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Charlie Too 13.2hh Welsh Section C 13 years old
Charlie (known as Charlie Too to avoid confusion) came to me in September 2006. He is another rehab case, the initial plan being to see what sort of level of soundness and work we could get with him, and then to put him out on loan. I don't actually think he is going anywhere, he fits in well with the other horses, is enough of a challenge to keep being interesting and my mum has her eye on him as a riding horse. Charlie came to me as a result of a slightly strange set of circumstances. I had received some money for doing some work which I would have been quite happy to have done for free. I had also advertised as part of the Peter Laidely three day trimming course in October, that day three would be 'shoe removal, initial trim and boot fitting day'. I had got several horses lined up to be demo horses for this day, but every one of them decided they couldn't wait any longer and had their shoes removed and went barefoot. It had got to four weeks before the course and I had no demo horse for the shoe removal day. In the meantime 'Berkshire Barefoot Anonymous' had started meeting which was basically a group of predominantly women, who periodically met down the pub to have a few drinks and to discuss everything barefoot. Conversation quite often turned to 'wouldn't it be nice to get a rescue horse from a sale and rehab it and re-home it.' I admit it, I suffer from peer-pressure, I am easily influenced and never need much excuse to get involved with something. So the seeds were sown and plans were quickly made to spend the money I had earnt and take Peter Laidely to Reading Horse Sales and buy a horse. At the same time, a post appeared on Enlightened Equitation (EE) asking for some help and advice about a horse called Charlie. Charlie had been out on loan to a young girl for the past six months and had started to trip and stumble, to the extent that he had a fall and the rider had fallen off. The parents of the girl decided he wasn't suitable any more and returned him to his owner. His owner was a lovely lady who cared a lot for Charlie, but due to some health problems, was unable to care for him on a day to day basis. A friend of his owner, J, had recently taken one of her horses barefoot, and had joined the Enlightened Equitation forum and asked if anyone had any ideas that could help Charlie. Charlie's vet had said he was old and tired and they should consider putting him down. Other helpful advice was that he should be sold as a second pony to someone that would sort him out, by that I took to mean hit him with a whip to make him go forwards and not trip. Charlie's owner was obviously very worried about this advice and didn't really know what to do for the best. J and her mother went to see Charlie and took him in to the school to see what was going on with him. J got on him in the school and walked him around for about 10 minutes, she felt that he didn't want to go forward and also that he wanted to roll. They went back the second day and J's mother long lined him, and he did actually go down in the school and lay flat out, like he was dead. After a few minutes he got back up again and J gave him some massage which he seemed to enjoy. At this point the thread on EE was getting quite long, and to make matters worse, pictures were posted!! Charlie is a very handsome chap, he has a real look at me quality and his colouring is quite unusual. It seemed very strange that he could go from a horse that had been hacking out with his owner for several hours at a time, and being forward going enough to be ridden in a pelham, to one that didn't really want to move forward and was tripping, stumbling and laying down. And then I discovered that Reading Horse sales had been moved so it no longer took place during Peter's visit, and that Charlie was shod all round!! I think that you should just go with your instincts, the pictures on the EE thread showed a pony that wasn't necessarily moving fantastically, but looked in good health. He certainly didn't look like something that was old and tired and that needed to be shot. So I emailed J and asked if his owner would consider letting me have him. After an exchange of emails and a few phone conversations we agreed that he would come down from Lancashire to Berkshire. Unfortunately it coincided with a very busy time at work for me and we worked out that for what it would cost in diesel to drive up and back in a horsebox, I could pay for him to come down in a commercial transporter. So having never met me, and me never having met Charlie, he came down. His owner, J, and her mother also came down by car, which was fantastic as we got the chance to meet face to face and they could see the yard and be reassured that we weren't completely mental, just slightly strange. It's very hard to have a horse with obvious white line disease, that wasn't fantastically shod, and needed reshoeing, and not remove the shoes and get on with the job. Neil had taken the news of the impending arrival quite well. I made sure I told him in front of company so he couldn't go too mental. In October Charlie went to the Peter Laidely barefoot clinic and was a little star, he enjoyed all the attention and took everything in his stride. Discussing the meaning of life, apparently it's carrots!
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The benefit of getting a horse specifically as a barefoot project, and having him go barefoot at a clinic, is that there is no end of hoof photos of the initial trim!! Front Feet Pre Trim - 8th October 06 I'm not sure exactly how long the shoes have been on at this point, I think they were done not too long before I got Charlie, so I would say they were probably no more than 6 weeks old. As shod feet go, this picture is fairly standard, white line disease is visible around the nail holes and if someone who wasn't interested in barefoot were to look at them, they would probably just remark that he needs shoeing.
This is a more lateral view of the front feet. The heels are underun and there is forward toe. There are chips and the hoof wall is just starting to overlap the shoe on the near fore.
Near Fore Pre Trim Lateral View - 8th October 06 A closer view of the near fore, lateral view. You can see how close the heel bulbs are to the ground in this picture.
Near Fore Pre Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 The shod solar view shows contracted heels and a frog that has a very deep central sulcus extending back towards the bulbs of the heels. The black around the nail holes indicates white line disease, combined with the state of the frogs, the length of toe and contracted heels, the signs are that this is not going to be a fantastic hoof when the shoe comes off.
This picture shows how far the central sulcus extends back between the heel bulbs.
Near Fore Lateral View Post Shoe Removal - 8th October 06 This picture was taken immediately after the shoe was removed and no trimming has taken place. The hoof wall is chipped at ground level, you can just make out some black discoloured areas around the nail holes. Luckily the length of hoof wall means that a lot of this will trim out.
