Feet. Always Feet.

He is the best at remembering

No foot, no horse.

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...

And so on.

You know why so much colloquial equine wisdom is lamenting shitty feet?

Because they are the worst thing ever.

Ugh. Courage actually has decent-ish feet. He has heels on all four and the shape isn't terrible. He hasn't lost a lot of shoes and hasn't really presented any soundness issues thus far.

But this summer has been absolute hell on his poor feet. Despite all the other horses in the barn being COMPLETELY FINE, he isn't. His feet cannot handle the wet/dry cycle of (GET THIS) a little bit of dew on the grass in the morning.

Put it on thick

Yeah. That. At his last farrier appointment, his feet were flared and chipped out and all manner of awful above his still-attached shoes and he hadn't even grown very much hoof. I tried moving his turnout time back a little combined with adding bag balm to his hoof walls every single morning to act as a moisture barrier and only turning him out on the field with grass that was quite short to minimize potential dampness.

And yeah, apparently that got us nowhere. Homeboy is trying to completely disintegrate his feet again. Like 4 weeks out from his last shoe job. Sooooooo.

No benefit other than looking shiny.

New plan. Courage spends the first few hours of turnout on a drylot with some hay. When the grass in the fields is well and truly dry, then and only then, he may go out.

It's such a frustrating balance to strike. I really do believe strongly in turnout for horses' brains and bodies, and I cannot spend all of my management energy on making the farrier perfectly happy, BUT I have to take good care of his feet or there's no point in having a horse in the first place.

Maybe I should have gotten a draftie.

Taking Off the Gym Shoes

It's been a slow news week for me. Cuna is busy standing in a field, which he loves, but it's terrible blog fodder. C-rage (his gangster name) was a superstar last Wednesday. I gave him Thursday off and he came in without a shoe on Friday. 

Fancy pony!

So. My weekend was spent watching other people horse show and waiting for the farrier. Again, really exciting reading.

It's probably just as well. That dull grey in the background of this photo is some pretty intense smoke from all the wildfires around here. Breathing=fail. My head hurts and I have a sore throat, yay.

Chillin' in the barn, dwags

Anyways. The smoke is disgusting, but it's still hot out. In order to give our farrier the best possible chance of doing a good job, it was a good day to learn to stand (dun dun dun ) INSIDE THE BARN. Up til now, I've just used the outdoor crossties because they're closer and I'm lazy and it never rains here, but winter will come eventually and I'll want him trained by then.

The advantage to my BOs thinking that Courage is the kindest and most adorable OTTB of all time is that they have taught him a very useful skill: cookie consumption. He was a little squirrely when we first went in to the barn, but then he was all "Hang on. I just stand here and you feed me cookies and give me scratches?" and I'm like, "Yes, that's the idea." And he's like "Why the h#11 didn't I do this sooner?"*

The jump jump farrier is so slow

I had a nice chat with the farrier about how his leg conformation changes his hoof growth and the difference between sport horse and race horse shoeing. We ended up pulling his remaining three shoes and putting a whole new set on. I don't know that he's ever worn steel shoes before. After the farrier put his fronts on, Courage picked up his right front and tried to chew the shoe.

Goofus.

I was expecting it, but I was strictly admonished that a certain little bay horse now only goes out or is ridden in bell boots, especially as his hooves/balance start transitioning to a whole new way of going. Sigh. Will I never escape bell boot hell?

I will say that I think of Courage as a veritable midget, especially next to the behemoth that is Cuna. After seeing him inside the actual barn alongside a normal-sized horse, I guess he's sort of big (in an adorable, cuddly, tiny, badass sort of way).

*He's a track veteran. Language is what it is.

Update and PICTURES!!!

Thank you all for you comments and feedback on my last post. Cuna got the weekend off, had some shoeing changes, and I'm all crazy-go-nuts with a bottle of mtg. We'll see how things go.

I will say--the thing about a turnout-hating tb is that if he has two days off, even with turnout, his hind legs look horrible on the third day. Nothing like pulling him out for the farrier (AFTER cold hosing and scrubbing) and saying, "No, really. It's a front end problem." Har.

Regardless, we have pictures from the dressage show!

Owning the sparkle browband look!

Salute

Dressage stuff

Totally in tune

Totes did that, bitches.

It was a fun experience to be there. The next show dressage show I was planning to hit is apparently recognized, and I flat out refuse to pay to join organizations so Cuna can do dressage. He hates it, I'm not a fan. We'll see what we come up with.

In the mean time... anyone else's horse have his own way of saluting the judge?

Behind

As you may have noticed, I have not been prompt with getting pictures of my sales list for y'all. My apologies.

Monday was my birthday and Cuna and I went on a super fun trot in the hills and explored new trails. He was not as enthused about the new trails as I was. I'd go to turn off the main loop and he'd be like, "That is not the way."

Me: "I know, but I want to go this way."

Him: "I really think we should stay on the right trail."

Me: "Cuna, you get bored doing the same thing all the time. Live a little."

Him: "Ok, but you must acknowledge that I said this is not the way."

Me: "Fine."

Despite his misgivings, we made it back just fine. Fancy that.

Anyways. That was my excuse for yesterday.

Since the farrier is scheduled to come out tomorrow, Cuna was right on time to do this:

Yep. Again. I mean, I don't mind so much since it is literally the day before he's due, but seriously horse.

