Finding a Farrier - NC Edition

I won't lie. I definitely get a bad horse owner award for this one. When I first got here, I found  vet, chiro and dentist numbers for Dakota, but not farrier. Mostly because I dread going through the cycle of finding one that will work for Mr Sensitive Toes. 

He's been in NC for 6 weeks now. With being trimmed right before he left, I haven't felt too terrible, especially seeing the way he's been running around. But of course we've had insane amounts of rain... aka hoof growing weather. Now they're splitting. Yay for procrastination. Of course hoof growth = not 100% sound because now we're too long but not sore enough to keep someone from galloping around.

I was never a fan of how he was trimmed in Louisiana to be honest, but I was never able to be there when he got done and somehow... he stayed sound.

My neighbor gave me the number to her farrier who never called me back a few weeks ago. I wasn't too keen on trying her anyways so not overly upset. Is it me or unless you really specialize in barefoot (which I'll get into in a second), is it odd for someone to just trim and not shoe? I feel like that's half learning to become a farrier and just being like, nah I'm good. 

Que the internet searching for a farrier. Contacted three farriers, the one I like best on paper called me back. Says he has experience with foundered horses and the pain in the ass sensitive ones. We'll find out soon because he's coming this afternoon. 

If he doesn't workout, and really even if he does, I have another plan thankfully. In the same internet searching, I went on the HGS Forums that I browse on occasion and asked someone I've always respected their knowledge on forum if she knew any farriers in the area. Never met this person but knew she was in NC. She recommended someone that does the natural barefoot trimming. I came across her website on my own before asking, and just assumed she looked too good to be true. This person on HGS assured me she really is good and is worth every bit of her expensive trims. I've already called the person and left a message, which I know she got. I was warned shes busy and backed up but once I can get her out for the first time it shouldn't be as big of a problem. If I can't get her out, fingers crossed the guy today works!

Legs, You Suck

Why mare oh why?

Saturday I got off work super late. The horses were in because of insane thunderstorms. Lauren had rode Echo earlier in the day and said she wasn't a happy horse - which usually all is good in Echo world. When I was out cleaning stalls at 10 pm I noticed how grumpy she was. I brushed it off figuring it was because of being stuck inside and all the horses were a little edgy. Lauren had however said she felt a little off in her right hind leg - the leg with the hoof injury so she didn't do much with her. Attributed it to the fact they were due to have their hooves done. 

Sunday I just wanted to be done at the barn. It was my only day off in-between work weeks and I needed some R&R from last week at work. 

Monday however, Lauren was done early at the barn so I thought I figured I'd lunge Echo to see how her soundness was before the farrier coming out Tuesday (yesterday). I go to pull her out of her stall and notice she's not putting weight on the leg - #%*$. Put her in the wash stall and just start cold hosing all four legs. Start running my hands all over her just to make sure I'm not missing anything else before I bother looking at the right hind, nothing. So running hands down her leg I feel medium amount of heat, not hot but not great and slight swelling. I also feel a scab, can't see because the lighting sucks in wash stalls to see legs sometimes. I don't think too much of it because it felt pretty scabbed over and thought it was an older thing that we just missed. Liniment and bute I go take her out for the evening. I stood letting her eat some grass before putting her in her paddock and I see this... 

1) That's not small! 2) WTF mare?! 3) It's time for bubble wrap. 

Yesterday morning I gave her a tiny bit more bute (like 1/4 gram...) in her feed. Lauren lunged her before farrier, dead lame. More cold hose, less heat than Monday so I felt comfortable sweating the leg. Another gram of bute, and turned her out. I knew if I kept her in she'd do potentially just as many stupid things. 

Fingers crossed for less heat tonight and a better looking scab. It's completely superficial with no puncture wound so I'm fairly certain she put her leg through the fence and then pulled it through scrapping it like she did. Why it's so swollen, I have no idea, it's Echo.

3 Month Hoof

Yesterday marked the 3 month mark since Echo's hoof injury. Time flies when you're having fun? Something like that. 

Note the growth! This is the inside off the hoof where the damage had been done. There is some proud flesh there but 1-2 more trim's you might not be able to see any remains of it. The shoe will probably come off on the next farrier visit. 

