New Barn, Hoof Casts, Shoes, and Fall Grass

New Barn - Shorty has been doing fairly well since the summer. Right after my last post, I was notified that my barn was moving into breeding instead of boarding and we had to find another stable. The stable we chose usually has a wait list and I had wanted to consider boarding there several years ago. They had 2 immediate openings so my friend and I went to look, liked what we saw, and left a deposit. We moved at the beginning of August.

Shorty in his new 6 acre pasture home

I let the barn owner know about his metabolic issues and she told me they could provide accommodations with a muzzle during the growing season and also being able to bring him up to a paddock if needed. I was very encouraged to see how he did.

Shorty took a long time to settle in, but he did settle in and seemed quite happy even though it was quite a change. There were pot bellied pigs kept near his turn-out and he HATES pigs...absolutely loathes them. Here's the breakdown of the good vs. the bad.

The good:

24/7 turn out

NEW and awesome FARRIER!

Large 6 acre pasture with herd

More exercise

Stocking up in front feet disappeared

Outside all the time with stall for bad weather 

Riding allowed in out in pastures and arena

The bad:

11 other horses in pasture

1 round bale

Pigs on property

Ulcers returned

Bites/kicks that prevented me from riding

My requests for muzzle/concerns for him getting beat up seemed like an inconvenience

Some off/on lameness issues

Shorty enjoyed being with his girlfriends

Casting! When the fall grass came up I do believe we had some issues with foot soreness. His hoof wall was still week and cracking off from being in the care of the last farrier so I took the move opportunity to find a new, better, more creative farrier. He did well in boots so she thought he was the perfect candidate for casting.

Hoof casts

The wear in the casts also allowed us to see his breakover pattern, slightly lateral (outside) at the toe

He had 2 cast cycles in 4 week intervals. He did really well and seemed comfortable. There was a tiny bit of "not quite right" moments...it was hard to tell if it was front end or hind end, as I have been aware of some RH weakness per his last chiro vet visit. He also did not seem to be completely even/comfortable while cantering and sometimes resistant to cantering. He was seemingly sound and would buck, run in the pasture just fine.

Shoes After the casts he had nice growth and enough hoof wall for regular shoes. My vet really insists he will do best with the support, and my new farrier has a lot more skill/knowledge and I trusted her to put shoes back on. She was able to make a shoe that had the same breakover as he liked to wear in the casts, and had more breakover in all directions similar to a natural balance shoe concept. 

Fall Grass? So here's the thing...once the shoes were on it was getting into fall. The horses kept the pastures pretty well grazed...I would consider it overgrazed. The good thing is that there was not much volume to eat, but what many people do not know is that the best grass to be grazed is grass that is about 3-6 inches tall...the richest sugars are stored at the bottom 3 inches of the plant. We got a lot of rain that kept the grass shooting up pretty quickly through the fall and Shorty lost his soundness by the end of October. Once I could ride after his bite wounds healed, he would begin our rides seemingly sound and looking good! But it only took 10-15 of light flatwork for him to come up really lame, even at the walk. This would chill out after I untacked, hosed, and put him away. The only evidence of any soreness could be seen if turned in a really tight circle, or if he was asked to turn up a slope.

Typical...

Move again?? Shorty received another bad bite almost right over a previous injury. I knew I had to find him somewhere else. Getting beat up so much and him living out on uncontrolled pasture and round bale hay just wasn't working. I did let the barn owner know of my concerns as they came up, but they kept saying that he looked fine and he just needed to learn to get along. It seemed like an inconvenience to ask for anything special. I contacted a friend who was at a barn we were at 4 years ago. It is mostly self-care but there's a good group that helps each other out so that I could manage it.

I am happy to report after our most recent move and only 2 weeks in, Shorty is 110% sound! That is more sound than I have ever been confident enough to report since having this blog and I am very happy with how he has been working.

Good changes

Individual paddock/limited grazing with other horses around

Settled in very quickly
Get to keep same farrier

Outside all the time with stall available for use

Slow fed hay most of the day/night

Wounds healing

Indoor, outdoor, and pasture riding

I really liked the last barn we were at and the people were very nice and welcoming. This was a good move though because this morning was like Christmas when I got to ride another day in a row without any evidence of lameness!! He's been moving like a million bucks, forward, happy, and relaxed. I am very grateful for the ladies who help take such good care of him, and for inviting me into the group!

