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Granddar First Anniversary Trim

Set-up Trim, September 15, 2005
February 22, 2006

Granddar, a 22 year old gelding, has years of very successful competitive trail riding behind him. He had a little bit of ringbone and a tendency to knock his FR coronet band with his FL hoof; imbalance or conformation is causing this horse to consistently interfere.He had a club foot and was shod with wedge pads on both front feet.

The "SHOD" pictures were taken several days after the shoes were nailed on. The owner chose to pull the shoes 2 weeks after the shoeing because she was concerned about the angles and under run heels. In retrospect, I should have left these shoes on for at least another 4 weeks to give the sole time to develop and mature, as the farrier had removed much sole when preparing the foot for shoeing.

Granddar is kept in a stall with a paddock that is bedded in rice hulls and gets ridden or ponied weekly.

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His last set of shoes...

These feet speak for themselves...

This horse started out with a slight club foot and under run heels on the other foot. A year later, his front right toe had gotten a tad longer than it should have prior to this trim, but both his weak heel still looks great, particularly when you consider how weak it started out. And there is no indication of any clubbing in the other foot.

It had been several trims since I had done his feet, and Kath & Kathleen are reliably conservative, so I rockered his toe to get it back where it belongs. His frogs are getting ready to shed, and he has lots of thick sole callous that will pop out in the next week or two, so we considered that when trimming the walls, heels and toes.

Its hard to assess digital cushion and lateral cartridges development without expensive imaging equipment, however it certainly appears that Granddar's digital cushions and lateral cartilages have grown much denser.