11 Week Update!

Today marks 11 weeks since shoes have been pulled. Diet has been 0.8 pounds of alfalfa pellets fed twice daily, mixed with Arizona Copper Complete from Horsetech, flaxseed, MSM, salt, and 1/4c of soaked beet pulp to mix it all in.

He’s really doing great! 4 weeks ago he got his first trim and cleanup by our new trimmer. He had just shed all his sole and frogs so he seemed to be a little thin soled. We used hoof armor and decided to do a rim cast with equicast. He was quite comfortable this way! We did let him move and run a bit in the arena not long after and he looked sound! Buuut a little ouchy the next day. He came back around fine, but that was good info to have. Unfortunately the RF cast came off pretty soon, so we went back to booting. He moves so well in his boots and I believe it will speed things up the more comfortable he is! He walks super confident barefoot on concrete as well as over the gravel driveway, and just recently seems to be turning well barefoot. He will usually always show soreness on a turn and historically this has been a constant problem. So when that improves, things are really looking up.

Six Week Update

There have been a lot of good changes since the shoes came off July 13th. Shorty is walking flat and heel first on flat concrete! Still a bit careful/compensating when turning in a tight circle, and still slightly off on LF, but in the last 2 weeks I have also stopped giving him Equiox. It’s about time to order more and I have enough left to start him back on it if needed, but I thought since he’s not being worked and he’s now comfortable enough to turn out barefoot, that it is important not to hide anything or make us think we were making more progress than we actually are. I also want HIM to know where he’s at in case he gets a little frisky and hopefully doesn’t over do it!

For the record, I am following diet and rehab done by Rockley Farm in Europe. It is owned by Nic Barker and she’s done amazing things for horses with compromised feet. I also follow on Facebook the Barefoot Method for Navicular, and Pete Ramey’s Hoof Rehab group. (Edit March 2020: Hoof Rehab is now ‘Hoof Care and Rehabilitation’)

Here are some photos of our progress:

Sole and frog have developed quite a bit. The frog has widened and the central sulcus crack gets filled with Red Horse Artimud to prevent infection and stuff getting packed in there.

Most exciting is how much wider his hoof is overall! I had thought this wouldn’t happen until he had grown out a new hoof capsule, but obviously without the limitations of a shoe, his hoof wall has expanded a lot while walking on the ground surface!

  

Here are still shots from a video this weekend to see how he’s landing. Definitely shows that he is no longer landing toe first, but I do think he will have even more confident heel landings and a longer stride as we continue to develop a stronger hoof. We haven’t even grown out all the nail holes yet! You can also see that he loads the outside hoof wall on the right front on landing, which can and should also improve to become more level with a healthier functioning foot.

Handsome Shorty, always willing to clean up the hay dropped from the last feeding! 😜

Summer 2019

I found another horse to ride this summer and I am grateful I did. With as well as Shorty did with the leather pads and equipak at the beginning of the cycle, we never expected him to go lame again and NEVER recover. I took my vets advice and was only working him/riding 3 days a week. He was doing really well and I remember having a nice ride WTC on grass on a Tuesday, then the next time I rode was the following Sunday. Rode in a freshly dragged arena, dressage work for about 30 mins. He was a bit hesitant picking up the canter I noticed but really wouldn’t have believed it was a soreness issue based on how well he’d been doing. Well, hacking out in the grass right after that ride, sure enough he is off on the LF.

Gave him some down time and when we were nearing towards 5 weeks of the cycle and he still wasn’t sound  I went  ahead and got us on the schedule to be reset. I asked if he would grind a breakover into the toe bc he is in flat keg shoes and he did.  But his thoughts were that he just got too long so he set the shoe back, shortened and rounded the toes more than ever. Leather pad and equipak. This seemed quite a big change but I mean if it worked, awesome. All I know is that while we were waiting for the left shoe while it was off, we walked and turned a bit and I didn’t notice any obvious soreness. As SOON as that shoe was nailed on though, he was ouchy! I don’t know if he got a close nail maybe because he had nailed one in and took it back out saying it wasn’t doing anything...? Ugh yeah that’s just what we need.

The shoes stayed on for 5 days and I had them pulled. He was BAD. Lame at the walk and I don’t think I have ever seen him THAT sore footed ever. It seemed to be both feet hurting. He was really bad without the shoes as well but luckily I have Softride boots that made him immediately more comfortable. Perhaps the equipak was ultimately too much pressure under the shoe. At first maybe it felt nice but over time and concussion from any movement it got to be too much and it was impossible for him to get away from it! Sometimes equipak can set very firm and it felt that way when we took it out. Even just 2 days later he was walking normal again in boots.

