Jedi Barefoot Update

I thought it was about time I post an update about the lovely Jedi's tootsies. It's been an interesting month of watching and worrying about the sensitivity he's experiencing on any one day. The structure of his hooves appears to have strengthened quite a bit, judging from these new pics, and the soles of all feet have been very busy peeling big chunks of dead sole.

I managed to take some pics as he was eating tonight, so only feet on ground at the moment, not any underneath photos at this stage. Just for interest's sake, he's now eating Hygain Ice with a small amount of lucerne chaff, 15g of MSM and one scoop of Equilibrium. They have a round bale of meadow hay in the paddock at the moment as they're in a sacrifice paddock for at least another couple of weeks to let the grass recover from our long hot dry summer, so he's on ad lib quality hay and it shows.

At the moment (as in, today!) he seems to be not too sensitive. I'm keeping a close eye on his 'footiness' with a couple of comps coming up in a month or so. But they're looking pretty good, as you'll see below:

NS Hind. You can see the old bruise above the little re-section that's working its way down. The foot isn't quite balanced yet, but the flare isn't as bad as before.

Same foot from the side showing a far more correct angle starting to happen. There is a clear ridge a couple of centimetres from the coronet band where the new hoof is growing down.

The hind feet from the back. The O/S hind is clearly still unbalanced with the outside heel higher but getting better. Both feet are much more correctly using the heels.

NS fore (forward while eating). Always the golden child of the four, looking very solid and balanced. The ridge halfway down is really clear and shows where the new hoof is growing in.

Same foot from the front. Interesting how the ring of new hoof lifts up on the inside, showing there was a bit of flare under that line.

NS fore (back while eating). Starting to look a lot better, heels coming up.

The re-section in that hoof is growing out and the seedy toe appears to be clearing up nicely. The flare is growing out well and the hoof above the ridge is tightening up really well.

So, onwards and upwards! Next comp is Canberra in three weeks, followed by Berrima the week after. I've decided to just stick with Intro for both, rather than push it with Jedi too quickly. No need to rush and I think he needs to build a lot more confidence before we make the leap (pun intended!) to Prelim at Albury. That's the plan!