Wednesday 12 February 2014

Brigitte's 11 week update

Time for Brigitte's update though its hard to believe she has been here 11 weeks. I've taken some footage of her and thought stills from it would the easiest way for you to see what is going on.
 Here she is on arrival, a very toe first landing on 3 out of 4 feet with the fronts being the worst. Most horses start to land heel first fairly quickly but Brigitte's feet were so under-run that it has taken her the best part of 10 weeks to start to change.
Even today, she is only landing flat, not clearly heel first, but now that she is beginning to use the palmar hoof more correctly it should continue to strengthen. 
When she arrived (above) her feet were very distorted - in fact they were so under-run that they were narrower at the base than at the coronet. The deviated hairline is another clue that things were far from well. 

Eleven weeks on we are making progress. However though the toe is shorter the palmar hoof is still weak, proved by the fact she is still reluctant to land heel first. 

Sole shots give a clue to where her feet are heading - interestingly they look more symmetrical from this view today but less symmetrical from the top. Its clear that balance for Brigitte has to be set using internal markers not external angles!
Notice as well that the bars which extended right round the apex of the frog have disappeared as her foot has become stronger. I have not trimmed them as they were an essential support while her foot was weak and unbalanced. 

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