foot balance

Another barefoot post - apologies - I honestly do pay attention to the rest of Sofie as well. I just find the barefoot stuff interesting.

Sofie has been going without her back boots for 2 months now and I was hoping to try her without her front boots after Christmas once the grass is low in sugar. Unfortunately she seems to have gone backwards and become foot sore :(

A friend pointed out that her frogs are not central in her feet and she thought this was unusual. Sofie has always had wonky feet and walks with her left one noticeably turned in. My friend asked if it had got worse since going barefoot. At this point I realised that whilst I thought it had got better - I haven't really checked. I've trusted my trimmer (and still do) so I have not done my homework.

So I went through my old photos and stitched these images together to track her hoof balance. It would have been better if I was better at photo shop and could have got all the images at the same size and rotation. Afraid I have not been so diligent with her hind feet.

These photos are of her front left foot (the dark one) from Feb, May, July, Sep 2015. In Feb her white line was tight, but her wall thin and sole flat and her heals contracted. The lateral-medial balance is out with the toe being longer on inside. By May the white line is stretched and there is significant flaring on the outside wall. The lateral-medial balance is still out, but I think slightly better than before. Her heals have opened up nicely. By July we have a fairly healthy looking foot, the flare is still there but more under control and the lateral-medial balance is better. In September we seem to have gone backwards a step with a bit of flare on the outside edge (probably due to the Autumn flush) the lateral-medial balance looks about the same.

These photos are of her front right foot (the stripey one) from Feb, May, July, Sep 2015. The Feb shot is much like the left foot, except her lateral-medial balance looks ok (hard to tell from the photo as I have chopped off a bit of her foot). May shot shows white line separation, and the balance going as her toe is slightly longer on the inside. July, looks fairly tidy but the balance is still a bit out with the flare on the outside wall and a slightly longer toe on the inside. September and the flare looks better but the balance looks worse. I can't tell if this is just my shot.

So I guess Sof's feet are a bit wonky. Now I need to go away and do some reading to know if this is bad or not.




UPDATE

Trimmer came today and we found the source of Sofies discomfort. A small amount of grit was in the old abscess whole in her back foot. This was probably the cause for her foot soreness. Trimmer also mentioned that hooves should be slightly wider on the outside edge then the inside edge, so Sofs wonky feet are perfectly normal. I shan't panic just yet - but still intend to read the books I have bought because I really ought to know these things.