Dance 

"Just a little out of balance..."

Dec 26 , 2008

Dance is one of three horses owned by Dottie. Dance is SeeMe's daughter. She is a four year old registered Paint. Dance's feet are healthy but in the last six weeks have grown some heel as well as worn some toe back. My plan is to just continue to trim her flaring quarters and heels along with keeping her heels low and balanced. Dance's picture was taken at dusk so her eyes have "red eye". This picture was taken after the trim.

Dance's hooves are in good shape but just need some adjustments done to the heel area to get them back in balance. The frog also appears to have some issues going on in the heel area but it has been wet and muddy conditions in the pasture that may be the culprit. The outside heel is taller than the inner and the frog also seems to be a bit overgrown in that area as well. Also her bars were somewhat long and laid over so I did have to pay some attention to them this trim. I do not like to scoop out the bars but just leave them the same height as the wall around them. They will pop right back up if you trim them too much. They are more or less a symptom of an inbalance somewhere else.

For a better comparison of the before and after differences here are side-by-side shots:

The lateral and dorsal views were on soft ground so its hard to see exactly what is going on there. The hoof wall itself appears healthy on the outside with no apparent rings or signs of separation.

From this lateral shot it is hard to see the wall where it meets the ground. I took the picture showing more of the leg to demonstrate how nice the coronet angle and pasterns look now with the heels lower.

From the heel view you can see that the walls have been lowered all the way around and the heels as well as the bars are in check. On the outside wall/sole junction the horn is very crumbly in that spot so I didn't take away any more wall but just left it so the hoof could remain balanced.

The oblique view just shows that the walls and heels are in need of trimming. The frog is robust but could still use some of Pete's Goo in the heel region. Right now in Kansas we've been challenged by the weather so its hard for Dottie to get out there every day and put the Goo on all the horse's frogs. Last week it was 10 degrees. Brr! The oblique view again shows the concavity of the hoof. You can also see where I've taken away some of the bar that was sticking up. I don't normally like to take much away from the bars since they pop up for a reason. Its telling me that the hoof needs support in that area. Also notice I put a heavy roll on the wall almost back to the heel trying to rasp away some of the flare on the outside wall.

The solar view just shows that the entire wall needs to be shortened and leveled as well as the quarters relieved. The outside wall has quite a flare to it in the quarter/heel area that I addressed.