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Monday, November 16, 2009

Hoof Condition and riding barefoot.

So, I need to get out and take better picture of all the horses hooves, but I have a couple recent ones from last week just before our second ride.

Only of Fred's feet. I'm going to get a full set for each horse so I can track changes in the size, shape, and conditon of each hoof so I can see if they're wearing evenly and remodeling for harder use.

Mandy in particular has pop can feet although I think I see what may be the beginnings of some some heel expansion. She is sound on everything except coarse gravel where she's slightly tender. Her hoof wall is hard like iron, but her heels are contracted, and her right front hoof had almost grown into a clubby shape as she tends to lft that hoof only when eating hay with her head down. Juan is currently remodeling by taking off heel and getting her frog into passive contact with the ground. She's already getting a better angle on that hoof, but I'm sure her frog is very tender from being off the ground for a while.

Fred has been comfortable from day one last year on any type of terrain and I'm sure his upbringing probably had a large part in that. The ranch he was born on is in a rocky limestone studded area that doesn't have a lot of mud. He's not getting that here, but seems to be retaining that early conditioning.

Here is Fred's hoof.



 


































































Just had to pop in here with a pic I took this morning.

Purple foot Mandy. She was not very patient about me getting goop on her leg last night but considering I did it alone at 11 pm I'm thinking we did ok.

She of course wouldn't come over to see me, but her one white foot is bright purple right now.


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