For the second trim I again kept the heel height about 5mm above sole level to protect the back of the foot. Because of the extreme wall separation in the quarters and toe areas I had to unload the wall by taking it right down to sole level and strongly bevel it. I intended to leave a little bit of wall at the toe area of the badly split foot, but when we led Jenny around it became obvious even that was loading the wall too much and the split was opening with each step. Therefore I took the toe are right back . In the meantime the owner has been busy soaking Jenny’s feet daily in a water/vinegar mix to reduce the thrush and white line disease.
A few days later her owner sent me this email:
Hi Maren,
I watched Jenny trotting round paddock today and she is no longer lame, yeah!! I am gona start lightly lungeing her tomorrow, I cant wait to start being able to do something with her, thanks for your help with trimming and helping to get her right :)
In hindsight I think the lameness was mostly due to there still being loading and movement in the split toe and now that we addressed that the comfort level increased quite a bit.
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Jenny – September 2010
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Jenny is making great progress though due to the wet weather she hasn’t been worked and spends most of her time in a very muddy paddock. Her owner has been diligent in soaking and scrubbing Jenny’s feet with water/vinegar so that the frogs have heeled up and hopefully when conditions dry out a bit and Jenny can be worked the frogs will build up again to have a nice thick and callused structure.
Jenny is also growing out a much better wall connection on her left fore and that quarter crack seems to be on the way out.
I apologise for the bad quality of the pictures, I lost my camera and had to take pictures with my phone. But I wanted to show how well the split was growing out despite adverse conditions.
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