Foxy is an eight year old welsh cob cross and he is our new pocket rocket! Diagnosed with navicular in 2007, prospects looked bad for this horse until he was given to Performance Barefoot’s Sarah. Sarah hopes to use him for cross country, show jumping and hunting.
Although only shod on the fronts, Foxy has contracted hooves on all four feet. The back of his hoof is very weak and he has a central sulcus infection in the front right. His frogs are very stretched and long. Sound in shoes which were wedged, we were fairly certain he would be fine when they were removed, even though he would be living on our hard core surfaces. The video below shows how toe first his landing was in the aluminium shoes. We will video him again in a few weeks to show how this toe first landing can change when the hoof is able to function more naturally.
May 2008
We have given Foxy a few weeks to settle in and get used to Paddock Paradise living. He is quite a nervous horse when handled on the ground so we have been working on gaining his confidence. He has gained weight and is now looking very posh. He has learnt how to pony out from Morris and Fari and we will start riding him in the next few weeks once he has filled out a little and gained a bit more fitness. He is sound and very capable on his hooves on most surfaces.
June 2008
Well! Our little chap loves jumping. We took him to our riding club show jumping rally and look how lovely he is! He is about to land on his navicular hoof!
July 2008
Foxy has had a busy month! A natural horsemanship clinic with Steve Halfpenny where he learnt to chill, more jumping clinics, a trip to Kelsall Farm ride with his new friend Heather, the very large Cleveland bay, and to end July, a ten mile ride organised by the Flint and Denbigh Hunt. See how his day went below :0).
Foxy has provided a really good opportunity to video his movement both in shoes and without. The videos below show him on the same day both in shoes and immediately after they were removed. We did not trim his hoof or alter it in anyway other than to remove the shoes. If you click on each video you can run them almost simultaneously and observe the way the shoes affected his normal gait.
Foxy’s hooves at the end of July, after his ten mile ride. Note the dramatic change of angle, the dark line shows where the shoes were removed and he started on our diet for performance bare hooves.
