Another tweak

August 26- rain today. Hooves were softer after the rain, so I groomed the bars on all fours, keeping them even with the adjacent sole. Refreshed the quarter arch on the fores, rolled the fore toes to encourage more heel first landing. She still lands flat or slightly toe first. She is still very comfortable in front boots, and mostly comfortable in the corral.

Once this week I rode a little walk and jog in the practice arena- and opened and closed the gate. Taffy was the best ever with the gate. I rode her bitless again. :)

video 10 weeks :-)

Still not as much heel first as I'd like to see, but only a few bobbles. This is hard ground with scattered gravel.

A guarded excitement

Things are looking good.
How good...?
Taffy has been very comfortable in boots with full double pads for weeks. I don't leave them on 24x7 now, it's really hot and the pads don't breathe. I don't want rotten frog/sole etc.
Sunday last, August 15
I soaked her again in the ClO2, All 4 feet. More time on fores. No apparent immediate difference in how she tenderfooted around.
Later that day.....
NO hobbling?!?! without boots!!
keeping the deep thrush (or other hidden greeblies) away is doing wonders. She has been without the boots for turnout almost all week.

Thursday, TWELVE weeks out of shoes.... I had to get out and ride (have only been able to ride a couple times a week, short schools)... We worked on cues- or rather, I went searching for the right buttons. Learning this horse is a challenge for me, as I am not the quietest rider seat and hand wise, and she is ultra light. Current challenge: gate obstacle for trail class. Taffy sidepasses left off a right seat cue, but to push the gate left I have to unweight my right seatbone. So she sidepasses right! I try adding right leg, she gets huffy and bouncy and fusses at me with her lips). What do you WANT? she seems to be asking. I am schooling her in a bitless bridle so I don't mess up her mouth cues. We did get the gate opened and closed, step stop step stop repeat. Tried a push gate and back through also. Once I get into her rhythm, this will be fun. Stopping from a sidepass, pivot/spin, or backing is still a mystery button.

To cool off we took a jaunt around the neighborhood. She was eager to trot, but I asked for a walk. She covers a lot of ground at the walk when out of the arena. I sure love moonlight riding. She is a brave mare, only once blowing her nostrils when we came to a shiny spot on the road where it was recently graded. Must have looked strange to her. She trusted me and walked through though.

And then....
on the way back,
we came upon the neighbor's vacant field
freshly disked.
An invitation
to take off the boots
and see how she moves
on naked feet in arena type footing.
....
.....drum roll>>>>>


Perfect.
:):):):):)
Happy happy!!!


I stayed on her across the hard dirt, only a few bobbles from gravel.
Fine across blacktop
I dismounted and led her across the large gravel in front of our house.
lots of bobbles, but willing movement.
HUGE improvement.
Yipeeeeee!
She got a good rinse off with stiff hairbrush (her fave). and her bucket of yummmm.

(currently Nutrena senior feed-no molasses-4 lb a day divided, free choice bermuda hay, AZ regional mix supplement with flax (horse tech dot com) and bugchek supplement. Fewer itchies, finally.)
Sigh, I'm so tickled she's been comfortable all week. I did roll her toes, arch the quarters, and lower the heels yesterday a few hours before riding. Her feet are now the size of the shoes I pulled- that much de-contraction. Will have to post a measurement pic.

Mark up- first attempt

I attempted to show the geometry of the hoof here. Of the distance between the back of the heels/frog to the breakover (front of P3), 2/3 should lie behind the apex of the frog and 1/3 in front. She still has a little ways to go, as the area marked 1/3 is not half as long as the 2/3 distance (yet!)

The green ring isn't quite in the right place, the best I could do. It helps me find the front of P3, and reveals that the toe is still stretched forward. Some trimmers would do a vertical nipper cut on the red line, and bevel between the green and red. (Red is not quite in the right place either). I am chicken and since I am able to rocker her toe as often as it begins to bear positive pressure, I think we can grow it out just fine without being that agressive. The toe is beveled, it just doesn't show well from this angle.

