Thalia’s Front Hooves: 2wks and the Rehab is happening

These photos illustrate how the horse grows a new hoof with correct mechanics if it is set up by the trimmer to heal itself. Thalia’s front hooves were first trimmed by me 2 weeks ago on January 12.  I waited 2 weeks and did a touch-up trim on those front hooves today and took new photos.  I am very pleased with her progress.  She has a long way to go but good stuff is happening. Of particular note please notice how the hairline is starting to achieve a smooth straight slope to the ground if viewed laterally (from the outside).   The bulge in the hairlines in both the right and left front heels will not disappear until a tighter laminae connection is made further down the hoof wall as it grows out.  This tighter connection will “lift” the coffin bone back into the correct position within the hoof capsule , lowering the now elevated back wings of the coffin bone and leveling the bottom of the coffin bone,  and she will achieve concavity and straight hairlines  in her front hooves as this happens. A couple of things in her favor for a sooner rather than later recovery, she has…

Laminits and And The Consequences: Thalia

Thalia’s hooves. Where do I begin? I knew she’d had laminitis (active) in mid-October 2015 due to eyewitness reports. What I’ve discovered, now that she is with me, is she has been having laminitis attacks, off and on, for at least a year. And without supportive care. The coffin bones (P3) in her front hooves have descended so close to the ground that if the compacted sole on the bottom of her hooves were removed (which I’d normally do) her coffin bone would penetrate right through the live sole. What this means is that she has had attack after attack after attack of laminitis and her laminae have torn apart all the way up to just short of the coronary band. Laminae are much like velcro in the way the sensitive tissue adheres to the insensitive horn of the hoof wall. This happens over time, a slow insidious degenerative process. How am I so sure of this? The state of her hoof tells me this. First lets look at the outer wall.   Each one of those rings represents a laminitis attack. Rings in and of themselves don’t necessarily say “laminitis”, however this clue, along with the angle of her…

Meet Thalia CF 1992gm, Davenport, A Rehabilitation Project

Meet Thalia CF, a 23yo 100% Davenport mare of very old lines whom Edouard stepped up to give a home to and also hopes to get a foal from in the future. He officially became her owner when I recently picked her up in Virginia and brought her to my place for “rehabilitation”. All Edouard and I knew about the mare aside from her pedigree, before picking her up, was her age and that she’d had laminitis (founder) in the early fall of 2015. We had seen a couple of pictures of her taken by friends who visited the farm where she lived with her then owner. They had noted Thalia, at that time, resting in a laminitic stance. This resting stance is recognized by the front legs being extended out in front of the body to take weight off the toes, and the hind legs camped under the body to support the weight of the body. This was in mid-October 2015. Thalia had recovered from that laminitic episode enough to be safely trailered by the time I picked her up on December 28, 2015. What I saw when she was led out to the trailer, for her trip to…

Hay Analysis: What the output looks like

Above on the left is the relevant portion of the output provided you by Equi-Analytical for their (601) Equi-Tech hay analysis.  For purposes of education I also added a test for Selenium (not part of the Equi-Tech analysis). I already know I live, and my hay comes from, a selenium deficient area of the United States (and Canada where this hay came from).  On the right side is a portion of the spreadsheet I have for analyzing the diet in total,including all feeds and supplements.   I’ve selected just the hay portion for the purposes of this post.  It shows what 20lbs of hay/day provides the horse.  20lbs/9kg per day is what you would feed a 1000lb/454kg horse if feeding at 2% of desired body weight. As you can note from the analysis on the right,  this hay provides way too much Iron (Fe) and Manganese(Mn) at a gram each and not near enough Copper (Cu) or Zinc (Zn) to combat excessive uptake of those two potentially toxic minerals.  How do I know there is too much Fe and Mn and not enough Cu or Zn?  I’ve used  the National Research Council Nutrient Requirements of Horses, 6th Edition to create my spreadsheet with modifications suggested by…