I am getting a bit concerned about Jazz's feet now that we are not doing much road work and the arena surface is no longer abrasive.
I noticed a few weeks ago that the central sulcus in his front frogs was a deep slit, much to my embarassment, as I have no idea when they got like it, and I should do! I have been using sudocreme daily in them and they are now wide open and filling in. But in general, his frogs are not as wide as they were and I have had a suspicion of seeing him landing toe first a few times, which is a BIG danger signal.
Today I got down and dirty - to get on eye level with them on the floor. The off fore is not too bad, though I took some height off the heels to try to get more contact between the frog and the floor. There was plenty of heel to make that safe. The other front foot, though, is the one he injured trying to get out of the lorry window when he was imported, and it has a scar right around one side and half the back. That foot had slid right forwards with underrun heels and looked a terrible shape with a long flat toe :(
Underrun heels are odd things. They look too low, but in reality they are too long, it's just that they have gone long forwards instead of downwards. So I brought the ground bearing surface on them back to the end of his frog where it should be. Again I had enough heel height to do that in one go safely. After putting a nice mustang roll back on, it looked as though it was under his leg and supporting his weight an awful lot more. It's ironic when you take height off an underrun heel. In theory the toe should look even longer, but it doesn't - somehow putting the weight back under the cannon bone makes the toe sit better, not worse.
I am watching those feet like a hawk now, because he had such good, self-maintaining feet when he was doing road work and when the arena surface was a lot more abrasive. If necessary, we are just going to have to do more on the road whether he likes it or not.
Radar's feet are fine and Ace's get better by the day as they decontract, it's only Jazz who is causing me any consternation.
Once again, not an expert on this, but I always worry about hoof issues. Kind of frustrating that the one horse who really doesn't like to go out on hacks needs to go out on hacks.
ReplyDeleteI envy you your heel height when dealing with underrun type feet. In these short dark days its easy to forget to fiddle with feet, on top of all the other chores. He'll be right in a jiffy.
ReplyDeleteHe's gone heel first with a toe flick again already Tracey. I am so relieved.
ReplyDeleteC
I don't like toe flicks though, metabolic sign.....
ReplyDeleteGlad he's slamming them down again though.
Don't think I can agree with you there Tracey, mine have all done it and so do my friends' five working barefooters. Maybe we are not talking about the same thing? I'm referring to the extension of the pastern and the lift of the toe just before the heel hits the floor. If the toe did not lift, it would not be a heel first landing, it would be a flat one.
ReplyDeleteC
Its the word "flick" that makes me think metabolic. I agree the toe should lift, but a prounced "flick" only happens on those who do best on restricted grazing when its not strict enough. I'm sure after all this time we're on the same page, its just the word.
ReplyDeleteStayed on in my jumping lesson this afternoon - result :D