So this is where I feel very lucky that I have had another horse to ride. This horse is an experienced hunter who is a kick ride type that has been allowing me to get back into jumping! He has been really great in dealing with losing my rides with Shorty again.

Shorty is going to remain barefoot for the time being. While he is much more comfortable just 2 weeks out of shoes, he is landing  TOE FIRST barefoot and I fear he might have been trotting this way since March! I looked back at video....he had been doing so well  that I had forgotten to do this check and be mindful of it. Poor movement turns into worse movement which will turn into clinical lameness. So that’s 3 months of deteriorating movement and possible damage and it will take at least that much time if not more to reverse. The good thing is that he is consistently moving heel first in boots! So he does wear boots 24/7. We have about 1 million heel landings to go in order to come back from all those toe stabs he’s done this year. This is very much a rehabilitation much like I did in 2017, but this time at least his feet are in much better condition.

Diet! I am finally going to invest in the high quality mineral trace supplements that are suggested on both the ECIR group and the Barefoot Navicular Rehab group. I’ve already cut out grain per our vet, he’s been getting alfalfa pellets,  a multivitamin, and mid quality grass hay. I’ve seen these mineral products before but it seemed costly. I now see that you do get exactly what you pay for! Iron can be quite high in forage and water and a lot of feeds and supplements do not add enough Copper and Zinc for the correct balance to high Iron.. In fact some like Triple Crown add ADDITIONAL Iron!! Between Mega Cell AND Remission Shorty is getting around 300mg Zinc, and these formulas provide 500-800mg! Another example, Mega Cell vitamin supp is providing LESS  than 1g of Lysine. These have upwards 10g of Lysine! Most grains do provide a healthy amount of Lysine, but since he’s not on any, we’re depending on our vitamin/mineral supplement to do that. So, recommended choices are:

California Trace Plus
Horse Tech’s Arizona Copper Complete
K.I.S. Trace minerals

I am going with Horsetechs and they are sending me a free sample to try first! It has high amounts of Vitamin E so I can also stop what I’m currently buying for that.

Even a couple years ago I know a lot of it is diet diet diet, especially having a horse that is a high insulin responder. So no grain this time, no fresh grass, no trying to make a cheaper supplement work for us. We are going all out to give him his best chance to grow a new hoof from the inside out. Will be looking for heel first landings and caudal hoof development. There’s really nothing left to lose and he’s improved so much already from being crippled literally 2 weeks ago.  I have already spoken to a trimmer who believes the same and will not take him back to steel shoes as quickly as the others have. We’ll just have to see where this goes.

Managing Diet & Bruised Sole

I really love that I keep this blog. Between this and all the photos I have stored on my computer organized by year, I can go back and review periods of lameness, soundness, and what Shorty looked like during those times (body condition and hoof condition). There's no doubt most years he's off/sore during March. He's had bad looking feet/contracted heels most of the time we were at a certain barn with that farrier...never compromise on your farrier!! There's also no doubt that he has historically been lame when he is at a heavier weight, body score of 6-7, and also on 10+ hrs of pasture per day.

This year, I feel so irresponsible with letting him out on so much grass. You know you want the best for your horse and what horse doesn't love eating grass?! This Spring has been rough and the reality of it all is how much work can Shorty really handle after all we have been through. He's been very suitable for dressage, when he is sound. Any jump work requiring real air time and an actual front feet landing is surely out of the question for him.

Right now he is moving correctly and well, he's just been still showing some soreness on the left front foot. Once he was 100% sound beginning of April, we did try to give him up to 2 hours of turnout in a small paddock with grass. My barn owner did it very strategically beginning with 30 minutes each morning. But up to 2 hours he lost his soundness again and has really not gained it back as fast as the last time. He also sprung a shoe mid April around this time and the farrier came to fix it and we adopted permanent bell boots! We are now turned out on dirt ONLY. Took him off grain. He now gets two quarts of alfalfa pellets split into 2 feedings and 3 flakes of quality hay in a hay bag spread throughout the day.

In addition to his diet change, my plan has been to exercise him very lightly so that he at least gets exercise and loses weight! I think part of the problem is he has gained quite a bit of weight from February to March when he was eating SO much while turned out. So no matter how little grass he was getting, his body was just not able to metabolize it correctly at all.

