No Foot - No Horse !

Gosh how that saying has come back to me time and time again.  I am really torn most of the time between the benefits of barefoot and the ease of just sticking shoes on.  Over the last few years I have learnt a lot about my horses feet and still learning what works and what doesn't.   I certainly don't think barefoot is the easy way out any more - actually far from it - it takes care and commitment to transition from shod to barefoot.

Sadie

In 2010 I was tired of Sadie's feet looking poor and shoes not lasting more than 4 weeks and farriers who thought she needed long toes resulting in pressure on the tendons.  Here are some of the before pics :

It was at this point we changed farrier as this farrier thought this looked ok!

It got worse even with a change in diet and various supplements I made the decision to remove all her shoes at which point her feet looked like this :

Sadie front - most of the hoof breaking away and flat footed with no heel and poor frog

she spent 8 months barefoot and then when we moved yards I shod her in front.  apart from a bit of seedy toe at the back they have done really well and currently look like this :

Sadie front

Sadie front

Sadie hinds

Sadie hind

We currently have had loads of rain and so they are constantly in mud hence the nice brown stain but she copes fine and I have had no issues. The photos don't show it well but they have a nice shape to them now inside and the 'flatness' is gone.

Which brings me to ....

Mulligan

Mulls has been shod for most of his life as far as I know.  He is 20 in 2013 and had big soup plate flat feet.  During one of the farrier visits earlier this year the lad took off his front shoes and said 'cant really do anything with them' ok, fair enough I thought, you are the farrier perhaps the growth is not quite right.  However another 6 weeks later - he said the same thing!  Next thing Mulls is lame and I have the vet out teaching me about hoof balance, correct shoeing etc!  Off we went to see a remedial farrier to be told that his pedal bone was near rotation, the laminae was stretched and there was blood in the white line!  Luckily all quickly corrected with good shoeing.  It did bring back to me the saying 'No foot no horse!'  As the heels had collapsed and this farrier did not have the correct size shoes he did a marvelous job of corrective shoeing and the horse walked away 95% sound.  It took a couple of shoeing's and a few months with heart bars but horse was sound.

This is the front foot with a shoe fitted back to front to support the heels.

Anyway this week the farrier has come to do a routine change and is not happy with how the heart bars are performing and unfortunately with the bad weather and the fact you cannot see the frog with the heart bars on he has developed a bit of thrush.  We have given him a few days of no shoes (with some pain relief as he is very uncomfortable with no shoes) and the thrush is nearly gone.  I have decided that only front shoes will go back on - they will be regular shoes and we are going to give the hinds a chance to breathe, get blood back into the hooves and see if we can make them better as they look a little sick to me.  I am hoping that they will do what Sadie's did and now is the best time whilst the ground is soft.

Fronts

They have been scrubbed with hibiscrub so the foamy stuff is just that - nothing sinister.   They are then dried and purple spray put on for the thrush.

and the hinds: 

the fronts are completely flat whereas the hinds have the start of a bit of concaveness (is that a word) to them so hopefully over the next few months they will do their thing and become healthier. 

Just to try and show the flatness of the front feet - I turned him out in school with bandaged feet and he seemed quite happy with nothing on the back but it was a soft surface. 

So I will update as time goes on ... if it doesn't work we will go back to shoes.

One final picture - just so that they are not all feet pics - Mulligan rather amused by the paparazzi treatment.  

Finishing the year with a bit of showjumping

So, as the weather has been so wet - fairly mild temperatures for this time of year - but wet, we have hired the indoor arena twice to try and practice our showjumping.  Never been my strongest phase, made more difficult by a horse that is a bit green for her age and sometimes decides at the last minute she cant be bothered.  My biggest problem is general control between the jumps - I can bring her back to trot and continue but as soon as I try continue in canter it all becomes a bit quick.

