18th November 2008  Egg Shoes....
A lot of firsts today, the animation on the left shows Robert fitting an egg shoe to Sultan to ease his navicular pain.  You can see that the shoe is, unsurprisingly, egg shaped and lifts Sultan's heel off the ground and changes the angle of his foot to ease the pressure in his navicular bone (see yesterday's blog for a picture of the anatomy of a horse's foot.)

As you can see, Robert heats the shoe to fit it to Sultan's foot then trims the frog to ensure a good fit and that the pressure is distributed evenly through the hoof.  He then nails it just as an ordinary shoe.

The results were quite amazing. For such a long time, probably two years, Sultan has been taking short and stiff steps in the field, especially when he first begins to move.  To suddenly see him striding out, even as he is grazing, just as the other horses do is a moving sight for me.  Although he can be difficult and demanding, seeing him obviously in pain has been a difficult thing to watch over the months and I know that as we have sought a diagnosis for the cause Stephen has been concerned that it might be an issue that would lead Sultan to be unworkable, a miserable end for a horse who has competed and worked all his life. 

If the shoe works, there is no reason Sultan shouldnt carry on and be a contributing part of the Barrack Lane Suffolk Team for as long as he is otherwise fit.  We will try it out tomorrow......