Barefoot Stories

Tosh - Laminitis Improvements in less than six months!

Tosh is a ten year old highland gelding living in North Aberdeenshire. When his owner Lesley first saw him, he was living in cattle pasture and had clearly been having a big problem with grass for a long time. Her instincts were to bring him home, so we could see what his response was to rehab.

This picture is a couple of months after he arrived, and you can see the long term laminitic stance is still present. He was still all cresty and lumpy too. He won the prize for the flattest, longest, most disconnected feet in the world. His previous owner hadn't recognised his laminitis, he was very overweight, footy, and had lots of event lines. His hind feet were if anything longer and more deformed than his fronts, with a massive laminar wedge, and separation right round to his heels. Tosh had a lot of changes in front of him, if he had a chance of being a riding pony again.

Over the next few months, Tosh had four weekly trims, he was fitted with boots and pads all round, and he had a big dietary change. His grazing was restricted (long, old pasture) and he had free choice hay throughout the summer. Lesley changed his diet to include Simple Systems Metaslim, and cut out anything with added molasses.

Here are some of the changes we have seen in Tosh over the last five months:

Within just four weeks, Tosh responded by growing 1cm of tighter new hoof.

This progress has steadily continued. Each month another centimetre of new hoof. You can see the two major event lines strongly marked as they grow down.

These are his most recent pics - Feb 08. Now the new hoof is re-suspended in the hoof capsule, time to start work! More updates to come.