Progress!

The 25th was a "big trim" day for Wisky. That's how I think of a trim where I feel I've made a huge amount of progress. The hoof is ready, it seems, to let go of damaged material and allow the true inner hoof to begin emerging.

This trim, I was able to remove a lot of material from Wisky's front hooves. And her hinds had exfoliated plenty of sole material, so her walls were ready to come down. There isn't much more to do on Wisky's hinds than regular maintance trims from this point, but her fronts are the big story.



I trimmed her hinds first, then her fronts. I worked for nearly two hours just on this trim.

This is her uninjured front foot. Most the work I've been able to do on her overgrown front feet had to be done with an angle grinder. Rasping would have required much more time and sweating.

This is the hoof that she injured originally as well as the next shot. The injured hoof is taking longer to release necrotic material, but all we can do is trim what is allowed and wait for her hoof to offer more. That's the least invasive way to repair damaged hooves. But still, we have to know what we can take and what we must leave, and that comes with experience reading the hooves.


You can see the scar above her coronet band here.
You can also see the stretched dead laminae. A typical view in a case like this where the walls were allowed to grow at will and no corrective trmming was done in the past.

This trim left one front hoof smaller than the other as I was able to take more material from the uninjured hoof. She was rebooted after this trim in two different types of boots. I used the Easycare Glove on the uninjured foot and the Soft Ride Comfort boot on her injured foot.

Here she is right after our work together, relaxing in the playfield. The grass in this field is playground grass. Tough stuff and challenging for a horse to eat. My horses don't care for it much and just nibble here and there. That's all Wisky does. It gives her something to do and a reason to keep moving, but not much green grass is digested in this field.

Update: Wisky has been barefoot for the past two days and no meds for pain. She's been strolling around gingerly, but last night when I went out to toss hay to her, she was out in the middle of the field and I called her over. She came trucking across the field at a good clip. Favoring her injured leg just slightly. What a thrilling sight that was to see.

We have a ways to go, but the little steps in a case like this are so exciting. I have 3 weeks left to get her ready to go home. Her hoof care will be taken over by another natural hoofcare trimmer in her area. It will be sad to see her go, but I look forward to the updates on her progress.

Go Wisky!!