Frog Development

Just wanted to show some photos of the changes Lutine's frogs have gone through since we got her:

Here's the start point:







You can see the the hoof is so squeezed together through contraction that there is a crack all the way up through the heel bulbs, well above the hair line.














Second photo showing near side frog at the outset. Doesn't look tooooo bad - you would think you can see the bottom of the central sulcus from here. errrrr no - it started to open up and suddenly I found I could put my index finger down the crack up to the first knuckle!

This is the offside fore after a few weeks (March 2006) you can see that the heels bulbs are moving apart though they're still pretty contracted.

Heel bulbs have moved even further apart in this photo.

Now for the nearside fore: As you can see, the crack is starting to open up.

It's that deep, you get an echo from it!

Fast forwarding to August 2006:

Off fore, much better shape - but it's a bit wimpy. Doesn't look particularly calloused or tough - sure enough, they fell apart in the wet weather over winter.

But I will expect them to improve year on year, especially as she gets back into regular exercise rather than just turn out in the field.