Above: Piper
before his trim. Note the high
heels and long toe. Also, the
coronet flares up in the quarters,
than back down again in the
heel region.
Above: Before
the trim. From the rear, his
heels are very contracted.
Above: as I
trimmed Pipers front right foot,
I noticed that the bar had completely
surrounded the frog. I didn't
pull out the camera until I'd
removed much of the bar. The
frog had been trimmed by his
prior farrier |
6/2005 Piper is a recently
imported Dutch Warmblood trained
to second level. His owner Lauri
describes him as very willing
and responsive, but slightly
short strided. He's a perfect
gentleman about everything except
his feet. He had been good about
having his shoes pulled, but
was very resistant to having
his feet worked with since.
Lauri reported that he had been
lifting his front right leg
up intermittently, as if it
ached. He didn't do this when
he was shod.
I had the feeling
that his front feet stung or
tingled... it reminded me of
having sensation restored to
a leg that I'd sat on, folded
under me, for too long.
Piper had been
completely vet checked as sound
prior to importing.
Attitude
Piper has a very
kind eye that gets a worried
look as I reach for his foot.
He was extremely resistant to
having his feet worked on, and
he repeatedly lunged into me
during the setup trim. He was
very worried about his feet.
Piper was very
hard to handle, and his feet
looked extremely constipated
and tight, so we decided to
work with him on a weekly basis
until he had 4 good feet to
stand on. The first day, I rolled
the walls on all four feet as
best I could, then focused on
the front right hoof.
Piper was sound
when shod and remained sound
when the shoes were removed,
but was a bit tender on rocks,
which we expected. While he
was sound, his owner and her
trainer detected subtle imbalance
and stiffness when he moved.
Removing his shoes didn't change
this, nor did trimming..
The
Initial Trim
The first thing
I noticed when I looked at his
soles was that his bars completely
surrounded the frog and covered
the heel buttress on all four
feet. The front right was seemed
to be bothering him. I trimmed
the bar from around the frog,
getting it to the level of the
sole.
After
finishing his front right, I
decided to handle the front
left differently.
I decided not
to remove the bar from the left
foot; he was a real handful
to manage, and I hate to tranquilize
horses for trimming.
Instead, I set
the hoof up to shed the bar
better. I rolled the wall, took
the heel down and pulled the
heel buttress back to a balanced
position. I had been able to
get more heel off the front
right foot that the left, but
it was a concession to Pipers
reluctance to be trimmed.
I then removed
excess quarter wall length,
shortening the wall in the quarter
to the level of the sole with
a rasp. This gave it the appearance
of a conservative mustang type
scoop, but would disappear quickly.
.Relieving the wall pressure
this way allows the quarter
wall to drop into balance and
encourages the hoof to release
the retained bar.
This hoof is in
transition and a mustang-like
quarter wall scoop scoop is
a characteristic of a very fit
hoof.
I wasn't able
to get the bar on the right
front where I wanted it and
hadn't touched the bar on the
left front at all, but I had
both front feet shaped (working
from the top of the hoof) to
help them shed bar better.
Piper was was
sound and willing under saddle
in shoes and out, but was short-strided.
He has a nice shoulder and potentially
has great scope... I think he'll
turn out to be a great mover!
Above: Piper's
"stinging feet" stance.
He did this repeatedly during
the first trim, and Lauri reports
that he'd done it in pasture
after having his shoes removed,
and that he did it less often
after being trimmed. We later
discussed this with vet Dr.
Kerry Ridgway, who felt it was
very likely a stress related
habit, like lip flapping.
|
|
Second
Trim, 6/28/05
Wall and frog seem to grow
dramatically in relation to
the sole after a setup trim;
they are growing - I can see
it in the coronet band - but
perhaps not as dramatically
as it might appear from the
sole and this is a good example
of that happening. I had trimmed
the wall on the foot to the
left just slightly longer than
the sole, and it has already
"grown" enough to
start flaring very slightly.
What happens is complex, but
part of the transformation to
a robust hoof occurs when the
exposed sole, wall and bar fibers
get "mashed" into
a smooth, dense material - callous
- as the horse uses a newly
trimmed hoof. The hoof wall
is growing, but it appears that
the sole condenses into callous
more than the wall edge.
After just 10 days, his heel
bulbs and quarters have relaxed;
I wish I'd measured so that
we could track how fast his
feet are de contracting!!
When I picked up the left front
foot (below) I was thrilled
to see that the bar was loosening
naturally and would be easy
to remove with bonsai trimmers
While this heel looks **much**
more relaxed than before, it
isn't as relaxed as the right
front (see at the left) , which
I'd trimmed the bar from.
I rolled his toes a bit more
after removing the bar. The
owner has encouraged me to do
less more often, and will use
soaking boots to help move these
feet along. |
Third
Trim, 7/13/2005
I brought my rotary tool to
clean up Pipers bars.
My plan was"
- soak Pipers front feet for
20 minutes and take pictures
- lunge him in sand for 5
minutes to get the hoof moving
& loosen the bars; take
pictures to verify the charges
this makes in the hoof
- trim bar, soak 20 minutes
- lunge in sand & take
final pictures
Attitude Change...
Pipers attitude towards trimming
has improved dramatically over
the past three weeks. Initially
he lunged into my lap to avoid
having his feet worked on, and
for this trim he stood quietly
with the lead over his back
as I used the Dremil to fine
tune his bars... a great transformation!
I still wasn't able to work
on his rear feet, and didn't
know why. He was still slightly
off and I suspected that he
had something going on that
made lifting his legs painful.
There is still some "run-amuck"
bar covering the sole in the
heel buttress area, and I want
to smooth.
His feet are developing nicely,
but don't have a lot of callous
yet. He lives in a field that
has lots of 3 to 6 inch rock
in the soil, he has access to
sand and walks on that occasionally.
His owner rides him several
times a week in a course sand
arena. His owner and I soak
his feet to help them remodel.
Piper is in an almost ideal
situation for rehabbing this
type of foot. |