The outside of the hoof. You can see the ridges and bumps. It's probably going to take a while for the hoof to look completely normal but we're getting there. The coronet band is new growth - hence the nice whiteness of it. 

Last Friday was her first day out on her reseeded grass paddock, which she obviously loves. She's only on it 2-4 hours right now so she can be adjusted back to eating that much grass since she's been on a drylot almost since she left Lexington last October. 

Catching Up: MareFace

Hello blog world. Haven't completely forgotten about you. Going to do my best to update everything over the next couple of days so I can go back to regular post going forward. 

The beastly Echo is doing as well as I could hope. We've had quite a few lunging sessions between L and I. L has spent time with her just playing around getting to know Echo - something we all know MareFace needs. L is equally as stubborn as Echo and doesn't let her get away with her lunge line antics, super amusing and impressive to watch. 

Both horses were scheduled to be trimmed / reset today but moving cost has me delaying it an extra week, pushing them to a 6 week trim instead of 5. Not overly worried about the extra week since 5 seemed a bit early to me, but you can see they both are ready. Yay for fast growth in the summer. Her hoof is looking great while she's slowly getting less aggressive each time I pick out her injured hoof. 

Weight gain, despite as much hand grazing as possible, seems to have stopped. Still without our rice bran pellets but I think the temporary substitute I have her on is at least maintaining her at the maximum amount to be fed of it. May 17 is D day for her to go out in her grassy paddock - which has grown a ton and looks great after being mowed. 

We're no longer on any type of stall rest. She's been out in muddy paddock a few times and it's caused no problems so we're free and clear there! Which has made for a happy mare too, getting to go out nightly. Also off our calming supplement that I put her on to get through stall rest. 

Partial Clearance

One day I'll have a better schedule for posting updates! I'm now in a two week frenzy of packing, Rolex, moving and then Kentucky Derby. Maybe by the end of May I'll have an ounce of sanity, but not likely. My June vacation / time off is looking better and better. 

In good news... Echo has farrier AND vet clearance to start ground work! My farrier was confident she would be fine two weeks ago when he was here to trim / reshod but I was hesitant so I put off talking to my vet about it until this week. Today marks week 8 post injury and my vet agrees that if I go slow she should be fine and just to let her tell me when she's had too much. 

I'm going to go as slow and light as Echo will allow. She's going to be her beastly self.  I figure I'll start with 10-15 minute walk and trotting on the line and slowly build up from there. Maybe building up time first and then attempting cantering and then going to tack and side reins etc. 

Sorry hoof is kind of dirty... I had hard time getting it cleaned up yesterday!

Weight Gain Update - Week 14

While at the barn yesterday, I realized it's been far too long since I've updated on Echo's weight gain, 8 weeks to be exact. See the last update here.

She's been without some or all of her rice bran pellets for 2 weeks. There's apparently a shortage of rice bran? At least that's what I've been told. Thankfully it doesn't seem she I'd loosing weight without it but she isn't gaining either. Without the grass coming in strong and fast it might be a different story. I know she only gets hand grazed but I'd like to think the 30-45 minutes she gets in a day has SOME impact. 

I apologize she's not the cleanest, I had to do a quick groom since someone was antsy for her dinner. I'm guessing this is the truest example of her with the winter coat being 95% gone. I'm glad I didn't have to see her when she arrived from Texas without some sort of winter coat. Also keeping in mind that since my 6 week update on her weight gain, she's been through her injury and stall rest - something she seems to be handling without too much stress. Thoughts?

Two Week Post-Injury Vet Visit

Notes from today's vet visit. 

• Her hoof has cornified and her risk for infection has significantly decreased, almost to non existent. 
• Still on stall rest but activity level can be increased. This means Echo now gets to be let loose in a dry arena, round pen, etc. As long as she isn't where she'll be in mud she can be out. 
• I can wipe down the hoof now with wet towel, cloth, etc to clean it. Before I was forbidden to get it wet. 
• Hoof wrapping is no longer going to be 5 layers, but now two: vet wrap and duct tape. 
• I can continue her low dose bute if she's acting off a day or over does it in the arena like she did today.
• Vet's extremely happy with her weight from where she was after coming from Texas, night and day difference in her. Vet also was happy to see how content Echo is with me. Since she's the one who really found Echo and passed on her need for a home to my friends she has a special place for Echo and loves her. Echo is pretty fond of her as well, which she proved by continuously searching her for cookies. 

