Its the heel balance. There's a twist in her step and the frog is showing it. The red line is frog centered and pointing directly at 12 o'clock at the toe. The green line shows what the frog is really doing. (ofcourse the bone in the hoof is not broken in the middle, but the frog is flexible and showing the twist in her step) The front half of the frog has got the right idea (lines parallel), but the back half is being dictated to by the heel balance of a higher heel on the right side (jamming up) and a high inside. The inside heel lands first and the brunt stays on the inside of the hoof. The outside is splatting, its just that the trim has not allowed the outside heel to splat as well, (heel is not flared) but the outside quarter is getting splatted, hence the separation. Usually, the higher heel is more pulled forward than the lower one, the pull being stronger than the toe, but your trimming has started to correct it, so seeing that is a bit more complicated, along with drawing these lines to try to show you. As it is right now, the inside heel is higher and jamming, the outside heel is lower and pulled more forward as shown in the 2nd pic. The inside jammed heel has been made to follow the sole plane, the outside heel is not. You can't lower the outside heel, or you make the inside even higher in comparison, but you can tweak the angle on that platform just a hair to agree with the sole plane more without lowering it.
As for the heel shots, I've ignored the wall on the outside of the separation as it is useless and not supporting the horse. You've got new growth coming in tight (thanks to the bevel) The green lines on the heel shots show how taking the wall down to live sole on that side will correct the medial/lateral balance. Its not much, but should help. Its the way she moves. She's normal. Even though she has a leg placed on each side of her chest, she walks a tight rope when she places her feet down. (walk her down the road and walk backwards in front of her and see it) This automatically jams up the inside. Which does get higher and starts the jam and splat. The hoof has grown support, a high inside that she has asked for by the way she uses it, but the hoof is not quite happy about this. This jam and splat has contorted things and has the frog groove higher on the inside than the outside, frog pointing towards the higher side and leaving 12 o'clock and the separation from the splat showing. It could be that you've had this jam and splat fairly corrected, but it persists because of the way she uses it. It will always be pushing this scenario and you must always be aware of it. It's just harder to see now that the trim has things fairly well in hand and its not screaming so loud at you, but its still there in a miniscule way and the unbalance that it causes has the same twisting effect on the inner structures. This is why I say that the heel balance is so critical and how it starts off a slew of related contortions on the hoof...and how unbalanced heels alone can cause discomfort.
So, if you breathe on the outside heel platform and change the angle to bring the landing back a hair and bring the inside heel and wall down as shown, this will help to get things flying straight in the hoof again.
It's the same old jam and splat, just harder to see, not as severe, but the twist going on, on the inner structures and discomfort from it none the less.
Hope this helps...
This post has been edited by missyclare: Jul 19 2009, 08:31 AM
Bad Separation, I'm Pretty Worried, Lyra is sound in boots, but look at the FR hoof
Jul 19 2009, 01:33 AM
