Beckie Mabbutt

These pictures below are of an old little Shetland called Milly. She is trimmed every 6 weeks pretty much on the dot. Milly grows an amazing amount of foot and I thought it was a good example to share with you. With Laminitis you get accelerated heel growth, due to the natural stripy colours of her foot is shows clearly how the horn tubules are curling forwards. These are the type of feet that if left for 6 months without trimming for instance they would curl right up like a pixy boot. Click on any of the images below to see how the other feet looked.

Just as a reminder, when I refer to negative sole plane I am referring to the pedal bone enclosed within the hoof capsule sitting at a flat or negative angle. To read more about negative sole planes click here. One way of assessing externally the angle of the pedal bone on the hind foot is following the line of the coronary band forward - if it contacts the front limb above the knee it indicates a negative pedal bone angle.

From these pictures below you can see how much change can be made before and after trimming. The first picture shows a much steeper coronary band angle, and surprisingly this horse also has a 3 degree wedge pad on to help with this conformational problem.

The second picture is after removal of the pad and trimming. What a huge difference we can see externally and if you were to take radiographs you'd notice a positive difference to the angle of the pedal bone too.

Well abscess's have been strife this winter, I'm hoping now with the drier weather it'll slow down. This barefoot pony managed to get away without really being lame on this hind foot. Amazing. It has caused quite a lot of damage though with the outside heel not really being attached now. Click on the image below to see some other views and more abscess's.

This crack was probably caused by an old wire injury. It runs right up to the coronary band with the whole medial heel and bulb of heel not being attached securely. Sadly this is not a case I'm dealing with but Jen the farrier involved will e-mail me pictures of what she chooses to put on to stabilise it so I'll keep you posted.

I'm currently in Colorado attending and speaking at a conference, but today I've been lucky enough to go to Denver Zoo with their regular farrier and good friend of mine Steve Foxworth. Not only did I get to see the behind the scenes working of the Zoo, but I got to trim a Przewalski's horse which is a true Wild Mongolian horse. This was such a unique experience getting the opportunity to see real wild feet, also to trim one knocked down with a tranquiliser gun, (which was a first for me).

As well as trimming this wild horse, I got to feed Zebra's, Giraffes, and a Camel. Steve's promised me that on another trip he'll organise for me to trim a Zebra.

Here are a few pictures from my exciting day. I know the Giraffe picture isn't shoeing related but it was just so cool.