The crack

The crack remains ugly, and I think I mentioned I don't think it will ever go away. I think the scar at her coronary band causes the hoofwall to grow in too weak to withhold the expansion/contraction of a healthy hoof. But so long as it is attached to the lamina, I'm happy. And so far it is growing out that way:

This last pic illustrates the attached crack down to the detached crack. Luckily, even the detached, wider part of the crack isn't extremely flared off the lamina. 

Her hooves are at five weeks here and she's getting done on Wednesday, so the flaring is very apparent right now. 

And new side shots:

Can you believe that this horse is on mostly coastal hay, just a handful or two of WellSolve L/S and her SmartPak EZ Keeper grass balancer? She's looking good! 

Midway update on Bud

(Buttercup makes the sweetest faces)

Wow so having Buttercup an hour away is much more complicated now. Her next trim will be Nov. 17, and I won't be able to be there since it is a Wednesday and a girl's gotta work.

So I decided to take pictures of her hooves this weekend to show how they transform over the weeks between trims. I have touched up her bars and her toes in these pics to prevent some separation issues that were trying to form, but overall I'm quite pleased how they look in between.

I think it is really important to be on a four-week or less schedule. Otherwise you are jumping between too short and too long, and always have hooves in transition. At four weeks, you can really keep the hoof from abrupt transitions. That's important for long-term soundness.

Front left:

Front right:

Solar, right: (excuse the gunk, I couldn't find a wire brush at the barn to clean her up)

Solar, left:

Notice I really "squared" the toe here. I was concerned that she would get additional torque on that crack while waiting for Scott to come out and trim her in a few weeks. 

Ideally, the hoofwall all the way around these soles would be brought back to a tight line against the soles; you can see from the pics that separation is still very much apparent.

Here is a tighter hoofwall against the sole to compare (from Sept. 4):

And we are getting quite a bit more concavity in the hooves. I still kick myself every time I think about what the farriers told me when Buttercup was three and four years old: "This horse is genetically flat footed and she'll never develop concavity. She'll also be uncomfortable outside of shoes." Now she's turning into a veritable, barefoot rock crusher even with her hooves still in transition! 

To compare, from Sept. 4:

And September 2009:

It isn't a significant change over the last year, but it's something. She'll never have true "rock crushing" hooves. But she can develop concavity and she can be fine over 90% of surfaces barefoot, even with her softer, inferior hooves. 

Hope to get pictures of her new trim the weekend of Nov. 19! 

Trimmer visit Oct. 12, 2010

I wasn't able to grab pictures until this weekend so there was a long delay for this post!

And wouldn't you know it? I forgot solar shots. But I was slightly distracted:

Yep! I snuck a ride on the vaca-diva herself. After some acrobatics on the lunge, she begrudgingly indulged me in a little tour of her dry lot. 

I will likely try to do some more groundwork with her when I see her, and perhaps go out on trail around the property for a short ride in the future. 

While she has been sound since June, she needs some chiropractic work before she comes out of vacation in February. I could feel her just muscled wrongly. 

OK, hoof photos! Been a long time coming this time around! 

What I really like is the angle we've been keeping. You can see we've gotten less aggressive with rolling up the hoof wall as the separation has grown down, too. They actually look like real, honest-to-goodness hooves.

Bud's heel foundation is looking very strong. Her hooves just look fantastic in person. I love holding them in my hand. 

The evident separation is much more apparent on the front left with the huge dietary rings and flares. I'm hoping we have less than three months left on all that separation. The crack — which I also failed at getting a pic of — is still evident from the coronary band on down, but the place where it detaches from the lamina is growing down with great gusto. I think it looks more open to me but I can't compare pictures so that could just be me fretting over it. If it is more open, I think that's from the delay in trimming we experienced because of the floods. 

Something that I don't like about this trim — and I will have to mention to Scott — is the pointed quarters. I worry that can upset the balance we've been trying to establish and that it may encourage the heels to draw forward again.