The second thing we tackled was fillers.   She still decides to have a good look at the last minute resulting in some horrendous leaps so going to book a few lessons in the new year and see if we can try and crack this phase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

a bit of shocking riding !

 

Epworth Equestrian Cross Country Schooling

So today we went Epworth - its a step up from the jumps we have done in the past. All the fences are pretty solid and 70 cms or above!  There were a few I didnt do - as there were a few that I was nervous of and blooped them a bit so decided that the bigger ones might just be a bit tricky.   She went really well - the ones we fluffed were due to me approaching too slowly and causing funny leaps.  But she is still leaping over them and thanks to my new saddle I am finding them easier to sit :)

Time for the Dentist

Well the dentist came to see to the horses week before last.  Dainty (after a bit of persuasion) allowed him to use the power tool in her mouth.  She needs her teeth brushing as her gums are receding and food is getting trapped.  Well let me tell you that was fun trying to brush her teeth!  Lewis eventually managed to get them done.   Mulls was fine - his bite may need some correcting next year due to age but on the whole his mouth was fine.

Sadie's bite has locked again.  I could kick myself as about 4 years ago this was discovered and under sedation it was corrected.  She then had 6 monthly visits from the dentist and we kept on top of it.  But then moving to the farm and not really doing much with her and then using someone who is not a true equine dentist last year who visited the yard I completely forgot about it.  But a few months ago she started getting really iffy in her head / mouth and started chewing / mouthing objects like her lead rope, bucket - anything really and was really locked on the left rein. She has also had a few episodes of choke as if she is not chewing her hay properly.  So, I contacted my old dentist who came out to see them.  He is really good - he trains other dentists and therefore his schedule is very busy.  We had to wait two months for our appointment.  As the procedure that Sadie needed doing required a much bigger power tool she needed sedating.  He could come back out end of October or I could take her to a monthly clinic in a neighbouring town.  Que me booking the morning off and a friend came with and we trundled off to this yard to have her teeth sorted.   Basically her jaw neither moved side or side or up and down (if you moved the jaw around)  the teeth were wedged together in the bite. 

It is easily corrected and took about 15 mins.  On arrival we had to wait our turn in a stall - she was such a good girl.

The vet arrived, asked me if she had been sedated before - I said yes and she asked how much sedation she normally has ?? !! What !!  I said I dont know my vet always just gives it and gets it right.  She didnt listen to the horses heart - ask any history - weigh her - nothing!  Bam - sedation in.  Sadie was very wobbly - I thought she might fall over but I was assured she was fine!  Thats ok to say when its not your horse that may fall down on concrete.  Anyway moving on - she was put in a special halter thingy that held her head up and the dentist did his job.

Vet presented me with a bill and told me to record in her passport the dosage.  I think not - horse seemed far too groggy.  Anyway she took about 15 mins to come out and when she heard another horse she started neighing really loudly and after I had walked her around a bit I loaded her up and went home.  She was still actually a bit groggy coming off the trailer ramp but once she realised she was home she seemed fine.

So we are back to 6 monthly visits for now to see how it goes.  I have not had a chance to ride her yet but I am sure she will be much more comfortable.  I am off on holiday for a week so will crack on when I get back.



Continuing the Journey ...

Well time is running out bit for this year in my journey to improve my confidence as soon the horrible weather will be back and horses will be back in at night.  

Decided to go again to Danethorpe with the intention of pushing to do the next level jumps.  I dont know what happened but my nerves just got the better of me.  Luckily once we had gone through the wood land trial with Lauren shouting encouragement at me we improved slightly but didnt really get my act together and so really felt it Monday and in fact Tuesday - felt I had been steam rollered.  Probably sitting too tense and gripping!

Sadie was due to have some dental work done and I toyed with going bitless but after a practice session decided it was just not safe.  She was fine but towards the end was a little iffy and I tried really hard to just leave her head alone.  She is not a horse that jumps on washing line reins though and is in fact very green in her jumping as we found out trying to do the steps lol. 

