Monday, January 24, 2011

Hooves

Here's the latest set of photos of Dixie's feet. She's four weeks post trim, with about 40 miles of riding in the last two weeks. After I took the pics, I did a tiny bit of rasping - a little on her heels (more on the left hoof) and I smoothed out the little chips in her walls. Then I called my trimmer and postponed - for some reason, last time he was here, we decided four weeks sounded right, and he was supposed to come tomorrow! We rescheduled for March 2, when maybe there will be something for him to do...

Left front

Solar:
LF

Heel:
LF

Side - this shot was hard to get lined up right.
LF


Right front

Solar:
RF

Heel:
RF

Side, with bonus goat:
RF

I wasn't happy with the side shots, so I took her down to the concrete pad by the garage and got a picture of her standing on a hard surface.
Standing on concrete

I'm just delighted with her feet.

17 comments:

  1. Cheyenne is right. She does look happy too. I remember when you posted 4 weeks. I wondered then if that was a little soon, especially this time of the year.

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  2. I posted these on Facebook too, and a trimmer friend looked at them and immediately asked how long she'd been shod. I think that's what yall keep seeing in her heels - she has shitty digital cushions from being shod so young/long.

    (If you're a newish reader, she wore those godawful pads for probably two years, then another two years lite shod, before I bought her and took her bare. Also, if you google image search for "padded twh hoof" you will see Dixie's hoof when I got her as the second result.)

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  3. Her feet are looking really good! I'm impressed you can ride her out there without shoes or boots, considering the terrain.

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  4. It's so nice to see a functional foot... one with a good general balance where the frog is allowed to do its job and absorb shock, where the toes are where they should be.

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  5. Her feet look GREAT! I wish my guy's feet looked like that...

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  6. Yay! And I like the bonus goat.

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  7. Look at all of that beautiful concavity! A common them when the retirees arrive is flat, pancake feet so now I always appreciate a nice, concave foot!

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  8. i like how she's wearing down her toes on her own, look how smooth they are. i thought her heels looked long but her toes are not, so that must be the adjustment you are talking about.

    i am amazed at how much like "summer feet" those hooves are. omgosh if you could see baasha's now, but they take huge effort to clean scrape, scrub, wipe spray before i could possibly get a photograph.

    you rock, btw, riding out barefoot on a horse that once wore pads.

    inspirational.

    ~lytha

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  9. oh, and i wanted to say, yes, i agree, delay the trim, because i don't see much to trim there.

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  10. Thanks yall!

    Terry, the bonus goat is the Former Queen of Nigeria. My Nigis are named for scam emails I've received. Well, I never got one about the Queen, just the King of Nigeria. He wanted to give me US One Million Dollars to help him out...

    Melissa - turnout, movement, grass hay. You know the secret!

    lytha - thanks :) Did you see the Nasty Dixie pics earlier this week?

    She'll need a touchup next week. I only have a rasp, no knife, so I can't handle the bars.

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  11. Awesome Job! She looks so good!

    I am in a quandary...I had a 'Shoer" doing her feet for the "EasyWalker horseshoes" and now that she is barefoot again...she is just not looking good. I fired the shoer and am back to doing it myslef...maybe I'll take some shots and you can lok at them-would ya?
    I loved your shots...they truned out really clear .
    I really want those shoes again for the summer riding...but, man, have got to fine someone that knows balance!

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  12. I'd be happy to, Kac! You live in a tough climate for bare feet, but you can still have nice balanced feet that only need your EasyWalkers for summer riding. :)

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  13. Oh yeah! Her feet look really great!

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  14. Feet look nice! :-)

    No chips or cracks and everything looks sounds and balanced. I'm no expert but I've seen my share of bad feet.

    Barefoot can definitely be a good thing for the right horse and an owner who is on top of things. I've seen so many botched "barefoot" hoofs.

    Definitely looks like these feet mean business. :-)

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  15. Have you thought about treating her for thrush? I ask because those are some awful deep cracks down the middle of her frogs. My gelding presented exactly the same way right before he got awful gimpy. I treated him for thrush, he lost his frogs, he started growing some good material back and now he feels a ton better. Thrush would also give another explanation why her heels won't open up and why she grows so much bar.

    Thrush doesn't always stink and it doesn't always make black goo...

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