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!

December Vlog update!

First vlog update to show y'all how Shorty is doing which he is going great! We're working on putting some healthy muscle on him so he can continue to stay strong and *fingers crossed* sound!!

His feet continue to be in great condition and he also gets post massage after each session focusing on his neck, back, and sacrum areas. I try to do a full body massage on him once a month even though it's getting harder to do that since I have many massage clients! I also try to incorporate the occasional session working on the bladder meridian points using the Masterson Method techniques which he responds really well to and it's also easy on me :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Great things in Fall 2016!

I am happy to report that Shorty is doing fantastic. He has still been on Previcox, given time off, and just recently we began Osphos. Both of my vets had given me the suggestion for Osphos at different times, so I saved up and he got it at the beginning of October.

He has been super happy, shiny shiny coat, and feet are looking great. Look how round and how much bigger his hooves look in the first photo under "September"! He is sound and walking SO good! He's turning even better and normal than ever - the "careful" and small steps are not present at all. He doesn't shuffle and you can tell he is landing correctly flat/heel first.

I will be working on increasing his riding time back up to see what he is capable of. No matter what though, I am so glad I kept Shorty! He makes me so happy and I am glad to be his favorite person.

My chiropractor/vet will hopefully be able to see him this coming Monday to give her report about how he is doing.

August

September

November

Progressive Pics and a Video

Shorty's hooves the day in Jan. that the bar shoes got ripped off :((((((((

This is February:

March:

May (enough growth for shoes to go on mid-April)

End of 2nd cycle (June):

Today, beginning of 3rd cycle July 1st:

Video of movement June 15th:

Finally, remember when I had mentioned Shorty playing and rearing with his pasture mate?

:)))))))))

It's July in the South...100 degree weather is here

Edit: Oh I forgot to mention! Instead of doing the all inclusive vaccine dose that the vet usually does, I purchased the FluVac6 and West Nile separately. We gave the FluVac6 2 days ago and so far NO soreness or reaction to be seen! Will do the West Nile in a week or two and I'll be hoping for no reaction there either!

Nothing but improvement since my last post :) I have been really busy this last month so it has been fairly easy to give Shorty time off since that has been the plan. He has gotten a couple baths lately! He has not seemed lame at all ever since he has regained soundness with regular front shoes. We are now on the 3rd cycle of shoes and each time his feet look better and the shoes have to be widened. Ever since those bar shoes ripped off so much hoof wall back in January, he has just needed time to grow a new hoof and it's almost all grown out now. The farrier says there are no signs of him being foot sore at all that he notices, and he works on several who have issues.

I wonder what would have happened had I never gone on that trail ride and then I would have continued to think he was going to need bar shoes forever and that was that. I probably would have kept riding and trying to make it work. It's been quite a mess of a journey and I do feel awful that he had to ruin his hooves before coming to this point. It is hard to invest so much money to just let your only horse sit. Life definitely has its ways to slap you in the face. I do not know if I am silly for thinking Shorty may still have a future of being a using horse of some kind again, but I will say that I am cautiously optimistic. For now I continue to indulge in agility dog sports and take other riding and training opportunities that come my way while Shorty's biomechanics sort themselves out through time. I have a week long apprenticeship coming up with my favorite local horse trainer - can't wait!

I plan to ride Shorty tonight for a bit along with a friend. It'll be nice to get out and enjoy getting on my boy again. It has been almost 3 weeks!

I have pictures that I meant to upload, but for some reason I'm having issues with wifi on my desktop which is where the pics are. I'll try to remember to add them here later!

Improvement

It seems that with Previcoxx, 3.5 weeks of shoes, and time to lounge around, Shorty has improved! I have been doing some massage/bodywork occasionally now that I am a Certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist! I do think he benefits from it and I am so thankful I decided to learn.  He is turning around in a small circle like a normal horse again and stepping over normally in front. He no longer has a head bob when trotting and looks sound in both directions, however I still doubt the quality of movement and think we still have a ways to go for him to move absolutely comfortably and naturally. Still a bit short strided in front, and I have heard he looks a bit off trotting down the uneven, firm barn isle (matted). To picky eyes, he may be .5/5 or 1/5 on the lameness scale. I am relieved to at least be headed in the right direction. He was easily a 3/5 just a few short weeks ago.

When I do go back to riding him again, I will try and ride him just as he knew how when I got him. He did not know dressage at all and simply went well on a light hunter/jumper type contact. This time around though, he will have better seat cues!

I had my first agility trial last weekend where my dog and I received qualifying runs in both of the classes we entered and he did great! We will be able to earn a title once we get 3 qualifying runs at that venue. Working with him has been so fun! I do miss riding horses, though. I don't think anything can ever beat the magic of riding a horse.

I think it's 2015 again :(

I say this because Shorty has been off on the RF since mid-February. He's been out of work and almost getting worse as he sits. He's been lame at the trot and for a while was at least still playing, running, and bucking in the pasture (which his canter looked fine), but he is progressively getting more ouchy and especially when turning in tight circles. I can't say that I have seen him bolt off and play in anyway except for rearing (which is beautiful, he does it every morning with his pasture mate). He is definitely better with the soft rides than barefoot, but still not sound either way. I have asked my farrier about laminitis because that is the only thing that has come up in the past that would be something around this time of year, as it almost always is for him, and spring here began early with lots of rain = lots of fresh grass. However, even with all the dates and reasoning I have to support it, he says he would NOT think he has laminitis. His feet are in great shape right now even with the shoes being tossed in January. Both feet are looking excellent, but the RF is even better than the LF if there is a comparison. How does that work? Anyway, I am not the professional and it's not like I want him to be laminitic, but I'm just done with him being lame :( I want to know how to help him.

Since his feet are great and they grew a LOT, he was able to get shoes back on this past weekend (regular keg shoes). He was negative completely with hoof testers, but the farrier did notice he had some bruising on the bottoms of his hooves which is common for a horse after having shoes for a long time like he did and then not have shoes. The new shoes now might be putting constant pressure on the bruising causing him to be a bit more ouchy. I don't really see it with him walking in a straight line on the grass or pavement - he actually looks to be walking really nicely. It's when walking down the barn isle that is uneven ground and pivoting, oh man he looks so terribly ouchy when he has to be turned in a tighter circle to close a gate or something.

I tried Pentosan and while I thought he was still consistently improving, that has now come to a complete halt! He even had his check-up with the awesome vet chiropractor and is STILL lame. Time to back track AKA start over *hold on while I go cry*.

First step: shoes, check, Second: Previcoxx, as of tomorrow morning, check

I do hope to see him sound in the near future so we can at least begin again in the right direction. I know it was suggested that exercise would be best for him to strengthen his neck, but I think this time he is going to get 12 or so weeks of plain turnout. I would like to hand walk him during this time or maybe just ride him at a walk, but nothing else. I had pulled his shoes back in 2012 just a few months after owning him, and while he went lame the first time WITH shoes, I still have a hunch that it was a mistake to ever take them off. I wonder if we would have had issues again if I had not, because he was going well at the time. I'm going to try to give him time to just RE-set himself and see where that gets us.

Pray for him, pray for me. This is hard. I think if he becomes trail horse sound at this point that's all I can ask for. I haven't ridden a horse since the beginning of February!! Ahh!!