I have video of her arena outing that I will have to post over the weekend. Lots of running! I don't think she'll get so amped up now that she'll get to do this every day. 

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Shameless plug for horse racing. Tomorrow there will be a rematch between the first two place finishers of the Breeders' Cup Classic. Watch if you can! Such a great rematch and day of racing. This stuff still makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. Click the image for more information on watching. 

Two Weeks Post Injury

Yesterday marked week two since Miss Echo's injury. After a bout of my stomach not doing so hot yesterday after I ate something I should of, I skipped out on doing a hoof wrap change on Echo last night. 

Tomorrow my vet is coming out in the morning before I head to work to do a check up. Fingers crossed that I can get her cleared to have some more freedom. Ideally I'd love to be able to set her free in the arena to do her own thing, probably with a bit of ace the first time. However, I'll be happy if I can even get the ok to put her on a lunge line and try and control how fast she goes. She's still handling stall rest fine, but her hand walks are getting more and more challenging. 

Video of Echo being... Echo.

Back to Bute

The good news is Echo seems content still being on stall rest. Not too nervous or stressed. The condition of her stall wouldn't let you believe that but she's not a neat mare to begin with. 

The bad news is she seems to be resting the injured hoof more than she was in the inital couple of days. I've started her back on low dose of bute to see if it helps. I gave her 1 gram last night and will earlier on tonight to see if I can see it kick in at all. 

She's resting her hoof and wearing a hole her 2 day hoof pack in less than 24 hours. Through many many layers of Gorilla Duct tape, which should say something. I also ordered one of these hoof wraps to put it's strength to the test. If it holds up to her wear and tear on this hoof I'll be a believer for life. 

Also Dakota pulled a shoe yesterday! Bad pony is going to get beaten by me. Hopefully I can get it back on ASAP. 

Hooves Don't Lie

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a tiring week since Echo was injured last Wednesday. Last big update on her injury was the next day when the podiatrist came out and put the bar shoe on her hoof Thursday. Well, Saturday my vet came out for the first hoof bandage change and while I was at work, it was reported that she was pretty naughty for it but the hoof itself looked clean and in ok shape. I was told to go ahead and proceed with every other day changes and stick to the hand walking plan. 

Monday I was at the barn bright and early to meet the farrier. First I held Windy for Colleen while he got his front hooves done. He's had chronic abscesses problems so she decided to have my farrier have a look at him and he did a great job with him. Next, Dakota stood like a pro (unlike last time) while his shoes were reset. Farrier was really happy with how his hooves have changed in the short 6 weeks he's been working on him. 

Stall set up. Moved Jolly Ball though and added a second hay net. 

Next up... Echo. Plan was to at least get through her front hooves and if she would tolerate it to try trimming the hind left (uninjured one). She was hesitant to pick up the fronts but was very well behaved for the ordeal. She actually offered up her hind left so the farrier went after it. Good news is the hoof is trimmed. The bad news is the hoof was in very poof shape. He said the trim she had right before leaving Texas set her hooves up for failure and that the right hind one probably tore easy like paper. Essentially the bars of the hoof weren't trimmed proper and over grew and created a nice hook for her to catch things on.

Last night was my second hoof wrap change. I got new no-bow wraps which I will write a review on at some point after we're through all of this to see how they hold up. They're the Lettia Coolmax ones and I love my other Coolmax products so I'm optimistic. I've been keeping her hind legs wrapped almost 24/7 just for support. She's had some filling in both with minimal heat in the right. Wrapping itself last night was smoother than Monday's hoof change thanks to Colleen and her ability to entertain a yearling state of mind. 

CANNOT stand still!

This definitely happened...

Me: "Crap there's another piece of gauze up in there" 

Picks up hoof and looks to see how I'm going to get it out.

Me: " I can't tell if that's gauze or... lamina"

Colleen: "Yeah that's lamina" 
Looks closer

Me: "Well I'm happy I didn't try to tear that out!"

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

This might be the hardest post I've had to write to date and second hardest to reread, only second to Lyssette's goodbye post to Carlos. 

