I am not sure what kind of advice I can get without anyone actually seeing his feet in person but I thought it couldn't hurt to throw it out there and maybe discuss some opinions.
Bear with the crappy pictures I was dealing with a wiggly yearling.
Last week his feet looked like this,
He had never really been out of a stall (two years old in June). We picked him up about a week ago and I trimmed his hooves just before he came out. He is now turned out in a small 30' pen off from a run in. His poor legs wouldn't handle much more activity and I know that this whole feet thing is going to take -a while- to correct. The problem is that I haven't found a farrier "willing to deal with him" yet so I have been doing his trimming. Thats the short story.
Right front foot,
Left front foot,
Hind feet,
The right front foot obviously needs some help. I took off some toe but haven't done much else, where would you start? A lot of the sole is higher than the hoof walls are, but because of this its as hard as a rock! Any special advice to chiseling that down?!
With his hind feet... it is obvious to me that his heels need to come down/back a bit. Right now his sole is longer (or higher) than his hoof wall and some of his frog is longer (higher) than the sole. In this case am I correct to assume that the sole needs to be slowly scraped down back where it belongs? Its as hard as a rock from him walking on it and I did not have any luck scraping at it with a hoof knife.
Hind feet question #2.... In the pictures of the hind foot that I had held up it is clear that the left side of his wall needs to come down considerably. His (heel bulb?) is actually higher than the right. Lowering that will eventually draw the heel bulb back down, correct?
Edited to ad -
Full body shots if they help. Here is how he stood in the very first picture,
And here he is after the little nipping I've done,
Bear with the crappy pictures I was dealing with a wiggly yearling.
Last week his feet looked like this,
He had never really been out of a stall (two years old in June). We picked him up about a week ago and I trimmed his hooves just before he came out. He is now turned out in a small 30' pen off from a run in. His poor legs wouldn't handle much more activity and I know that this whole feet thing is going to take -a while- to correct. The problem is that I haven't found a farrier "willing to deal with him" yet so I have been doing his trimming. Thats the short story.
Right front foot,
Left front foot,
Hind feet,
The right front foot obviously needs some help. I took off some toe but haven't done much else, where would you start? A lot of the sole is higher than the hoof walls are, but because of this its as hard as a rock! Any special advice to chiseling that down?!
With his hind feet... it is obvious to me that his heels need to come down/back a bit. Right now his sole is longer (or higher) than his hoof wall and some of his frog is longer (higher) than the sole. In this case am I correct to assume that the sole needs to be slowly scraped down back where it belongs? Its as hard as a rock from him walking on it and I did not have any luck scraping at it with a hoof knife.
Hind feet question #2.... In the pictures of the hind foot that I had held up it is clear that the left side of his wall needs to come down considerably. His (heel bulb?) is actually higher than the right. Lowering that will eventually draw the heel bulb back down, correct?
Edited to ad -
Full body shots if they help. Here is how he stood in the very first picture,
And here he is after the little nipping I've done,