It's been nearly a month now since we removed the shoes from Bonitao so we felt it time for him to have a check up and see how a specialist barefoot trimmer viewed his progress. So we had a visit from Mel yesterday.
As I was on standby for work we looked at Filly first.
Mels' view was that her feet were still progressing pretty well although the heel of the front left had grown a little long so that the frog had lost contact with the ground. However she thought that in general the digital cushion of the hooves had improved since her last visit and I should continue to concentrate on improving her muscle tone, especially on the right side. She did think this had improved but had a way to go to get Filly properly balanced. She also thought that it could be the muscle imbalance that is causing just the front left to grow extended heels. As she would be weighting that side more this would stimulate the hoof to grow more rapidly.
The abscess sites that came out of the coronet band whilst she was at Rockley farm last July have nearly finished growing out now and Mel wants to see Filly again once they have disappeared.
She agrees that the abscesses were almost certainly caused by the shoes originally but it took the mobilisation of the hoof structure that occurred when the shoes came off to allow them to erupt.
As for Bonitao, she thought he was progressing very well indeed. The constricted heels that had been created by years of shoeing was beginning to self correct and the hugely overgrown heel depth was slowly returning to normal. We have noticed that since the shoes have come off he is less prone to tripping. I guess that he must have felt he was wearing high heels all this time and is finally transitioning to more comfortable flat footware :) .
Again Mel saw no need to see him again for a while so long as we keep working him hard and get him out on the roads to abrade the hooves to a better shape.
She did not actually trim or rasp either horse hooves as she felt that doing so would impede rather than help their progress.
So the medium term plan is more walking / riding out for both horses and some gymnastic work for Filly online to improve her muscle tone. Both of these activities are fun so there is good incentive to keep up the progress we are making.
As I was on standby for work we looked at Filly first.
Mels' view was that her feet were still progressing pretty well although the heel of the front left had grown a little long so that the frog had lost contact with the ground. However she thought that in general the digital cushion of the hooves had improved since her last visit and I should continue to concentrate on improving her muscle tone, especially on the right side. She did think this had improved but had a way to go to get Filly properly balanced. She also thought that it could be the muscle imbalance that is causing just the front left to grow extended heels. As she would be weighting that side more this would stimulate the hoof to grow more rapidly.
The abscess sites that came out of the coronet band whilst she was at Rockley farm last July have nearly finished growing out now and Mel wants to see Filly again once they have disappeared.
She agrees that the abscesses were almost certainly caused by the shoes originally but it took the mobilisation of the hoof structure that occurred when the shoes came off to allow them to erupt.
As for Bonitao, she thought he was progressing very well indeed. The constricted heels that had been created by years of shoeing was beginning to self correct and the hugely overgrown heel depth was slowly returning to normal. We have noticed that since the shoes have come off he is less prone to tripping. I guess that he must have felt he was wearing high heels all this time and is finally transitioning to more comfortable flat footware :) .
Again Mel saw no need to see him again for a while so long as we keep working him hard and get him out on the roads to abrade the hooves to a better shape.
She did not actually trim or rasp either horse hooves as she felt that doing so would impede rather than help their progress.
So the medium term plan is more walking / riding out for both horses and some gymnastic work for Filly online to improve her muscle tone. Both of these activities are fun so there is good incentive to keep up the progress we are making.
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