Beckie Mabbutt

This is not a crack I've been lucky enough to deal with but I happened to see this horse again today and couldn't believe the transformation. The top picture was taken in November 2006, and the lower picture today 2 1/2 years later. Due to the crack starting right at the coronary band I wasn't sure at the time if you'd be able to achieve normal foot growth. With Dave Nicholls's skills he's just proved that anything is possible.

Click on either image to see more images of how it looked in 2006.

Just took these shocking pictures of a 2 yr old Filly that's just come back from training. I have trimmed her feet every 4 weeks since the day she was born and would consider her to have small but good feet. She's just been away for breaking and training and returned back to me after 9 months with these long feet. I find it very disappointing that so much money is put into getting these race horses to perform well but yet something so simple as the balance of the feet is forgotten. This is pretty common on race horses and it just makes me think how much faster could they go if their toes were shortened and the shoe was placed centrally underneath their coffin joint. Also it is no surprise with feet being left like this that they break down so young, and suffer from tendon issues.

Here are some pictures from today all of the same foot. I think they're quite self explanatory...

These pictures below show a new splint that was acquired about 7 weeks ago. This splint would have been caused by direct trauma, the likelihood is she herself with her other front leg. She hasn't been at all lame but has been left with this hard lump on the inside of her cannon bone. The splint bones are attached to the cannon bone via an inter-osseous ligament when this ligament is traumatized it begins to ossify and causes a hard lump. Although it looks horrific and rarely disappears, it also rarely causes lameness unless it's higher and affects the knee joint.

These pictures are of a horse from Utah called Beetle-juice. A good Farrier and friend of mine Jen Reid looks after his feet. I think the pictures will tell the story really as to the fact that he's in a pretty bad way.

Running a straight line forward from the coronary band on the hind foot is a good external guide as to the angle of the pedal bone within the foot. The higher this contacts the front leg above the knee the more severe the negative angle of the pedal bone will be within the hoof capsule. With some good foot trimming you can see the changes that can be made. I just wish I had some radiographs of this one to share with you. This is the squarest we could get her to stand but it's still clear what I'm trying to show. Click on the images below to learn more about Negative Sole Planes.