Week 5: No Foot No Horse

      Even though it hasn't been long since my last post I decided it was time to chronicle Finn's feet. A I discussed in post two upon Finn's first shoeing we found that he had significant sole bruising in his front left feet. He also has a slightly "clubby" foot. The term club simply means that his foot is slightly upward and, also that his P1, P2 and P3 bones are not in the correct alignment.

             Above you can see 3 feet in different phases of the correction process. The feet from left to right are in order of worst to best. 

     In Finn's case, his club foot is almost undetectable by a naked eye but is made obvious by digital imagery. Upon his last set of x-rays we also found that he suffers from Pedal Ostetis. This condition causes the demineralization of the P3 bone also known as the coffin or pedal bone. Luckily it seems that we have caught the condition early and with the help of corrective shoeing he should be sound.

 front feet after first off-track shoeing 

 hind feet after first off-track shoeing 

 removed aluminum race shoes 

removed aluminum race shoes

     Tomorrow the farrier is due to come out and preform his own examination of the feet and begin the corrective shoeing process with a pour in pad and new shoes. As you can see above Finn was raced in aluminum shoes that sported toe grips and clips in the front and rim pads in the back. The toe grips likely caused increased pressure on the toe area thus exasperating his toe bruising and eventually triggering the Pedal Ostetis. The vet also noted that he only sports less than a centimeter of sole to protect his coffin bone. 

    Despite obvious challenges the vets and trainers supporting me through this training process believe that with work and time Finn will develop into a fantastic riding horse. In the meantime Finn has been cleared for walking under saddle and individual turnout. Once his new shoes are on and the pads are poured I plan to begin his training at the walk. I will be focusing on bending, rhythm and acceptance of the bit for the next couple weeks. 

Although sore Finn continues to shock barn-goers with his calm personality