Beckie Mabbutt

Below is an abscess that I have visited many times over the last few weeks. Despite good poulticing and coming 100% sound on many occasions to the extent we put the shoe back on and he came back into work, this morning he was hopping lame again!

This abscess although initially came out of the sole of the foot, we then found today it had tracked up the hoof wall. I had to pare a channel into his wall to release even more puss.

If you haven't followed this full case please click here to have a look at the whole process.

Look at this comparison, to show how a foot can recover. Beemer is now in full work, competing and jumping well.

I'd like to thank Liane Richardson for her patients, and Beemer for teaching me a lot. We got there in the end :-)

I had shod a new horse 3-4 times and each time he was lame on both fronts as a result of shoeing! We had a vet look at him, who confirmed that the feet were balanced and well shod, I wasn't trimming too much off, and I can't be going too close with a nail on both fronts every time. I'm not that consistent!!

We tried pads for extra support, but each time after the initial lameness he would come sound 4-5 days after.

I was very lucky, most clients would have just changed farrier, because every time I touched him he went lame. It must be me. But fortunately we got some radiographs taken to see if anything else was going on, and this is what we found.

Right Front

Left Front

Look at the angle of the fetlock joint in comparison to the lower joints. No wonder when I shoe him he's sore, any adjustment I make just knocks him off kilter and he takes a few days to adjust.

This is a great example of how you can't always tell from the outside exactly what your up against!

So knowing this I suspect it's predominantly the ligaments either side of each joint that is sore when I adjust the feet. So my aim now is to accommodate for the conformation that he has as I'm not going to change it.

By beveling off and aluminium Lever Reduction shoe on the outside, although not 100% sound after shoeing we had him completly sound on a lunge within 12 hours! We can work with that.

I'd like to really thank Caroline and Gemma Briance for believing in me and looking into this further, it really is appreciated.

This is something new to me, so I'm ready to learn. This thoroughbred has an immune system issue that has caused all his coronary bands to become highly inflamed and raw. It is treated topically, but due to the hoof wall growing from the coronary band I can see this being a long term issue due to what growth we will now have growing down.

Many thanks to all of you that came to support me at my most recent lecture in East Grinstead.

There were six lectures and I was first up. I was really pleased with how it went and kept control of my nerves as the audience was roughly 240 people!

Looking forward to my next opportunity to lecture.