Diego's Hooves 091410
Looking for comments and suggestions. I just picked his hooves and then took him out and lunged him on the asphalt for about 5 minutes so you can see where he's striking the ground with his hoof. He does appear to have a nice even toe first landing on all four feet. He recently sloughed his frogs on the front feet; I'm waiting for the rears to follow suit... ? His feet are really dirty cause he walks into his manure pile every time to go poop. =P Even when I've just cleaned the corral, they'll look like this after a day or so.
We're three weeks out from the last trim. THESE ARE ALL PRE-TRIM, so I can take the suggestions into consideration when I trim him in the next day or two. Things I see that need work are:
- Continue bringing back his toes on the front hooves. Needs an update to his mustang roll all around.
- Continue to manage the flare on the fronts. I've been rasping out the sidewall in this area to alleviate any pressure and gradually working on rasping down from the outside of the hoof to eliminate this bulk.
- I think I can take his entire front hoof shorter all the way around? Last time I rasped to be even with the heel of his frog, but in looking at these pics, I think I can take everything shorter still... ?
- His bars are always a point on concern. They just continue to grow out at a faster rate than the rest of his hoof. I trimmed them back pretty heavily several months ago, they were very long and overlaid. Trimmed them down to below the level of the sole. Now they're not overlaid, but they continue to really grow. When I trimmed 3 weeks ago, I took them down to the level of his sole, you can see how much they've grown since then. Looks like I really need to take down the rears again. Why do they continue to grow like this and should I continue to take them down? I've read conflicting information on this. He seemed a bit sore when I first really pared them out.
Other thoughts or suggestions?
1 comment:
I would trim the insides (median) of his rear hooves. They look long / flared to me. If you can get that under control, the weird asymmetry in his rear soles will probably resolve.
The fronts look nicely balanced to me. I suspect that's all false/retained/whatever sole and they're way too long. Can you do a good ride barefoot on sand and take another look? Look how high his heels are and how long his toes are - they're just evenly long, I think.
It's weird that ALL the flare is on the sides and none at the toes.
Anyway, if it were me, I'd try to get that sole out of the fronts, and I'd keep the interior rear walls down to live sole. Hope that helps!
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