I planned to write about different horse toys to help cure Echo's boredom and to give her something to take out life's frustrations on. However a call yesterday at about 3:50 changed that. I was at work with my cell phone on silent. I happened to glance at it and saw a missed call from my barn owner when simultaneously my work phone started ringing. My heart sank and I knew it wasn't just an ordinary call. 

All I hear is Echo has cut herself and is bleeding perfusely, do I have your permission to call the vet. Of course I agree and learn it's her hoof that's injured. I tell her I'm on my way and tell, not ask, my supervisor I have to leave and on my way to the barn I went. 

Get to barn, she was in wash stall. They had her nearly wrapped and done so I never saw the injury unwrapped. Of course when Echo saw me she snapped out of her sedation and started acting up. My vet got some duct tape on the bottom to help water proof her hoof, but its not too pretty - at least its effective for now. 

She essentially cut straight through from the inside of her hoof to the back of her heal. She's been given a 4-5 day antibiotic shot to help prevent infection. Her hoof wrapped:

Picture my vet took of the hoof before being wrapped. I'm not inserting the photo for those that don't want to see it. The hoof is cleaned at this point and not a lot of blood, but its there. Better visual of what happened. LINK TO PHOTO.

2 grams of bute last night, 1 this morning. The plan going forward is to apply a hoof cast some time today or first thing tomorrow morning. She's on stall rest for foreseeable future. I'm assuming, mostly because we haven't gotten to that point, that the first thing we need to accomplish after cast being put on is her bearing some weight on the leg. Lots of risk to over come including infection and her mental state of being stalled. She's angry, and I mean angry over the hoof being wrapped, she keeps kicking trying to get it off. 

Her long term prognosis is unknown but there's a solid chance of her not being riding sound. There's been a lot of soft tissue damage and no knowing yet what could of been sliced in there. It's least of my worries at this point and just want her healthy again. 

I will post updates as they come. 

Weight Gain Update - Week 6

Today is 6 weeks since Echo arrived back to KY. Time is flying! Haven't been able to get down to business with her because of weather limitations. The last thing I want to do is work her 2 days and have her sit 2 weeks. We're breaking 40 degrees for the entire next week so I think we're within 10-14 days of starting back. Consistency, consistency with her!

So point of this post is to update everyone with her body condition, myself included. I see her every day so this is why pictures are so wonderful. 

5 weeks ago I posted this from the day of her vet exam. 

The following are from late last night. I put her on the same side of the wash stall and tried to get it from the exact same angle. Thoughts? I plan to do 2-3 week updates now that she's improving in condition. It will be interesting to see how she holds her weight as she goes back into work too. End of March / beginning of April cannot come fast enough, come on green grass.

New photos to compare for the future - the butt shot! I wanted to get one head on of her chest too for when she goes into work so I can see muscle development. However someone is too curious and wont stand long enough for a non blurry photo. 

I think there's some definite improvement in her weight. I won't lie, I was terrified to put the pictures side by side and not see any improvement. I think her coat, while it was pretty decent upon her Kentucky return, has also gotten healthier looking. 

Food?

Not impressed over being groomed. 

Hungry mare!

Post Texas Vet Visit

Vet came out yesterday to see miss Echo. I headed to the barn about 11:15 to only find a flat tire on my car. Again. I rolled over to the gas station across the street from my apartment complex to quickly fill it and get on my way to the barn. Sadly I had to wait behind a dumb frat boy and his friend who couldn't figure out how to use the air pump machine! I texted my vet that I was delayed and we pushed back the appointment a little to make it all work. Got to the barn, cleaned my stalls, set my feed and brought Echo in for a good grooming. One of the moments I'm super thankful for blankets. It was rainy and gross so having her mostly dry helped.

Weight must be added! Taken a week after arrival as a before shot. 1/13/14

Verdict is a clean bill of health! She drew blood to run a panel to make sure and took extra for a coggins to last me all of 2014 since mine will expire in April. She agreed that she needs to put on weight (don't know anyone that would disagree), and having her on an ulcer supplement is good too right now.

Hamming it up in the wash stall.

Next step: Next Monday = a different vet coming out to do both Dakota and Echo's teeth. It's been a little too long since the last visit, about 14 months. I had hoped to do it closer to 10-12 but this will have to do this time around. 

