Nothing personal, Lynn, just my own personal crusade for accuracy. It's the engineer in me.



That is a number 2 wedge pad. not a two degree wedge pad. It is somewhat more than 4 degrees. I'm sure both your vet and your farrier refer to it as a 2 degree pad,so you also do, but it isn't 2 degrees. I probably can't change the industry, but I'll give it a try. Some pad numbers do relate to degrees, but most do not. In degrees, most are about twice the number and it's confusing. For all owners, ask your vet if they want 2 degrees or a number 2 pad. They're not the same.
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The before pics seem to show a feet with little distortion so the extreme distortion now did occur in a couple months of barefoot. Mark is likely correct that this a horse needing shoes. I'm guessing that you are in a relatively moist part of NZ. While I feel I might maintain that foot barefoot in my desert (30 cm precip/yr) area, I would certainly yield to the opinion of someone familiar with feet and foot problems in the area you're in.

Mark is also correct that from the bottom, you did a decent job. This isn't an easy horse.
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Kelly, there are serious problems there. Did that toe get away that far in two months of barefoot or did your farrier let it get away earlier? It might be rehabed without shoes but with much more aggressive trims. Light rasping won't do it. I'd suggest some professional help to show you a proper trim.
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Hard to tell under a bandage, but yes I intended to have the frog pressure pad bear the weight and obviously where the wall doesn't reach the ground, it is not bearing weight.
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DeniseMc wrote:


This foal was five days old when it slipped out between a gate and the gatepost. Apparently,one of the horses in the pasture stepped an it and tore off most of the lateral wall on the right hind. I have no pictures of the original wound.

Burney Chapman was still alive at the time so I called him, told him what I planned and asked for advice. He said my plan was sound and that I would be surprised at how fast that foot would grow.

I cut a brass plate to protect the bottom of the foot and wired a leather frog pressure pad to it to take stress off the wall. This before we had the good acrylics so I drilled holes in the plate and the medial wall and wired the plate to the foot. Bandaging then held everything in place. The top two pics show the two week result. Growth well down from the coronary is evident as is damage from the bandaging.

I reset the plate at that time, but at four weeks the moisture collecting under the bandage was causing heel collapse and the skin damage was worse. I had some medial wall to work with and was able to apply a "baby-glu" plastic shoe (those were PITA)and get to about six weeks before it came off. A reset got me to the eight week result in the last picture where the hoof is nearly regrown and a larger "baby-glu" placed to let the crushed heels recover. That was the last shoe used.

Long term, the foal was sound for the two or three years he was under my care before being sold.
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I think a number of things happen that are unique in foals. First a foal of that age will grow a new hoof capsule in a few weeks. I can even supply pics of one doing it. At the heel it would be a couple of weeks, so as the coffin bone grows and pushes the wall outward it may push the heels forward a bit but that would quickly be compensated by heel growth.



Long time ago, but I remember a paper where radio-opaque material was introduced into the hoof wall and radiography showed the inner wall growing much faster than the outer. I also recall papers showing what you have stated above,ie that growth does not originate strictly from the coronet so I'm in agreement that even on a mature horse you do not have to grow an entire new capsule to see improvement.
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Don't know about a connection with a workout, but I think some prepared foods have chemicals that cause water retention. When I go on a trip that has me eating in restaurants, I regularly gain a pound or so a day and lose it just as quickly when I get home.
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Check to see that the orifices are centered in the intake tubes. The pattern of the flame on the bottom of the forge after it heats up is a good place to look.
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AutourStud wrote:



He's correct, there might be a bit of bone growth left at the knee, but everything below that is complete - with four bones (not counting the navicular) between the sole and the knee, what is done at the sole won't really affect the knee.

That said, I have had a bit of luck with over at the knee and a broken back hoof pastern axis by realigning the HPA. can't say if it's more than cosmetic, but it does look better.

If the HPA is good now and the bones can't be changed, I'd just wait for a bit more maturity and muscle and see what happens.
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Guess your farrier has been out, but I'll enter some remarks. First and I hope you don't take offense, but forgetting the back at the knee, that colt is not stallion material. Please do not leave him intact.

About the knees, leaving the heels high would likely be counter productive. It appears that more than just his feet have been neglected. Get him healthy and conditioned, then see what needs to be done. Maturity and muscle might do wonders.
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DHeltonCJF wrote:


Yep! Titanium is half the weight of steel, Tungsten is close to two and half times.
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