Archie is an 11 year old grey quarter horse. He has been shod most of his life however he has been out of shoes for about 12 months. He had an injury about 12 months ago to his off hind leg, taking out the two tendons at the front. It is a big, nasty, ugly mess of a wound, and his owner has spent a lot (I'm thinking thousands?) into getting him better. He is battling proud flesh, and the injury affects his movement. He walks like he has float boots on that leg (goose-stepping) until he has loosened up. Vet has told the owner to keep him in light work, and once warmed up, he is happily cantering around the trails. She is a weekend rider.
Archie has very contracted heels, deep deep central sulcus on both fronts. He was referred to me after another client of mine helped Archie's owner a few weekends ago when Archie was showing up extremely footsore. Extreme thrush infection was the problem. My client helped Archie's owner with a variety of thrush treatments, and by the time I came to trim him it was all but gone.
To get to the next step with his feet, Archie needs at a maximum 4 weekly trims (previously at 8 weekly intervals or more!) and to keep the thrush in check.
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| Left front, after trim. Very contracted heels, very very deep central sulcus. Black hole is the site of an old abscess blow out - abscess was about three months ago! He has been hanging onto all the sole he can... When I scraped away at the hole there was a little black thrushy lymph like fluid that came out. |
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| Left front heels post trim. Again, contracted heels, deep central sulcus. |
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| Left front post trim. A little tiny bit of concavity, but needs more. |
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| Left hind, pre trim. No where near as contracted as the fronts, just need thrush prevention. No concavity, but ok sole thickness. |
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| Left hind, pre trim. |
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| Left hind, pre trim. |