The New Diet

You're probably going to read this and think I'm insane and I have too much time on my hands. Truth is I am insane, and I don't have this much time but I'm trying things out. At the bottom I've listed out general descriptions of the things I'm feeding at the bottom. Basically all her meals end up soaked for now because of the beet pulp.

Breakfast

Breakfast

1 lb       Beet Pulp Pellets
1 lb       Timothy/Alfalfa Cubes

1 lb       Rice Bran Pellets

1 oz       Thia-Cal 

1/4 tsp   Source

1/4 tsp   Oregano Leafs

1 tsp      Rosemary Leaves

Dinner

1 lb        Beet Pulp Pellets
1 lb        Rice Bran Pellets

1 oz       U-7 
1/2 oz    MSM (14,000 mg)
1 oz       Raspberry Leaves
1 tsp      Ginkgo Biloba Leaves
2 oz       Whole Flax Seeds

Separate PM Meal

1 lb        Timothy/Alfalfa Cubes

1/2 lb     Beet Pulp Pellets

1 oz       Equamin

Dinner

Beet Pulp - The pulp that remains after sugar has been removed from the sugar beet. A high calorie, low protein, low sugar, fiber source for horses. 

EquiMin - Vitamin/Mineral supplement to balance the diets of horses fed non-fortified or small amounts of grain. Biotin, yeast culture and organic minerals are added to increase nutrient digestions, enhance immune response and support hoof and coat condition.

Flax Seed - Protein, Fiber, Omega 3's.

Ginkgo Biloba Leaf - Improves memory, concentration, cognition, improved circulation, antioxidant. 

MSM - Anti-inflammatory, hoof and joint care, detoxifies the body / can make the pH levels in body neutral.

Oregano - Omega 3's, antioxidant, repels parasites, antibacterial properties, actually a top flavor among a study done. Echo eats it right up!

Raspberry Leaf - Calming properties, improves uterine health and relaxes the digestive tract.
Rice Bran Pellets - 18% fat supplement. Supports muscle development and hoof growth. Fortified and high in vitamin E. 

Rosemary Leaf - Used in aromatherapy, the aroma is used to help stimulate concentration. Also ranked in a horse flavor study!

Source - Broad spectrum supplement of trace elements, micro-nutrients, vitamins, etc.
Thia-Cal - B1 Calcium calming supplement. Doesn't test 

U-7 Gastric Aid - Promotes a healthy digestive system including foregut and hindgut. Not an anti-acid or an acid production blocker. 

2nd PM Meal

Surprise!

Ummm so guess who is back in Kentucky? Yep that's right... Echo!

As I hinted at in my last Echo update (linked here) things with her haven't been going fully as planned. She's gotten herself into a fair bit of trouble since that update and there was a spot open on a trailer heading north and basically had no choice but to put her on it to come back.

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To save myself the pain of writing a lengthy blog and the pain of my readers for when I write a novel I'm going to attempt to summarize here. 

Grain has been switched - twice. MareFace is has had a hard time with retaining any training and looses focus. You 'lunge' her - which is more like a wild horse show - for 20 minutes and then her brain clicks and she's back to a sweet loving horse. You put her away after your session and you return 30 minutes later and she forgets who you are.

The video below just... makes me semi worried that maybe the idiot ways of her sire are maybe genetic - he died in a paddock accident in which he basically impaled himself on something. In that case who knows what I'm up against. This was taken last week:

She's also taken out two stalls, kicking and destroying them overnight. Well built stalls I'd like to add - not something flimsy like a temporary show stall. She empties 300 gallons of water at a time - going tank to tank dumping them. Basically making lots of enemies. 

Anyone have thoughts or advice on improving focus? Other than routine and consistency? I've ordered her an ulcer supplement and put her back on raspberry leaves and have another calming supplement on hand if it's needed. The only thing I can connect is that maybe the trailer ride from Michigan to Kentucky, that took 20 hours, stressed her enough to start ulcers - causing the behavior changes. She's not really the laid back puppy dog mare I knew then. Not that this makes me love her less, just stumps me somewhat. I know Michigan was not as stimulating as an environment and the hay quality etc are better now so that may have part to do with it. 

Now that she's back with me I plan on letting her settle a few days and let the ulcer supplements get a good week in her before I start messing with her brain. Then it's to the drawing board for her. 

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So despite things not going as planned, I'm determined to look at the positives.