I suspect it would be worth my while to move his farrier appointments a little closer together. He's been less careful with his feet and more prone to tripping all around the past week or so. Oh princess pony. Really?




He is now sporting the ever-stylish foot bandaid. The good news for both of us is that due to previous escapades of his, I have tons of experience at wrapping his hooves. No turnout or riding today and he'll get put back together tomorrow morning, hopefully just in time for our lesson.


Oh... and I will take pictures tonight, even if I have to do it in crappy artificial light.

Rainy Day

I was going to do this great post about the fabulous ride I had yesterday. I mean, it was amazing. Those of you who assured me that I'd have more time for my horse once I quit working at the barn were totally correct. She's doing some great dressage work.

But then there was today. All I can say is that I'm so thankful my farrier doesn't charge by the hour. I would be totally broke. The weather has been changing. This morning was cool and rainy. I showed up at the barn with just enough time to do one thing before the farrier arrived. I chose hand grazing over lunging, since I thought Izzy would like the grass and I probably shouldn't use the turnouts, since they were wet.

Right?

Wrong.

The farrier was a half hour late (standard for them, so I expected it), which would have given me enough time to at least lunge the silly mare.

It proceeded to take a full two hours to put front shoes on her. Not even kidding. She wasn't "bad" as in kicking or striking or refusing to pick up her feet; she just wouldn't stand still, kept trying to bite stuff because she was bored, and that sort of thing. Fortunately, he'll just take as long as it takes and doesn't get upset about it, but I was getting irritated. She wouldn't want to stand, so she'd throw her head at me and keep her shoulders going. Grrrrr. I was mad at her, but I knew if I made a big deal out of it, the whole thing would just take longer.

Note to self: lunge the mare next time.

He was not at all pleased with her front feet. She has some serious long toe/low heel on the left front. Apparently, the only way to stimulate hoof growth is concussion, but she's not really concussing that heel because it's so low. He'd hoped it would get better after her trim and shoes last time, but it didn't. Sooo... next time we're doing resins on the front feet. Apparently, that will allow him to build her heel up enough to get it to concuss and therefore grow. It also allows her feet to contract and expand a lot more than shoes do. I'm excited to see how that goes.

Also, I'm clearance shopping on Dover. Someone stop me!

Time is Short

Izzy got her feet done and brand new shoes today. We used a new farrier, since I couldn't get the guy who did the first set to call me back. This was actually a team--the lady does barefoot trimming and bodywork and the guy does shoes. He's even been to school, which is REALLY unusual around here. I was really happy with them. They were great with Izzy and did quite a nice job.

Also, Ms. Pony got her tail and her white leg washed. I even rode her for like 5 minutes, but then I hopped off because it was almost time for our appointment, and I didn't want to make them wait. (It ended up not mattering. They were late.)

Good news, though. Just before I hopped off, I asked Izzy to halt on a long rein. She did, which I expected, BUT she did it without swinging her hips out to the left like she always used to do. Yay! Definitely can see a difference even since yesterday.

I'm still a little scattered because I have a massive amount of stuff to clean and organize and load in my car to leave for the show tomorrow, oh, and I'm at work til 5 and I have people coming over tonight and I work all day tomorrow--I'll have just enough time after work to throw mine and Izzy's stuff in a trailer and then we're gone. Have a great weekend!

Affirmation!!

I didn't get to ride (or do anything with) Izzy on Sunday, due to one of the ponies tearing down a massive section of fence. Since I was house-sitting, I got to fix the entire thing, then scoot off to make it home before church. It's ok. Since we're in recovery mode, I think days off are more than ok.

So. Today. I got Izzy out, carefully wrapped her legs to make sure they all appeared the same color (easier to look for unevenness that way), and saddled up. Since Izzy gets so much turn out, I don't even have to lunge her. She just comes out totally calm and relaxed. I love it.

We did a nice long walk warm up, focusing on stretching forward and downward while moving forward and off my leg, one way or the other. She's getting better. Then, we trotted. Cathy was there to observe, so we had an experienced witness. Again, Izzy felt really good. She was nicely forward without being excited or a train wreck. I kept my reins pretty loose because I wanted Cathy to see her without me interfering.

According to Cathy, she looked totally sound. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really happy day. She even gave us the ok to canter in the arena, so we did about a lap each direction. I probably had a big ridiculous grin plastered across my face, but I am just having so much fun with Izzy right now. It was great.

So. Chiro tomorrow, farrier (and any extra needed chiro) on Wednesday, and we're supposed to leave for the show/clinic on Thursday. Wish us luck.

Sigh of Relief

Izzy got her new shoes on yesterday. I would have taken a picture for you all, but it was about 100f and I was really hot and sunburned. Still, all went well. I was really pleased with the farrier. He was intelligent, experienced, gentle, and really inexpensive. I mean, he didn't have to trim or anything, but he just charged me $25 to put from shoes on. And he used nice shoes.

Color me impressed.

I trotted Izzy (loose) around the round pen after she got her shoes on and she was totally sound. It was beautiful to see.

This morning, my legs were way too sunburned to ride comfortably (or at all), so I turned Izzy loose in the arena. It was so fun to watch her. She started out trotting tentatively, then she started to canter a little, then she seemed to realize that it wasn't going to hurt, and she rocketed down the arena fence. It felt so good to see her really push forward and run isntead of holding herself back to spare her ouchie feet.

Here's hoping for a ride tomorrow. :-)

Here's a picture of Izzy modeling her new Eskadron duds.