Feet in Review

 This last Friday, my farrier came out and did Ashke’s feet. This was the third set of shoes since I treated him with the iodine and hydrogen peroxide for the WLD. I took some pics of his hooves, so I had them for reference, in prep for this post. I’ve been thinking about his feet over the past almost six years and decided to go back and see what the pictures showed. 

When I first brought him home, his feet were in pretty rough shape, although given his overall condition, it was not a surprise. I found a farrier and had him come out to work on Ashke, but was not real happy with the results. There was no break over, Ashke was interfering back to front, and his feet showed signs of bruising (bloody spots in the White Line. When I spoke to my then farrier about the interference and issues with soundness, his response was to unbalance the foot to keep Ashke from clipping. I was not impressed. When I moved to TMR, I was able to get him in with a barefoot farrier who worked with us for almost two years. That started our struggle of barefoot-with-hoof-boots-trying-to-keep-Ashke-sound that would stretch for four long years. 

His LF, which will be the focus of this post.

This pic was taken in December of 2012, when I moved to using a barefoot trimmer at TMR. You can see the White Line issues on either side of his hoof. We have been dealing with this since I brought him home. Michele did a good job with trimming him, however, I think the overall quality of his forage at every barn he was at prior to Morelli’s was contributing to his foot issues. The hay at TMR sucked. And Ashke wouldn’t eat the grass mix hay at all. He was on seven flakes of alfalfa, a half pound of amplify, Smartpak supposed, and equipride during this time. I finally threw out the Purina grain based feed and amplify (he didn’t need that much fat in his diet) and replaced it with TC Senior. I stopped messing with the bran mash, and just used the Senior as my base for wet mashes. 

Michele stopped trimming in August of 2014, and recommended a new farrier. He came out and did a trim on Ashke. Ashke was lame afterward. Lame enough that I called a new farrier to come out and look at him. The new farrier was concerned about the length of his hoof capsule, but suggested magic cushion and to give it some time to grow. I was still very committed to keeping Ashke barefoot, so I did some research and found Dan. Dan was a certified equine podiatrist and spent a year trimming Ashke. During that time, it became more and more difficult to keep Ashke sound. His hoof depth was short and Dan stopped trimming the flares his grows naturally. The WLD got significantly worse. The hollows on the edges of the hoof below were grooves in the WL. 

I got concerned enough about the deep hollows and untreated flares, that I called a new farrier, Kris.

On our first trim, Kris said his hoof was short, there was concern about bar abscesses, and we discovered a 8 mm stone buried deep under the frog, that had been there long enough that it had created its own little hollow in his frog. We were stabling at SQA at that point, flirting with the barley grass they really wanted to feed all of the horses, but every time Ashke went on it, he grew sore footed with ridging in his hoof wall. I was treating his hoof with a plethora of farrier recommended products. Kris wanted mine to treat the bar abscess with betadine and sugar, or No Thrush. I got a huge bottle of No Thrush and within a couple of trim cycles, the thrush was gone. But not the WLD. 

The bottom of his hoof was black from the Magic Cushion.

During all of this time, we wee also struggling with hoof boots. Ashke hated them and I hated how he moved in them. He was toe first and stumbling, stilted and stiff when we rode. I would put the hoof boots on, but we never finished the ride still in them. Even on super rocky trails, he moved better being tender and stiff without boots, then he did while wearing them. I was soooo frustrated with both the tenderness and the issues with his feet we were still.dealing with.

Kris first trim. You can see the little round spot at the top of the frog where the stone was removed.

In December of 2015, we moved to Morelli Ranch. Ashke was put on a diet of four flakes of alfalfa and a couple of flakes of grass hay a day. He gets about a pound of TC Senior and his supplements. His run is well drained and he gets two hours of turn out a day, seven days a week. In a matter of a couple of months, he went from a horse that was a hard keeper to one that has maintained his perfect weight with great muscle gain with no changes to his feed program for more than eighteen months. That was amazing to see happen. We were still dealing with his feet however.

I finally made the decision last September to put shoes on Ashke. I was done dealing with the hoof boots and the constant tenderness. The unexpected happened. Ashke needed the extra support the shoes gave him on his fronts and Dr D was so impressed with how he moved, that she told me to put the shoes on all four feet. In the year, since we made that decision, we went from pads and bell boots, with lots of tripping at about five weeks, to a completely sound and solid horse. The WLD was still there, despite several attempts on my part to get rid of it. My newest farrier, Trey (whom we LOVE), told me we had to stay on it until it was gone. I did two applications of White Lightning. It did nothing. I talked to Amanda and she suggested a mix of iodine and hydrogen peroxide. I did that. Two applications a week apart, even with the shoes on, finally fixed the WLD, 

The same hoof on Friday, after the shoe came off and the trim was done.

This is the third trim/shoe cycle since the treatment that finally knocked out the WLD. There is still some roughness where the deep pitting on the outside edges of the hoof were, but when you touch it, it is hard and dry, not soft and spongy like it had been. I expect on the next trim cycle, even that will be gone. Trey says it is gone. Ashke says his hoofs feel really good. I am really happy that we’ve finally got his feet healthy and happy.

I know that the majority of the heavy lifting in fixing his feet was accomplished by the good food he is getting on the daily. You can not underestimate the importance of great forage and balanced nutrients.