Sole searching

10 weeks- I wanted to put this photo last, but can't get it to rearrange on this blogger. Heels have come way back, wall is thickening, frog is increasing in health and function, and overall shape is returning to round- still wider on lateral side than medial, but this corresponds to her P3 (coffin bone) on the Xrays from 2008. See earlier post.
From here we let the walls grow up a little, while maintaining the bevel on the walls to the water line- not the white line, as I have been doing. I will continue to groom the bars to keep them passive and off the sole, and rocker the toe for breakover and to grow out the dorsal flare. There's still some bruise staining growing out in the sole- we'll see if that disappears soon.
Yeah- that's my bare foot in the background! I need my own little bit of "hoof" protection as you can see. haha



Days before pulling shoes






















Just after pulling- this is the LF, because I did not get a pic of the RF sole before trimming. It was very similar

Next photo is the First trim ....yeah, it's not quite clean around the frog...lots of white line separation-possibly alfalfa diet related, frog is puny and foot is slightly contracted. Bars still need grooming.


and 4 weeks later- note frog development, white line separation growing out and rearward migration of heels as they regenerate from the inside out. (and I lower them regularly). the WL separation in the quarters is gone on the 10 week photo.












Last pic os of the LEFT front at 10 wks. Getting Round! And the 2/3 to 1/3 ratio is nearly there. I'll try to mark up a photo to show this.

comparisons

10 weeks barefoot-she does not stub her toes, stumble, interfere, or "ka thunk" the fetlock (or DDFT). In boots she is sound to ride.

4 wks

out of shoes

fresh out of shoes- May 27

R fore

just before pulling shoes- May 27

Compare to Title Photo- taken pre-purchase in April 2010- same set of shoes I pulled the end of May.

New boots happy happy!

I have been riding Taffy every chance I get, even twice in a day- early morning and at dusk. She is smoothing out and we are communicating better every ride. With her new boots (size OO) for riding and the O boots with pads for when we arent' riding, life is great! On my to-do list: another Cl O2 soak. She's back to gimping on the hard ground. The videos were of her on yielding footing, where she is the most comfortable. I am going to ride her more in the wash where she is comfortable without the boots.

Western is going great- nice slow walk and jog, beautiful balanced turns and pivots, quiet in the mouth with a medium port sweet iron curb. I figured out that for a nice turn on the haunches (aka horsemanship turn) I should stretch tall in the saddle before I cue her over with the reins and leg, only adding a heel tap if she doesn't keep going. Easier to the right than the left so far. (Left fore is the less comfortable hoof, so it makes sense)

We tried English once so far. My legs are OUT of shape! We borrowed a tongue relief non-leverage bit (Thank you Pepper's Mom!) and Taffy does seem to prefer it to the french link, but still chomps and gapes when I ask for contact. She is used to working off the seat and legs, not a dressage hand... I don't want to change that, just have to figure out how to get a nice headset for hunt seat (if we're going to try English Pleasure haha.) Perhaps one of those Myler tongue relief snaffles with the "hooks" for a curb chain, to add a small amount of leverage. Seems like cheating to me, as a snaffle is designed for lateral flexion without leverage. Perhaps it's a way to get the Western trained horses to look right in English classes. Hmmmph. If ya can't beat 'em join 'em ?!?!? In any case, it is an adventure learning to work with Taffy and try not to UNdo her awesome foundation.

Going to let her hoof wall grow to about 1/8 inch above the sole now, she has a full inch of well connected wall on the fores, from the coronet down. I leveled off the heels to sole a couple days ago, relieved the quarters and rolled the toes back to waterline. Dorsal wall is the place I have to be most aware of, since she slightly flares there more than anywhere else. Avoiding peripheral loading is habitual for me, but I get a little too excited sometimes and take the walls too short. I am pleased with the width of the heels, but the depth at the tip of the frog needs to increase.

Take a peek