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| Fall color is lurking in the trees. |
Well, the vet came out last Tuesday to examine the B. He found that most of her pain was located in her frogs. This is not surprising since we have been battling thrushy feet for a while and most of her time spent out in the pasture has been in the "swampy" area. He told me to keep the equipak cs on her feets and to KEEP THEM DRY.
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| Seriously. How could I not figure this out. That is one funky ass sad foot. |
This means a pen overhaul, which is what we were planning to do this spring, but then our money started flying out of our pockets and it is harder than hell to keep it there. Goodbye savings account! So, if anyone has any good advice for keeping pens that are mostly out in the weather mud free, that would be great. Specifically what would make for a good base for sand to go on top of. Especially for a horse that will weave right through the sand...
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| What mom? No more standing in the mud? But why? |
Though I do think most of her pain is from her frogs, the structure of her hooves has been compromised because of this. I feel like the biggest moron for not really noticing that in the first place. I am pretty ignorant to hoof knowledge, and I hate that, but I am now looking at the whole picture of the hoof instead of just the frog. Since she has been dealing with mild-moderate thrush for a long time, her frogs have been eaten away and contracted. Making her heels equally weird. And that sensitivity to the back half of her hoof (where most of the landed concussion should be) has led to her landing more toe first, adding increased shoulder sensitivity and foot structures being altered. What else has this lead to? Well, instead of the regular off of the track long toe underrun heal, this new way of going has led to shorter strides and now an almost club footed look. Plus, weaving doesn't help any. It is all a vicious cycle that I am now on a mission to break.
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| Sometimes all you need is friends, ponies and pie. |
How do we do that? Farrier is out of town until this week. So we started with drying the feet with a heat gun and applying Durasole 5 days in a row. That really started to help, and then we transferred Bacon over to Prisoner's house to play with him and Papa in a totally dry pen and pasture for the weekend. We also wanted to asses her soundness in an arena without a crap ton of rocks in it. I guess she was ready to go on an adventure because she practically drug me onto the trailer. That doesn't happen regularly, so that was funny. And there was no weaving either!
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| Welp, them front boots are too big. |
Day one of pony fun (Thursday) was jump tack set up and just letting her stretch and cruise around at her comfort and using the whole arena. She really liked the stretching and we had a nice little ride. She was much sounder without all the rocks, but there was some stiffness too of course. We had a great time watching our friends jump but secretly wished we could join them. Ok, probably not so secretly because when I let Bacon cruise around on a loose rein, she would head towards a jump, and I would pout, but whatever. The start of the weekend was pretty darn good.
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| Even stretching in the canter. This makes her neck look even longer. |
You could try putting down the stone dust (or similar) that events here on the east coast use to fill in take off/landing holes on XC when the footing is gross and the horses need traction. There's a barn down the hill from our farm that has 4 horses on a tiny tiny tiny (ie smaller than a small dressage court) plot of land. They have their turnout covered in the stone dust. I never see it muddy/slippery/deep. I have no idea how deep they put it down, and I assume they had to pack it down with a steamroller or similar item. No need for the sand on top unless you want to though. Might be worth looking into!
ReplyDeleteWe bought 3/8 minus gravel for our paddocks (I think it is used as road base too and here it is cheaper than sand) it packs down to a fairly hard surface and doesn't get muddy.
ReplyDelete:-) Weekend fun.
ReplyDeletepoor ouchy feet! glad you know what the root issue is so that you can get Ms Bacon back on track again!!
ReplyDeleteFine gravel or stone dust on top of a base of larger rocks for drainage would definitely help your mud problem! SO happy you discovered that the problem is her feet, though! I'm glad y'all had a fun weekend, too!
ReplyDeleteI never knew a heat gun was a thing! Glad you're figuring out the hoof problems.
ReplyDeleteI never knew a heat gun was a thing! Glad you're figuring out the hoof problems.
ReplyDeleteHoof stuff isn't my thing either. Yet somehow I am enrolled in a learn to trim clinic next weekend...wtf.
ReplyDeleteStone dust like others suggested is great, but it must, must, *must* have a proper base or else it just gets churned up into mud. I've seen very few people out here on the East Coast use it correctly. A lot of barns I've boarded at in MD love it but they just pour it on top of the mud and in less than a week it's basically become part of the mud itself. I honestly do *not* understand why it's so popular here: it's super fine so it's dusty when dry and becomes really heavy and clay-like when wet. Plus it's expensive on top of that. *shakes head*
ReplyDeleteIME, sand is better. South FL is subject to rain and thunderstorms every single afternoon for 9 months out of the year. Flooding is common and no one has indoor arenas. You need arenas and equestrian common areas that drain really well or else you'll lose boarders and students. What works down there: a coarse gravel base, pea gravel on top of that, with coarse sand over the top of it. The finer the sand, the heavier it and more clay-like it becomes: avoid it. You want the sand to have larger particles so that the water drains through to the bottom layers. Lily had a walkout/run attached to her stall when we lived in FL. I used coarse gravel with pea gravel on top of that (I skipped the sand because I wanted the benefits of the pea gravel: it's good for bare feet) to ensure the areas where water liked to pool didn't become a muddy mess. It worked like a charm. :)