November 2007

Sarah · November 2007

Fari's hooves have made steady progress in terms of performance and collateral groove depth. He is now happily walking over hard core surfaces and his stride is long and relaxed on our newly gravelled tarmac road. This progress has been directly related to less grass intake and thus a higher hay level. Through the summer his collateral groove depth had shallowed and thus his performance reduced and he needed front boots for work on roads and tracks. I think eliminating rye grass hay from his diet has also had an impact on his performance.

Jane

Neat idea

We are the opposite. Mine are now back out 24/7 (YEY!) after being banished from too much of the green stuff all summer.

Magic the wonder pone hasn't noticed Rolling Eyes

but Ben notices if we come off the fields and onto the roads with his feet packed with mud and stones.

Dan is noticing more of those little stones on the road, yet fine over truly rubbish hardcore. I suspect the difference with Dan is having to cope with my bodyweight AND stones.... before now he's only had to cope with his (very little weight) over them.

But just the fact that they are out 24/7 and their feet haven't fallen off means the grass must be FINALLY losing its potency, hurrah!

Pam K

But beware of the frost Sad

Also, a horse on our yard went down with laminitis on Friday, so I'm still being very careful with Esme.

Yann

Rio hasn't worn boots at all for several weeks, and now appears to be completely fine over everything with her regular smaller rider on board. Also stomped around happily with a full weight adult on board the other weekend, but the route didn't include any truly awful going. Backing up her toes all the way to the edge of sole hasn't had any apparent effect on her comfort either. Still having problems with splits and separation in the heels and quarters though. Routine is in at 7.30am till 1pm and then out again before coming in for tea for an hour. Other than that ad lib grazing which is losing its goodness rapidly.

Tess's front feet are developing signs of concavity again at long last and not flaring as quickly as they were. I've been able to hack her out without back boots without any obvious signs of difficulty on her part, looks like we're moving forward once more, I think changes to the diet have helped too. She's on the same regime as Rio but does the afternoon shift in the stable Smile

Wendy in France

Very neat idea!!

Lutine has been gradually coming more and more level compared to the latter stages of the summer. Over the last 5 weeks, she's been moving much more freely and has lost the occasional off strides at the trot. Tonight she was hooning like a good un', taking canter on both leads and flying around at her best extended trot. However, she was finally booted/padded up all round 2 weeks ago (Epics in front, Bares behind). The 5 weeks coincides with us starting to put out big bales of hay again and also with any grass left in the paddock being now absolutely dry and brown, plus we've had an extremely dry Autumn (whereas summer was wetter this year..)

The other 4 are still hooning about as normal, nothing seems to affect them too much.

cptrayes

Zippy backed 6 months. Shows a VERY strong event line from when he started to work. Not from nutrition, from work. Resulting foot is hugely stronger than it was before he worked - he'd have been a typical candidate for early shoeing and had very TB feet even though he's a warmblood (he's a TB type). Work has cured multiple ground-line splitting which was clearly fungal related as it was between the inner and outer wall. BUT - he's had no anti-fungal treatment.

Jazz - not sufficiently trimmed at stud for 4 years, so his front feet had flared, shod once in front only. They were also totall flat across the bottom, though with strong frogs and good collateral groove depth. One year on, has four white feet at least a boot size smaller with good concavity. He can do anything on any surface and has been that way right from the start. Has a VERY significant event line from being in hospital for 5 days and on no grass turnout for 2 weeks, 2 months ago. Jazz is 5 and is in active training for showjumping, cross country and dressage so that he can event next season.

Caroline.

Tally

Justine is very sound, happy to go over all terrain.

I noticed about 5-6 weeks a change in concavity which seems to go with the change of weather. Until late September the ground was still rock hard and her feet were very flat (but with collateral groove). Now that there is mud and soft going everywhere, the concavity has increased.

I'm actually concerned by the depth of her collateral grooves - as deep as my hoof pick ! Feet have a tendency to start to smell after having been filled with mud all day - just as well she comes in at night to dry them off.

Have changed the feeding routine from 2x 50 ml scoops of MgOx per day to 25 ml scoop of MagLyte (from R Hatch). Big difference is now she finishes all her food but I'm worried she may not be getting enough Mg esp come Spring grass.

camilla

Midas has been barefoot for 7 years but does not get out being ridden as much as the other two.However he managed a three hour hack last week over all terrain, not bad for a thirty year old! He is very prone to thrush so I am having to keep his feet regularly disinfected and he comes in for the morning if it is very wet.
Kis only had her shoes off 5 weeks ago but also is hacking out for up to three hours at a time and is ridden more often as she is only 20. She feels stones so I pop off and lead her and I have to be careful that her hoof growth rate is fast enough for the wear if she does a lot of roadwork.
Sun is the only one who wears hoofboots at times as his feet are still quite flat. He has been barefoot since January and nearly has a whole new hoof! He is ridden most days, up to 20 miles at a time. We are still carefully choosing the best ground and he is more prone to slipping than the others. He is now allowed out on the grass as it is very stalky and poor at the moment. His heels have developed bigtime which actually results in a bigger hoof so his boots are becoming quite tight on him!