I am very thankful to have this time to enjoy with my boy this Thanksgiving!

Barefoot, heel first landings, it's all an adventure

Well, the last time I posted, Shorty had his shoes pulled. I believe this has been a really good thing for him! It has not been without doubt and disappointment, but even with that I am happy to see him grow a much healthier and functional foot. These first photos are from the day and week the shoes were pulled. He had black in the whiteline, which from my understanding black usually means infection so that's why I did the clean trax soak. They looked horrible, weak, and broken! So here's the progress we've made so far:

Right after the shoes came off. Black in the whiteline.

Really broken up hoof wall, contracted foot

MAY

Working on building his feet back

This bruising ring goes ALL the way around the hoof wall on ALL FOUR hooves at the exact same distance down the hoof. I think it will be a very good thing once the bruising grows all the way out because there is no doubt a weakness there inside the hoof from his last episode of stress/inflammation to the laminae.

JUNE

Looking way better, heels becoming functional!

JULY

Here you can see the bruising that is still growing out 

It is taking plenty of time, but even then I am still really impressed with the transformation so far. He was trimmed up at 3 weeks twice right after going barefoot, and now he will be maintained at the normal six weeks. I do think his feet looked even better than this as of today.

The doubt and disappointment came after the first six weeks; since the shoes came off he had been walking on concrete just fine! Then, after the second trim he went really obviously sore on concrete just like that! I do believe that is when his frogs finally began to make contact with the ground as opposed to walking on his walls. He lives on soft footing, so I have been diligent in walking him on concrete and small gravel 5-10 minutes every time I am with him to help his feet develop some grit, build digital cushion, and callouses.

Most exciting, here is video of him walking on concrete now with a heel first/flat landing!!!! This is a big deal! Our wonderful chiro/vet did detect some foot discomfort, but not the typical pattern of compensation for the chronic foot pain he has had, which means he is not stabbing toe first anymore. He has a weakness in his R stifle which we will build up with specific exercise and stretches. I also found his back muscles developing a spasm on the right side which released easily, but supports that increased tension has been on that right side. He was quite ulcery again about a month ago, so we put him on omeprezole for 21 days which helped him fill out a ton over his topline. He feels way better now and will be kept on U-guard to help keep him that way.

It's not perfect yet and if I ride him in boots without pads he can still get a bit footy after 15-20 minutes of work, but otherwise he is moving better and is very forward when riding! He feels good! Lately I have begun warming him up in his soft ride boots, then do some exercise barefoot in the soft arena footing for 10-15 mins, then cool him down with the soft ride boots. That has worked well! Those boots are amazingly supportive and even if he gets a bit ouchy, he will immediately walk just fine in those and help chill out any soreness.

I clean his feet weekly or biweekly with dish soap and water (scrub gunk out with hoof pick brush). I also use a mixture of iodine and listerine to squirt on his feet if it's been rainy and wet. I use Hoof Heal by Cut Heal a couple times a week, and I have been using Tomorrow Mastitis treatment for any suspected thrush.

Barefoot and SOUND?!

I was really thinking we had this all figured out with the Osphos and shod in front. We made it great from December through early February when he came off Previcox and then after a weekend of me being out of town, I return to Shorty feeling off trotting to the left :( Several days go by where we just wait and see what comes of it and overall he seems to be looking just fine. Before making the decision to get more Previcox, I wanted my vet to see him again.

The vet/chiro visited the next week and finds he's a bit ulcery. Neighlox generally works really well for him so we started that back up. It had also been 5 1/2 months on Osphos and the vet was coming out soon so we went ahead and scheduled his second round of Osphos. Every 5-6 months is suggested for maintenance, although there are some horses that will go longer. My vet says many horses will let you know when they need another by how they act. We figured Shorty was at that point.

