Hi everyone! I posted yesterday and got a ton of great responses so I thought I'd give an update with some better photos.
1) We have a new farrier coming to see my horse on Wednesday - could you guys tell me what I should look for in a proper barefoot cut? How will I know if this new guy is any good?
2) We put his cavallo hoof boots on him this afternoon and his slight favoring of his front left immediately disappeared! We left the boots on him overnight so I will take a look at his feet tomorrow. Should those boots be left on 24/7 until the farrier comes?
3) Looking at the new pictures, is there anything you guys see that I should take note of? Anything I could be doing to help him until we get this fixed?
4) Should he be ridden or lunged at all? I don't know how much this bad cut will affect his tendons?
He got some major flares and I don't like the angles on his fronts, they don't match the angles of his pasterns, his heels are squashed. Good luck with the new farrier, hopefully he knows his stuff.
You see where the hoof wall is so far away from the sole? Thats flare and that needs to come off.. id nip all that. Then roll it.
His bars are way too far layed over and need some trimming- after that id trim the heels up but not so much that they encourage the toe to grow too rapidly -enough to align the angle of his foot more correctly.
yep you'd think so but you'd be amazed how many farriers can't fix or even address these issues. Oh the road iv been down with these so called certified farriers and not one could fix under run heels or flares.
Will be interesting to see after trim pictures hope new farrier is good his hoofs are in serious need of a good trim.
Holy messy feet Batman! Looks like the hooves are a bit 'run forward', heels a bit high - should be close to sole level after exfoliating -, frogs a bit thrushy & unused and bars overlong. The rings on the hooves indicate likely ongoing, long term metabolic/systemic issues.
But the major immediate problem looks like those hugely flared, separated, & I'm betting seriously infected quarters. They need to be taken right back, in order to clean them out & treat infection, and to relieve the mechanical stress to allow them to begin growing down strongly attached.
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