• It's now known that she's terrified of pigs, especially in potbelly form. Any subconscious desire to ever own a pig is gone. 
• She no longer spooks at a donkey bray.
• Trailer rides are no big deal. She's a pro.

Dakota Vet Visit

I planned on writing this post when I got home but the fact I only had 2 hours of sleep last night won and I crashed for 4 hours.

The vet - who I must take a moment to reiterate how amazing she is- came out this afternoon to look at Dakota. 

Took him out the end of the barn and I trotted him in a straight line. Then she had her assistant (a friend of mine as well) trot him so I could tell her if what she was seeing was better / average / worse than he normally appeared. He appeared much better in a straight line and I told her it was more obvious on a turn. 

I lunged him to the right first, on the gravel at a walk and he was ok- short strided, not head bobbing lame. Asked for a trot and you could immediately tell a difference. Switch directions and it got even worse.

Headed back to the barn to do a block on his front left affernal nerves. As she was sterilizing his leg she gave me a hard time for how clean he was and making her job too easy (he had gotten a bath in the morning). The block took affect (effect? Whatever I'm tired) a little faster than usual. His reaction to her testing his feeling was quite amusing. She didn't know if he was just being stoic or couldn't feel so she did same thing to right leg and he jerked, looking at he like 'ouch what the...' 

Lunge line time- starting to left this time. Walked him a minute or two and he leaped into the trot when I asked. Completely different horse. Little short stride in hind but improved there as well. Back to the barn to take Left hoof X-rays.

I had X-rays done in '09 to confirm the degree of rotation in his right hoof - and I flashed back to how naughty he was standing on the X-ray block. Finally after some distracting he cooperated and got the needed angles.

We reviews the X-rays and there was nothing noticeable. Good amount of sole, clean joints / no arthritis, no rotation, no discoloration to indicate anything in pastern or soft tissue. X-rays will be sent to radiology to confirm my vets beliefs. He had some filling just above his hoof / coronet band / coffin joint fluid. Next step will be to inject his coffin joint and see if his soundness improves. If not we will potentially ultrasound for soft tissue or do an MRI which isn't something I can afford at this point and not fully convinced it would be worth doing. Anything that requires an MRI to find I'm not going to be able to afford to fix and he will basically just officially be pasture retired - but we will cross that bridge if it comes.

Existing

Hello Blog World - it's been a few weeks, ok, many weeks... We're still alive and going, basically just existing. It took this long to get enough worthy updates to make a post, otherwise you would of been seeing a lot of 1 liner post about irrelevant things.

Me

School is going meh. I'll complete these first 8 week classes, but I'm not too confident in the grades I'll receive. I'm no longer working a second job since as of last week I'm full time again at Equibase. Hopefully being full time and a little more in hours and pay will make a difference. My friend Jenny is actually moving to Kentucky this month. She gave herself a deadline to be here and if she's not here, gave us permission to go snatch her. Still have my doubts until I see here standing in front of me.

Dakota

Mr. Dakota is lame. It's soft tissue and in the same leg he bowed a tendon in 3-4 years ago. Just below the knee and I'm guessing up into the knee where I can't feel. It's been going on a few weeks but 1) I haven't had time to have a vet out 2) I wanted to give liniment & poultice a valid chance. He was sound 99.99% of the time he was in Michigan and sound from his arrival until around August 1st. Basically he probably did something in a field and he's visibly sound at a walk so I didn't notice as fast as I should have. 

Vet is coming out Monday to take a look and I'll have the necessary diagnostics done to find out what he did. My hopes aren't too high. My gut is telling me it isn't a tendon and we could be dealing more with a ligament issue. 

Echo

My mareface has a Mohawk... a giant one. Her mane has not yet flipped over from me roaching it earlier this summer. Her mane is a good 5-6" tall and just keeps growing. Dakota's is barely 2-3" - I guess it is a good and bad thing Echo has such good hair growth - she just looks ridiculous instead of 'cute' like Dakota does with his.

I started her back on raspberry leaves aka the cheap version of Mare Magic. She's been a spooky mess leading her in and out of the barn - over the top. 

