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Woody is sound tody after canter and circles yesterday. Things are looking really good. More big changes are going on in his feet. Do you remember me writing that he had "scaffolded" his front feet with bars that went right around the toe of the frog and were continuous from one heel to the other? Well, today, this piece fell off from around the toe in one foot, and the other is already gone and more of the bar further back is also breaking off. This is a great sign! It means that his foot is much stronger internally and no longer needs this temporary external strengthening. That piece is around the size of a 50p coin.

Meanwhile, he has created huge internal and external heel height in both fronts. The collateral grooves are incredibly deep, indicating how high he is now holding his pedal bones inside his feet. What will now happen is that these heels will get lower and the angle of the foot will change to a less upright, stumpy foot. I can't do that for him, because his frogs are so huge that they are currently higher than the heels. To take the heels down any more would put far too much pressure onto them. 

You can just about see something very unusual in this photo. The new growth at the very top is at a less steep angle than the existing foot. Can you see a dark line on the toe about an inch blow the coronet band? Look how it is sitting at the point of an outward bulge. That would normally be an inward curve, not outward. I've never seen this happen before, but it is exactly what he needs. I am sure that his upright feet are not natural, and that they have occurred because of his negative coffin bone angle and him trying not to walk on his heels. With a negative coffin bone angle, putting wieght into the heels would strain the ddft each time you roll the foot off the floor with every step. This fits with him arriving looking as if all his weight was on his toes. I am thrilled about this. It will mean, if I am right, that he will become a lot less upright in the feet and that will be mirrored in the shoulder and his paces will then be quite special.

I know these look like hind feet, but they are his forefeet, honest!  I am so thrilled with these changes. I was a little unsure about taking on a horse who had already been out of shoes for a year or more and trying to get him sound, but it is so satisfying to see what the right work at the right time is doing to his feet.

Ace was also great fun today. I have given up using the exercise blanket and today I gave up my air jacket too. He is just the same as he is on a hot summer day. The spookiness is also getting less  as I move the blue barrels from place to place and ignore his reaction to them, and his work is really coming on. What a change in just over a week, it seems like a miracle. 

C