Near Fore Mid Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 The hoof has been picked out with a cleanout knife. Flaky exfoliating sole has come away, this has not been trimmed with a knife, simply scraped. White line disease is clearly visible, on the lateral side of the hoof there is some separation, the hoof wall looks very brittle.
Near Fore Mid Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 This is a closer view of the separation, where the end of the knife is showing in the picture there is quite a deep 'vein' of white line disease. This is a black tarry type smelly goo. The frog is prolapsed and has been trimmed slightly. This will compress in time, probably only a few days but we will need to be careful what surface we walk Charlie on while this is happening as he could be uncomfortable. Normally the hoof wall would be left level with the frog, however the frog is already lower than the hoof wall, and the hoof wall is not viable, it is going to chip. This is not an ideal hoof to transition as no one part of it is particularly strong.
Near Fore Mid Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 This picture shows just how much lower the frog is than the wall, even though the frog has been taken down somewhat. It's a difficult one as you do not want to remove lots of frog, ideally you only ever want to tidy a frog up, but you don't want a frog lower than the wall, but if the wall isn't there, what do you do? The white line disease is still visible, this is going to need lots of soaks with Milton.
Near Fore Solar View Post Trim - 8th October 06 A solar view of the finished trim. The separation on the lateral side is still visible, the nail holes are almost out, they will trim out next time. The heels are weak and the frog will pack down, it will become fuller in time. There is uniform hoof wall thickness although the walls are not thick. This is quite a big trim, I use the term 'assertive'. I would expect Charlie to be careful about where he walked for about five days, Peter didn't think that we would have to use boots to get him out to the field, and thought he would be fine. Peter was right, I think he had a word in Charlie's ear! Charlie is actually moving as well, if not a bit better than he did in shoes. This is not me looking at this through rose tinted spectacles, Charlie's movement in shoes was not great, I can see that he would trip and stumble when being ridden, at times he walks 'three track' but with his front feet on one track and his back legs wide apart. Without shoes he seems more aware of where his feet going so to me this is an improvement.
Near Fore Post Trim - 8th October 06 The completed trim. The rasp marks show how much flare has been removed, the Berkshire Bevel has been applied. Apart from the visible white line disease, the hoof already looks much better.
Front Feet Post Trim - 8th October 06 The finished articles. The near fore is not twisting in, it is the angle the picture was taken at. I am ecstatic about the improvement in these feet even in the first trim, it's a huge difference.
Off Fore Pre Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 The off fore is as bad, if not worse than the near fore.
Near Hind Pre Trim Solar View - 8th October 06 And the near hind is even worse!!
Near Hind Solar View Post Trim - 8th October 06 But it looks a lot better following a trim! I'm not going to say anything about these feet apart from, white line disease, white line disease, white line disease (do you get what I'm saying?!). I feel like I'm getting OCD about white line disease but it's amazing how prevalent it is, considering many farriers (mine included) either deny it's existence in your horses hoof, or don't see it as a problem. Actually compared to the other feet, this one is not as bad, it's all relative though.
Following the trim Charlie had a Milton soak, I had forgotten my velcro so we used the high tech method of parcel tape, it worked quite well but it was a pain undoing it all each time, we changed the Milton solution three times, soaking for 10 minutes.
January 2007 How can I loose a whole USB stick of photo's?!! If I find them I will put them in. These pictures are between trims, Neil hates it that I have put up a number of pictures of what he considers an untrimmed hoof, but I think it's useful to have a record of what the foot was like before you trimmed it. Near Fore 27th January 2007 Charlie's nail holes are no longer visible, his periople, the bottom of which you can see as a wavy line at the top of the hoof is very large, some people lightly rasp this off but we tend to leave it alone. It's not an issue although it is quite rough and it can catch you when you pick his feet out. The roll is established, hopefully this will get bigger in time as his wall thickness increases.
Near Fore Lateral View 27th January 2007 The lateral view shows that we have a bit of flare at the toe, it is also slightly forward, it will come back in time, as will the heels. You can see the depth of the periople in this picture. Considering it's been a relatively short time, it's not a bad foot.
Near Fore Lateral View 27th January 2007 The solar view is quite encouraging in that the foot has kept it's shape well, there is not a weird flap of frog near the point of the frog, that's a bit of soggy cardboard bedding that has unfortunately stuck to his foot. There is some crazing either side of the point of the frog, an indication that the foot may be thinking about some exfoliating, I'm not going to get excited about this though we will see what happens. On the left hand side of the picture there is a horizontal line running across the bar, this is the line between laminar and non-laminar bar. On the right hand side of the photo there looks like there is a line between the inner and outer wall, Jaime Jackson calls this 'ravel' as in the hoof wall 'unravelling'. This should trim out soon. I'm pleased with this foot, apart from the ongoing battle with WLD things are happening, it looks like it is going to be a 'strong' hoof.
Charlie is the first of my horses to try Aquamax bedding. I like this bedding, he is very wet in his stable and the surface of the bed is always dry, it also keeps his feet nice and dry and hard. I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that he has kept his frogs in the wet weather, they have not disappeared like some of the others have. I may be worried in the summer that the bed is too drawing, but at the minute I like it. He has the back half of his stable bedded down with rubber matting and Aquamax, the front half of the stable is bare concrete, this is where his hay and water is. Doing it this way means he gets to walk about on smooth concrete which will help condition his feet, this is useful this time of year as the dark nights mean we can't get out on the road as much as we would like. At the minute we are trying to keep up with regular Milton soaks and trying to get out walking in hand as much as possible. We are now up to about 30 minutes in hand with no problems.
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