FANCY FEET

Well tonight I went out to see my horse and check on some new fancy horse shoes he got yesterday. Sparky has been going through different levels of lameness since last October and we have yet to pin point what is wrong. He has stumped almost everyone including myself, Sue, the vet, and now 2 farriers who have looked him over. So we decided to try yet another solution to the problem on Monday when Sparky became really tender in this left front foot. The decision was made to put some aluminum horse shoes on his front feet. These shoes are lighter than normal and tend to wear more consistently with the natural stride of the horse reducing any unwanted or  unnatural motions.



We also put a 2° wedge under the right front hoof and a flat wedge support on the left front hoof. This is because he has different angles to his front feet which is kinda like having a foot that is shorter than the other....not such a comfortable way to walk I can imagine. Most importantly the wedges give added support to Sparky's poor tender heels which we suspected was the root of the problem. Sparky also has impression material pasted inside the hoofs to keep them clean and moisturized.

This is the left front with the flat wedge support.

This is the right front with the 2° wedge.

So tonight I got him out and trotted him around on the hard ground and to my surprise Sparky didn't limp once! This is such an improvement from yesterday when he didn't want to put hardly any extensive weight on his left front and a big indicator that the shoes could be working. I am super excited and hopeful that we might be onto something. Hopefully Sparky hasn't gotten too comfortable with his oh so awful life of eating and sleeping all day because this girl wants to go riding soon :)