09/12/2020
A bit of late night shoeing for 🐴
Molly had been suffering from an intermittent lameness in both front limbs for approximately 6 weeks, throughout this time she had many lameness assessments, x-rays and nerve blocks, fortunately an MRI scan gave us some answers. Molly has some arthritic changes to her distal inter-phalangeal joint (DIP joint/coffin joint).
We worked very closely with the vets throughout and decided on a plan of action together.
To reduce excess strain and pressure on the DIP joint and surrounding structures we needed to ease break over, for this we decided on a pair of Kerckhaert Roller Motions, due to their all round bevelled edges.
Since we started working on Molly she has suffered from low, contracted heels, due to this we also decided to add some modifications to the shoes. One of which was to double fuller each heel of the shoes, this allowed us to give sufficient coverage to the heels and fit wide enough to cover where we would like the heels to be, while giving the limb the correct support. Molly is a dressage horse, so works predominantly on a surface, this modification was also important as it prevents the heels sinking so much on the soft arena surface, this reduces strain on the Deep Digital Flexor Tendon (which passes over the DIP joint).
The other modification we made to prevent strain on the DDFT was to grind down the toe of the shoe, creating a slight graduation, this has also aided in correcting Molly’s hoof pastern axis.
Since her diagnosis and shoeing Molly is showing great improvement and is thoroughly enjoying being back in work!
