Empress's feet

I am forever forgetting to bring my camera along with me for pictures for the blog, but I snapped a few on my phone about halfway through Empress's trimming session yesterday.


Her feet are coming along very well. I am very happy with the new growth--it is coming in at just the right angle and her soles look terrific. She is such a good girl and patiently allows me to trim her while she's laying down--it's still a bit too painful for her to stand and let me trim her, though I can get her to give me her feet long enough to clean them out--a significant improvement from when she first got here!

I forgot to get before shots, but here is the one foot I hadn't trimmed yet. You can see her soles are in great shape, obvious healthy hoof wall growth and frog growth is good--I'd like to see it a bit wider but that will come as her heels spread--they were very contracted when she got here. They look tons better now, so the frogs will soon follow.

Empress taking it easy while I trim her up. She is definitely due for a grooming session today.

Trimmed foot. I couldn't find my hoof knife, so I had to pare back the frog with the nippers as best as I could--I'll get to her frogs later this week. Notice the healthy pocket her sole makes--this is really terrific structure. She has a great shape, too, but notice how the whole foot seems to have slid forward and the large amount of space between the tip of the frog and the hoof wall. This will have to grow out, unfortunately. As you can see from the white line I have filed back a lot of the hoof wall on her toe from the top and gave her a mustang roll. This makes it easier for her to walk while waiting for her angles to correct. I wish I had taken pictures of her feet before--there is noticable improvement in her heels. We just need to get the entire structure moved back and she'll be in great condition.

Here's Hope, very concerned about what I'm doing to her friend ...

Picture of the hoof from the side. You can see she still looks very long, but I trimmed her back as far as I could go without soring her. It will take time to get her angles corrected, but you can see the mustang roll from here, as well as the new growth.

Picture with new growth indicated. You can see how it is at a different angle from the rest of the foot, which is exactly what we need to achieve. We're on the right track! :)