Beckie Mabbutt

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.

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.