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:
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!