I did note that Shorty seemed to look much better as that week went on and by the weekend he looked great on the lunge line. I began to ride him again and kid you not, 2 days later I ride him and I swear he felt off on our ride and even looked a bit ouchy walking right after. He worked out of this before we got back to where we untack. I did some bodywork the next day where he had huge releases along the bladder meridian and over the SI joint. Guess what? The following day we rode and did a short ride walk, canter, and a tad bit of trotting and he felt fine! We're now at the end of February.

This intermittent frustration continued in March. He looks good one week and then off the next. Unfortunately also at this time, Shorty goes and grabs one side of his R shoe so it's like this:

The farrier came out to fix it and within a week he did the SAME THING! Ugh. I have that nice pair of Soft Ride boots that have just been sitting...so I pull those out and decide to do my own therapy protocol since his shoe was messed up anyway. With the frog support those boots provide, I was hoping they would help strengthen the back of his foot and help his heels spread out. I decided to try 10-20 minutes of walking in Soft Rides for 30 days - if I skipped a day it didn't count - it had to be 30 times. I just wanted to see if it would make a difference. He definitely walked great in them with heel first landings.

There was one day over Spring Break where I turned him out in them for the day, and I watched Shorty get spunky and trot around like a high stepping standardbred!! He looked fabulous in them and super fancy. Seven days into my Soft Ride project though, barn owner notified me that he looked lame trotting out that morning and also turning tight circles. Being the wonderful horse woman that she is, she suggests we try putting him in one of the dry lot paddocks to see if maybe the spring grass has something to do with him getting foot sore.

We had a super mild winter this year in Texas. I'd say the grass almost never really died, and we started having nights above 40 quite early which meant the spring grass began growing quick!

TWO DAYS LATER....Shorty is back to looking normal. Even more so, he is in a paddock next to the arena and I was told he would be trotting and rolling back along the fenceline and basically being a pain in the butt while people were riding. No lameness to be seen!!

I continued with the Soft Rides all the way through April 17th which was actually day 31. There was one day where I noted he was a bit lazy and short strided looking but all other times there has been no sign of soreness since putting him in the dry lot.

Farrier finally is able to come and pull his shoes off on the 21st. His hoof walls just look so weak anyway and his feet need a break to grow out. Oddly, his whiteline on his RF looked black and farrier wasn't quite sure why. I did a cleaning protocol (dish soap, water, scrub) and picked up some Tomorrow (dry cow mastitis) cream and began putting that in all the crevices of his feet about every other day. I also did a Clean Trax soak the last weekend in April for both front feet.

I am happy to report that Shorty is walking comfortably even on concrete and small gravel! Since the clean trax soak I have began riding him again barefoot with Cavallo Trek Boots just for extra support. He is going wonderfully forward and even wanting to rush over trot poles which is typical.

His diet is tifton grass hay (tends to be lower in NSC- non-structural carbohydrates aka sugars) and 1 lb of the Purina Enrich 32 ration balancer. He gets MSM supplement, Omega Horseshine, and currently Neighlox. I do want to switch to Triple Crown 30% ration balancer soon as it has many more extra nutrients I'd like him to have, especially more Vitamin E since he's not on grass. This is what his feet look like now. Sorry, they are a bit muddy in these photos.

So after all this, I do believe Shorty has some kind of metabolic issue or low grade laminitis. Shorty has always been an easy keeper and has a tendency to be cresty necked. His neck currently is not hard like it can be, but when it is, it is an indication that he is getting too much sugar.

I have learned a lot from googling "low grade laminitis" and reading articles and forums about horses who never seem to go full blown founder with rotation, but do get foot sore from too much sugar especially in the Spring and Fall when new grass comes in. Laminitis is the 2nd most common killer of horses behind colic. Low grade laminitis seems to be overlooked a lot, but is starting to get more and more research and recognition. Another great resource for horses sensitive to sugar/starch is http://www.safergrass.org/. If you allow grazing out on grass, there are specific times that are good and bad for these horses depending on how the sugars are stored and used for the grass. It is also important for these types of horses to maintain at a body score of 5. They will do best more fit and lean and I do know I have had longer times of soundness when Shorty was at his most lean weight.

I will be out enjoying my sound barefoot pony! Have a great weekend everyone!