He has successfully lost weight in the last few weeks and is looking more fit. As far as the left front foot goes, we did find an ouchy bruise on the toe of that foot underneath the shoe/pad at the end of this cycle just this week! Very likely has been part of why he's been so consistently off on that foot, but it’s impossible to say when it began to be an issue. That shoe was the sprung shoe that was reset April 17th and he was off on that foot on hard ground between that time and April 22nd. He was really moving well in the arena but just not sound on grass or anything harder. We did not do the same pads again and I am hesitant to know whether those pads caused the bruise or what. We've tried the Castle Impak pads for 2 cycles now. We did leather pads this time with equi pak underneath and we know he did well with leather pads last summer. I left him alone for about 48 hours after the shoe change and I hacked him out today. I am thrilled to say he felt just fine riding out on the grass! No complaints or bad steps going in either direction. So just like that he is sound. Should I be so lucky that it was just a bruise this time that can totally be fixed/healed!?

Riding April 22nd:

Can see the bruise at the toe here. His heels have totally moved back and opened up with our current farrier though! Frog has literally doubled in width. We were ALMOST able to go up a shoe size this time. He had to widen it quite a bit as his heels have spread every reset we have had.

This is what Shorty currently looks like. I think we are pretty close to an ideal weight. His coat is amazingly soft and shiny!

2019

Shorty is doing well this year. We have done a lot of riding and are currently ready and fit enough to show dressage again. He is even helping me practice in a jump saddle to practice getting the basics of  how it feels to go around in 2-point and strengthen my position. 

He does best with Equioxx, one 57mg pill everyday. Last summer we began seeing a new regular vet when we moved to a new city (yes, again! The property was being sold and my group disbanded). Our lameness vet is quite a trek away from the new place and so I thought it would be nice to have someone close to use for continued care and all other regular services - the clinic is only 15 mins away!

I typically ride 4 days a week, plus or minus depending on the weather that week. He did seem considerably more comfortable on soft ground lately than harder ground, even grass, so I took him for a follow up and check up with our new vet before we began showing. We did re-do the navicular bursa injections early February. 

All was going pretty well, we even went without Equioxx for 3 weeks or so, but it seemed he was slightly off going to the left at about that time. Equioxx resolved that in about 3 days. We also decided to add castle impak pads under his front shoes to help provide support across the heel and sole. The walls have begun cracking over the shoe again. When reviewing our last set of navicular rads, this vet showed me where she believes is evidence of a navicular cyst. She is sure he is navicular.

BUT it seems we can’t forget about his possible metabolic issues. I had almost dismissed that finding since neither vet had really confirmed it being an issue, rather they focused on the caudal heel pain. Well, it seems both HAVE been a factor over the years. The spring flush came in about the 2nd to 3rd week of March after that visit, injections, and shoeing change, when things were going well. The horses were being rotated on some abundant areas of grass and about 6 days of turnout this way, I had noticed he was ouchy again trotting on grass. He was still sound in the arena dirt and going really great, really forward, just wonderful really. But by the end of that week he was even worse on firm ground and so it finally occurred to me what had changed (his turnout areas). We pulled him off grass and after 5 days he is almost completely sound again, just a tiny bob going to the left. 

So other than Shorty being a nightmare to manage, we’re still looking up and hope to show dressage this year! I get an opportunity to ride a couple other horses as well. Horses that I can jump when I’m ready!

Our farrier from last summer moved out of state but the guy she referred has been doing a wonderful job! His heels have moved back and are finally opening up and I only have a picture with the pads on

 from recently, but there is virtually no “butt crack” anymore. After YEARS! I didn’t realize how underrun his heels they were until I have seen them recently!! His shoes will have to be wider or even go up a size on his next reset to accommodate his wider back of foot! All really good things to support and SLOW DOWN his navicular issues.

(Edit March 2020: all I have to say is 🤦🏼‍♀️ he absolutely did still have so much contraction here. His foot was so squished and these shoes too narrow. So much that it had all filled in probably trying to protect itself in any way that it could. But I’m not going to delete the above paragraph, as this is of my real time thought and opinion, and this is just where my knowledge base and belief was at the time. I see it sooo much in online discussions and I was there! I was perfectly fine with this and recognized improvement from where ever we were before. I had full support of vet and farrier with these decisions. But little did I know (spoiler alert!!) this would lead to our next round of rehabilitation coming up....)