Beckie Mabbutt

This case study is of a horse I did about 6 years ago. She underwent a huge amount of trauma to one front foot and subsequently fractured some little chips off the solar surface of the Pedal bone.

The vets operated, scraping away all these small segments of bone, leaving her with an open wound on the bottom of her foot that needed protecting and the dressings regularly changed.

The whole foot needed to be sealed to prevent any dirt getting in, also dressings needed to be held in, so I made up a hospital plate that looked like this.

Then one month later, the affected area formed into proud flesh and was bulging out of the sole causing a lot of discomfort. This was gradually pared away by the vets.

Then amazingly just two months on from this the foot was looking a lot better. It's amazing how quickly the feet can recover. The sole always did grow in a different way in this area but it wasn't long before she was back to full work.

I was very lucky this month to have a speaking slot at a local conference. It was well attended with about 60 Farriers from the South of England. I was first to get up and share my presentation. My topic was "Hoof Mapping and how that relates to foot balance and shoe placement".

5 minutes before I was due to start I was busy chatting over a cup of tea and some biscuits. For me this is a huge break threw as normally I get so nervous eating isn't an option for many hours leading up to it. So practice is making it easier, I am getting less nervous.

It all went really well, and was followed by some good questions and feedback.

Roll on the next one!

Well this month I haven't been able to capture any new cases as I unfortunately leant my camera to a friend and it fell out of their pocket never to be found again. The good news is I have a new one arriving any day now so will be able to continue getting new exciting case studies to share with you.