Feet!!

The barefoot trimmer arrived at 8.30 this morning and left at 1.30pm.
He was very thorough, took the shoes off Corky and Anky very carefully and trimmed and measured them so that I can order boots and pads to protect their feet during the transition phase.
Corky has always had flat feet, we got her when she was eleven and her feet have never really changed. Every farrier has said the same, her heels are very low and her soles are very flat. And as the trimmer pointed out, years of shoeing hasn't helped. So we are optimistic that slowly the angle of her feet will improve and her heels will grow.






Anky has very good feet and has only been shod for a couple of years, but the trimmer noted how her toe had been left too long and the heels were becoming underrun(sp), he's quite confident though that in the long term she will have great feet and will be able to be ridden without boots.






Remy and Bonbon have good feet and should be fine to go without shoes in the future, although Bonbon has a couple of cracks on one hoof which I've queried with the farrier the last three trimmings, he told me not to worry about it, but neglected to tell me that she had a fungal infection inside the cracks. Although not serious this does need to be treated. This is going to be a slow process for Anky and Corky, but I'm sure it's a step in the right direction.

We also chatted about making their environment a better place for conditioning the feet, for example putting in an area of concrete which helps with wear, perhaps where they come up for water and an area of pea gravel which , in effect smoothes and polishes their feet. Of course there is only so much we can do to try and emulate their natural environment but I think we will give it a go.