I've been doing nothing but ground work with her partly because she has forgotten to respect space and her manners have gone out the window. Lots of rope halter time and me 'beating on her' and her enjoying it instead of following a normal horse's reaction. She's the horse that will make me a non believer in the basics of natural horsemanship in the end. She does not respond to pressure. I try to get her to move away from pressure and she leans into it. Lots to work on!

Both horses are starting to get a little fuzzy with the shortening days. My mission this week is to buy Echo a turnout sheet / maybe a blanket so she has a full set for winter. Still debating on body clipping her. Fall vaccines and FEC coming up next week - fun fall times!

Sorry for all the writing and no pictures, I promise in the next one I'll have some photo updates.

Heat heat go away!

Well it stopped raining. Which I should of known meant time for it to heat up. I'm such a northern sissy when it comes to heat. It gets 80+ and I won't entertain the idea of riding. 85+ I have to force myself to the barn but if there's a breeze I'm alright. 90+ I'm flat out useless and slug my way through cleaning stalls and go home ASAP. How the heck do my California & Florida friends ride in this? 

Heat index is well over 100 I believe for next couple of days. If I want to ride, looks like I'll be planning on saddling up around 9-10pm at this rate. Yay for indoors with decent lighting. 

Positive note. It's been just over 4 weeks since Dakota had his shoes put on. 1) He still has them on *knock on wood* 2) Check out the crazy amount of growth he's had! The top point was at his coronet band when he had the shoes put on in June. The I'm beyond thrilled that this farrier didn't completely screw up the angles of his hooves and had made the shoes last this long with no glue needed (especially with all that rain we had). I may actually have a shot at getting this crazy crazy crazy crack in his hoof to grow out with the summer growth burst in combination of good farrier and winter not around corner to have to pull them off.

For those that don't know... he's had this crack, that started as a sand surface crack in 2006 before we moved to Kentucky the first time. It's grown 1/2 way out before, then winter came and I had to pull them because it was so icy. It then progressed to a deeper crack, going through the white line at one point. Fingers crossed.

Muzzle Musings

Oh Echo... What am I going to do with you?

I love my mare, I really do, but sometimes I just look at her, shake my head and see one disaster of a horse. We got her hind end female issues clear, now I have a clover induced drooling mess of a horse with a messed up muzzle. 

Drool and some of the spotting on her muzzle. Such a glorious sight.

When I got Echo last fall, she arrived with what I assumed to be spots of sunburn from being left outside 24/7. The first week I had her, I applied Corona Ointment daily and it cleared up. No more problems.

Pre Michigan Photo - you can see slightly the muzzle spots.

My thoughts:

• If it was an allergy to grass, clover or a weed wouldn't it be on more of her body?
• If it was Vitiligo would she loose hair or have changes to her hair?
• I've given her mineral blocks in both stall and her field, as well at adding a little extra mineral top dressing to her grain to try and rule out either a copper or iron deficiency. 
• Not summer / sweet itch. It'd be all over her body for sure.

Regardless of whatever it is, it clearly isn't bothering her, just me. I'll update on what vet says whenever I have him take a look at it. Not in a HUGE rush to figure it out, just would like to know.

More delish drool.

Side note - I lunged her this morning before work. She was a mess. Acted like she's never lunged in her life. Time to figure out how to get consistent with her again. 

Twinkle Toes

Dakota finally has shoes on again!!! Lets all take a moment to cross our fingers and send threatening thoughts to him if he pulls them off in less than 6 weeks. I cannot wait to ride him more now.

Echo's getting few more days off. Where Dr Friend did caslisk stitches she's really swollen still and I don't want to force her into moving and risk tearing something. So last night she got a good grooming and I braided her mane in big braids hoping to tame the stray hairs to the correct side of her neck. Hopefully she heals well under the tail and we can move on from nasty uterine infections.

I see nails!!!

Ready to go outside.

Tonight - Working until 9pm so no pony time tonight.

Sunday - Off work, lunge and ride Dakota - maybe outside riding.

Monday - Who knows...

Tuesday - Work late - probably not much pony time.

Wednesday - Work late - hopefully lunge Echo in the morning before work.

Thursday - Hopefully work with Echo if she's healed, if not maybe ride D.

Friday - Hopefully work with Echo if she's healed, if not maybe ride D.

Countdowns

1 Week until my birthday

1 Week until more Churchill Downs night racing

2 Weeks + 1 Day until Michigan / Kitties / Moving