Wednesday 23 May 2012

Aero's Feet

Did I mention Aero's feet were appalling?  His frogs have disappeared, he has no bars whatsoever and his heel bulbs are pretty much non-existent.  Anja the AEP practitioner is coming next Monday, and I'm hoping she will give him a good tidy up and set his feet up to grow correctly again.  Meanwhile, after taking these photos today, I gave him a very light rasp, concentrating on the spots where there was an obvious flare in the wall that looked like it might start to chip or flake.

Here we go :

Left Front
Seems to be growing lop-sided - outer wall is longer or am I imagining it?
Now
Last November, for comparison.  Left is trimmed, right is unshod but otherwise untouched

Heel view.  The lop-sidedness is more clear here.  
Side view, long in the toe, heel is underrun I think? It doesn't look like the slope of the pastern continues in the hoof, too.
Solar view.  The Left hand wall is the bit that caught my eye the other day, it has worn in a very ragged way.  Frog is very flat, no heel bulbs to speak of (all four feet are like this)
Left Hind. I've got a few more pictures of this one from last November.
Front view.  Again, growing lop-sided.  I'm wondering if it's significant that both feet on the Left Hand side have become longer on the outside wall.
November, post trim, looking good
Side view, it's got that bull-nose look, and it's chipping at the side where it's flared out
November, post trim, looking better than now
Heel view, he was reluctant to weight it evenly which was interesting
Solar view, the most obvious problem to me from this angle is the ragged flare on the left wall
Same view, last November, Anja pointing to how much shorter the toe needs to become. I think it has come a good way towards this point.
Right Hind
Again, the outside wall looks longer, but it's not so flared out on this foot.  The pink mark is an old bruise, and I think the chips on the inner wall may be the last traces of nail-holes.


The wet is giving this a strange shine so it looks like it's flared on the outside - it's not.  Heel seems less underrun, and this one seems less bull-nosed than the left hind.
From behind.  It's not the best angle, so hard to judge if the foot is straight or not.
Solar view.  To my eye, this doesn't look bad, apart from needing a trim and the whole frog/heel issue.  The toe has definitely shortened since last Nov. and I think the hoof has grown a little wider.
Right Front
At first I thought this one looked good, then I began to have doubts.  Ok, it's a bit long.
but when viewed from the side it looks a lot worse, flaring slightly at the toe and looking "wrong" at the heel - I can't say why, it just looks wrong to me?

Heel view
Solar view.  Yup, needs a trim!
I'm looking forward to hearing what Anja has to say about all this next week.  I'm also looking forward to hearing what she thinks of Flurry's feet - I hope I'm correct in thinking that they're good!


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