We often eulogize about “The Wonders of Nature” but only when we are actually confronted with them do we realize just how amazing they can be.
A few weeks ago I was called out to one of my customers who had just bought an 8 year old horse. The general condition of the horse was not bad but sadly the hoofs were a bit of a worry. Happily, I could see through the damage and knew that with some work we could restore the hoofs to a good condition, albeit over a few months in all likelihood.
Here we see rip-damage to the hoof wall and the remains of shoeing nails (one is still embedded)
Underneath we can see divergence of the hoof wall around the offending horseshoe. The walls are split and worn. Plus points: the fairly stable looking concavity of the sole and a reasonably solid frog.
Just over four weeks later, I returned to follow-up on the original trim – actually I had already seen the horse 6 days after the first trim and was more or less confronted then with the next images:
This really is the same hoof just 31 days later – check out the markings! There is a little internal damage just on the edge but that will grow out. The holes are now gone and the walls look super healthy.
…and underneath: what a difference. There is a little scoring in the sole but that does not worry me. The frog is still a little ragged but again, no worry; it will tidy itself up.
As the trimmer, obviously I could take all the credit for this transformation, but that would be totally unfair on Daisy – she as owner has done her utmost to follow up my advice that her horse should be exercised regularly (15 minutes minimum, at least twice a day) over all types of surface. She has done a wonderful job and can certainly show a few owners a thing or two about caring for their horses. Well done Daisy.