I can't really call this a training day for Kai, as we have stormy weather I didn't think it wise to try to work him- but I did try something with him in his stall. I took the metal step that I use for a mounting block and put it in his stall, then led him over and let him inspect it. I walked him into position next to it, then climbed up on it and leaned over him, petted him on his off side, put my weight on him as I was leaning, patted him all over, then turned him around and did it from the right side. He stood perfectly still for me, both sides. I turned him again, and lay over him, waved my legs around, then slid a little further over so all my weight was on him and I was evenly draped over both sides. He was rock solid. His eye was soft, and he was relaxed. Good boy Kai! I'm so proud of him and I'm really looking forward to all this being done so I can get some riding time in on him.
Here's some stuff for the hoof nerds:
The other day I was working on Beamer's feet and noticed something odd.
Yes, complete separation of the back of the frog.
Quite deep! Of course, I was quite startled. I knew that it had to be trimmed off to avoid trapping dirt in there but I sure was not comfortable doing it. With some advice from Tara and Shayla, however, I cowgirled up and got my nippers out the next day.
Took out the center that was detached.....
Kinda freaky removing that much frog! But- it had to be done. I cleaned up more of the detached stuff.
That's where I quit on the first trim. The next day, I removed a little more from the sides and central sulcus area. Today, I did a White Lightning soak, and removed more of the detached frog. This is what it looks like now.
The last inch or so is still attached at the apex, but there is detachment still, under what is left. I'll just have to keep it picked clean until the remainder detaches, if it does.
So here is my understanding of what will happen next: This information is kindly supplied by my friend and hoof mentor Tara:
What everyone is seeing after the loose callus of the frog is removed is the "live" frog, this is what grows the frog callus. The live frog is about a 16th of an inch thick and covers the digital cushion. It is pale grey in color as you can see towards the apex of the frog where the old callus still remains. The frog callus tubule's are like little hairs and if you zoom in on a photo you can see what looks like little hairs on this new surface, this is new callus growing. Frog callus is soft and mats down in a accordion like style front to back, front to back with about and 8th of an inch per fold.. Look at the frog callus your farrier trims off next time and you will be able to see all the tubule's matted down in this fashion!
So I will keep taking photos as this develops into new frog. It should be interesting!
4 comments:
Shedding frog - yep, seen that before. My horses also shed a lot of sole. Since my guys get a lot of exercise, they grow a lot of foot. Our ground and arena are pretty abrasive, so it just wears/breaks off, nothing more needed. They also self-trim as they get close to their trim dates - sometimes my trimmer needs to take very little off.
Great post Shirley!
Can you see how, after that frog came off, you can see a ton of excess sole on that hoof? Every time you scrape a sole and white, chalky stuff comes off - that's excess that needs to shed.
I usually do take off the chalky stuff. He lives on soft ground, so his feet don't exfoliate as well as they should.
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