Feet

A week after her trim and shoes. I wish her toes were a tad shorter, especially on that right front. You can really see the rings halfway down her feet in this photo marking where I discontinued the California Trace. Note the more oblong right foot.



In this photo you can see how her right front appears flatter and kind of offset to the outside. This is definetely a horse that needs to be on a hoof supplement. :/

 It is interesting to note that for once we are NOT the hottest state in the country at the moment. It certainly feels like it with the humidity.

Our barn farrier, Edmundo Martinez (the same guy from the post "Paso Fino Adventure"), came out today to do Lily's and Rose's feet. He drives all the way up from the Kendall/Homestead area, and is an awesome farrier. He's the only one I've used so far whom I can talk to, ask questions to, and he really tries to educate you. Lily's right front is flaring out again, and is starting to look like when she was barefoot last year and was being trimmed by a different farrier. I addressed it with Edmundo, and he explained that she is slightly club-footed on that hoof. He had an entire magazine in his truck on managing club feet in horses, which he offered me to read. I sat down and read the magazine from front to back while he did both Lily and Rose. He was literally doing everything by the book, and he showed me which parts of Lily's hoof were more symmetrical than they had been previously. As it turns out, Lily has actually improved, with the angles on her front feet only having a 2 degree difference, whereas before when he started doing her feet, there was a 5 degree difference! It's interesting how appearances can be deceiving. The rings she had last year on all 4 feet are coming back, however, with the changes in humidity that are classical Florida summer. I had her on California Trace for 9 months successfully-this supplement had made a HUGE difference in the quality of her hoof horn, but they seem to have changed the supplement formula and all of a sudden, after all that time, she stopped eating it. She would pick at her grain around the supplement and leave all of the supplement behind. If I mixed it in her beet pulp, she wouldn't eat it at all. So I took her off of the supplement, and her feet have suffered for it. I have been searching extensively for a similar formula to California Trace, but anything with a similar mineral or vitamin content is missing biotin, and anything with enough biotin has the wrong mineral content. Either that, or the supplement has iron in it, a huge no-no especially when your horse is already drinking well water (well water tends to be high in iron as it is, and contrary to popular belief, horses do NOT need supplemental iron!) I want to try Equine Challenge Grass Supplement, but have not been able to afford it. Judy suggested Focus HF, but after some research online, I have gone with Kauffman's Integri-Hoof. It is affordable at $27 for a 30 day supply, and is The Horse Journal's #1 choice both as a general supplement and as a hoof supplement. I may have just found my California Trace substitute...we shall see how her feet look in 3 months from now-those rings on her feet should have grown out some by then.

 I'm still debating whether to keep this farrier or go back to the previous one, or just try her out barefoot again altogether...I thought her feet looked better with the previous farrier, but there are other factors at stake here too: the rainy season has started, and the change from wet to dry and back again will wreck havoc on a horse's feet; she's been off her hoof supplement for 3-4 months; and I've been working her more to the right in an effort to get her more supple in that direction. So all of these things could be contributing to the changes in her feet. Around this time last year I tried her out barefoot and that was when her right front became misshapen...I'm wondering if it's more of an environmental & dietary factor contributing to the foot, as last year I didn't have her on the California Trace yet, and rainy season was in full swing. I'm not sure yet what to do. I look at Bali's gorgeous bare feet and wish I could do the same with Lily. Diana's farrier does a nice job, even though I've never heard of him before. I do like Edmundo and the fact that I can talk to him and ask questions, and he is constantly educating himself.

Bali's pretty bare feet, 3 days after their trim

I have not written about Rose in a long time because I simply have not ridden her in a long time. Her issues continue. Her right hip had been bothering her and she had been slightly off in the back because of it. Judy was giving her glucosamine injections per the veterinarian, but this had not made a significant difference. Judy started her on Recovery EQ, and no difference there either. The one thing that made a difference was placing her on the liquid supplement whose name I can't for the life of me remember (I just know Smartpak doesn't sell it) and her hips don't click anymore when she is being ridden. She has been in heart bar shoes for the last 7 months per the vet as well, and on Sunday Edmundo recommended placing Rose in regular aluminum shoes, since her heels are high enough that she will have enough support for her suspensories. He also showed Judy where the heart bar shoes were digging into Rose's heels, which may have been causing some of her current hind end issues, as the sore heels would have caused her to rock her weight back 24/7, making her hips sore in turn. After the first heart bar came off and the first aluminum shoe went on, Rose immediately seemed relieved and was much more cooperative for her other 3 feet. Hopefully this resolves some of her issues. Fingers crossed!

I rode Lily Western on Saturday again and since it was too hot to ride in the arena, even at 6:00 pm, I took her out on the trails where there is shade. We had a great workout-we did a good 45 minutes of solid trot work on the trails, alternating between extended and collected trot. Mentally she was really good, too-she stopped or paused to look at things, and tried to turn around a couple of times, but I only had to circle her once each time and send her forward, and she complied. We power-walked home. I'm falling in love with riding her Western, to tell the truth-since I can't feel every little time she tenses up, I'm a lot more relaxed if and when she acts up, which in turn makes her a lot more relaxed overall. I've actually looked at Western saddles on eBay, but it is only a thought I'm entertaining while I wait for my saddle to arrive. Hopefully I feel as secure in the Alta Escuela as I do in Dianne's Western saddle, and hopefully it really does fit Lily that well.

Ines has officially started jumping Pink after a good 6 months of flatwork. Since we don't have jumps at our barn, she's been paying an arena fee at one of the barns across the street and riding Pink there. Pink did great last time, except for a couple of stops, but once they warmed up and got going, Pink was fantastic. On Sunday we all went over to the other barn to watch the ride, but it was already infernally hot at 8:00 am, and Pink fatigued rapidly. There was a small box jump that she refused to go over. It was not fear-she simply came to a stop and would not even walk over it, despite being only about 2' tall. Both Judy and I observed that her reaction seemed to be more pain-induced: Pink has arthritis in her rear fetlocks for sure, and probably in her hocks as well, and sometimes has problems lifting her hind legs over fences. I'm sure the high humidity wasn't helping Pink's joints. Ines finally got Pink to trot over the small jump and ended the session there.  No one knows Pink's background other than she used to race, but there were many years in between that we know nothing about-she was found by the SPCA abandoned in a field with another mare, and was at the SPCA for about 6 months before Dianne adopted her. I doubt her name was ever changed, as she has always responded to "Pink" and will come when called by her name. She does know how to jump, is relaxed about it to the point of distraction, and is unfazed by funny-looking jumps, so at some point she was trained over fences. She has a terrific jump when you can get her to pay attention!

That afternoon, Judy and I rode Rose and Lily out to the park for a 45 minute walk. It was too hot to do much else, and for some reason, both mares were particularly skittish. I'm not sure why because there was nothing going on in the park-all was quiet, but I was surprised, as Lily had been so good the day before.

That evening all of us went out to a local burger place for dinner. It had been MONTHS since the whole barn went out like this-we used to do it every weekend, and it used to be one of the big highlights of the week for all of us. Even Charles came along this time, and him and Mark did some catching up. We had a great time. It's nice to have things back to normal at the barn.