Foot porn.... Week 25 comparison

It's been a while since I did any comparison photos so thought now was a good time to get the camera out! So get ready for some foot porn but my photography skills still need some practise ;0)

I've kept to just the left fore for comparative purposes but if anyone wants to see the full set let me know. His hind feet are far more concave and the angle changes are barely visible so it is interesting to compare those too.

Lateral - Week 20 vs Week 25

The lateral shots show the growth and the development at the back of the foot - I hadn't noticed this as much looking at them every day but you can see from his feet that he is using them properly now. I think we will be all new hoof around week 30-32.

Sole - Week 20 vs Week 25

Sole shots show the deeper collateral grooves which coincides with a reduction in sensitivity as the sole should be thickening. The frog is looking in better shape than it was five weeks ago but we are still a long way from the chunky frogs I lust after!! His central sulcus is something I need to keep an eye on but I can't get my hoof pick into it so it is ok for now.

I also did some slo mo footage to check he is still landing heel first and I'm pleased to report we are mostly heel first but there were a couple of flat landings on his left fore. Nothing toe first though so that's good enough for me right now.

Plodding on...

It's been a quiet week for Buddy after our exciting competition report although it was a bit stressful for me! So I decided to be selfish and treated myself to a trip to Badminton on Sunday which acted as a real inspiration. I am very lucky to have a 4* rider on my team and although he started out as my instructor (8 years ago!) I now consider him a good friend so it was lovely to meet up with him and get the course from a riders point of view (he was on the waitlist for Badders this year but am hoping we'll be luckier next year). I also walked some of the grassroots course and thought it looked great, I would so love to be there one day - if only you could enter it like a normal event! Buddy and I will need to do some work on our dressage to get those elusive scores but maybe if we work hard enough we could qualify....

In the meantime we are just continuing with lots of hacking and I'm just enjoying being with Buddy. Our grazing isn't super rich which has meant Buddy hasn't shown any major signs of being sensitive but its something that is always on my mind. So every time he gimps on a stone I'm wondering if that's because he's feeling his feet and if he has a day where he's a bit ploddy at the beginning of a ride that also makes me think.

The latest arrivals at the yard, 5 gorgeous kittens

His feet are still not as strong as they will be as we still have about half an inch of old growth left and as I'm on livery I cannot be as regimented with his routine as I would like to be so I'm tweaking his diet as best I can and just see if it makes a difference. I've upped his salt again from 25ml to 50ml which he seems to tolerate and it seemed to make a big difference when we hacked on Tuesday as he was striding out and stomping over everything (including an incredibly stoney driveway) leaving his shod companion for dust! I'm also going to start adding 15ml of sodium bicarbonate to see if that makes a difference over those pesky lone stones. I'll let you know if I notice a change.