Hmmmm....

The horse is not as footsore as she has lead me to believe... Considering the '0-to-60'-style acceleration she performed yesterday when I let her go in the field. The way she galloped across the field to her friends, broncoing as she went, and did a victory lap around the others, indicates to me that it can't be that bad...

I lunged her today and, to me, she was looking better. She's a little stiff looking, still, especially on the right rein, so I didn't ask for canter (only did a little test canter on the better, left rein) but asked her to trot in a large circle...mostly walking her. 

The soreness must have been a little dink to the sole from gravel or something. I don't think it's an abscess.

It must be mentioned that I am not currently riding Rainbow through gravelly bits and do try to avoid any challenging or stony terrain as much as possible. On our last hack we had to do a few yards of path that was a bit stony, but I let R pick her way and always took her to the grass verge on the side wherever possible, so she didn't have to do many steps on sharp stones. 

But this has taught me that, for now, when the ground is also dry and hard, I will need to be extra-vigilant about the ground. And if I feel that boots will help us in the interim, with longer hacks, etc. then I will most definitely get a pair, as don't want to make R do things if she's not comfortable. I will talk to the hoof trimmer about this when I see him later this month.

Here, in the meantime, I thought it'd be interesting to compare some pics from 3–4 weeks ago, when the shoes came off, to today.

Three weeks ago...

Today....