I get so frustrated with myself as I know the horse can do it - all she wants is for me to tell her to do it and I just freeze.  I am shouting at myself in my head - sit up, hold her up and kick.  I dropped her at one and she hit the brakes and luckily Lauren quickly point out my mistake.  So what I am trying to do now is look at the positives and to be positive - we tried the bigger drop fence and did a few new jumps like the steps, the coffin and a few banks but afterwards I felt cross that were others that are calling me to jump them and I just chicken out.

So .... we have a hunter trial planned for October and one more practice session before that to give myself a kick up the rear!  Maybe if I have a definite goal to work towards I might just pull myself together.

I have decided I need to jack my stirrups up a few holes and possibly get a gp / jumping saddle as the dressage and VSD saddle dont really help.

Hopefully this little clip of the coffin will work - she is normally very confident over ditches but we took a few trys to get it smooth - again she was probably feeding off my tenseness.

We played quite a bit in the water trotting through out over a small log and on to a slightly bigger log. She will jump out of water fine - but will not jump into water.

Trying to sort my knitting out on the steps lol :

she still wouldnt drop into the water and would slide along until she could jump off the corner.  She was getting a bit upset when I tried to push her so I left it at that.

Jumping out the water was no problem - although this picture makes me laugh as it looks like I was trying to lift her up lol.  She did eventually get the hang of it.

Danethorpe Hill Cross Country

Well if Hoods was good this place is fantastic!  Lauren and I, on a mission to improve our jumping confidence, decided to try somewhere new.  So, Sunday morning bright and early off we tootled to Danethorpe.  There are LOADS of jumps spread over about 5 / 6 different fields all varying heights from small logs up to great big jumps.  Unfortunately from Lewis' point of view he had lots of walking to do and a lot of jumps built on like a woodland course were hard for him to get pics of but we managed a few.

At first we set off to go explore the layout ... waving Lewis goodbye

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Our warm up log

There were about 15 jumps set through the woods like this one but not all were a nice clear path like this lol.



final jump at the end of the woods

one of the smaller drop fence options

tired, sweaty little ponies at the end

Greens Stables Summer Camp 2012

Well its that time of year again - CAMP TIME!   Have been a bit worried what the weather would do but luckily it was great all weekend up until the 'higher and higher' event last night when the heavens opened.  So that has been put on hold for a nice evening - to be continued ...

Unfortunately Mulligan is still not right and he LOVES the games - he stood watching from his paddock - neighing to Billy his little field mate as if to edge him on was really sweet to see. 

Our theme was Cowboys and Indians and although people started camping from Friday night the first actual event was the famous obstacle course on Saturday afternoon.   I took Sadie and a lady who used to ride on our yard came along and she took Dainty.  She did really well as she has never ridden Dainty before.

Entering games field :

So in Fancy Dress we waited our turn .....

 and then we were off ....

we had to negotiate the scary walkway with balloons

and on to the scary arch.  Last year Mulls was ace with this and I really didnt think Sades would do it but I kicked her on and off she went through - what a fabby pony when she wants to be ;)

next stop - biscuit corner - eat a biscuit before continuing - I think it would have been better if horse ate biscuit - was very dry lol

then through the bending poles ...

collect a jug of water ...

and carry safely to deposit in bucket ...

once water and jug in bucket - enter the holding pen and turn a circle ...

after a 5 second wait we were off ....

over a small cross pole ....

 

then a quick dismount ....

 through the tyres on foot and a run through the finish ....

We came second with a time of 22secs beaten by a 13.2 pony lol who got 18secs.  Will have to go faster next year!  We came third in the fancy dress category. 

Next up we played a game where you have to jump over a line of water tubs and each time a tub is removed until only one tub left.  If you knock or miss you are out.  I cant remember where I got up to but this is definately not Sadie's thing.  After the fourth round she is just 'yee haa' and staying on is tricky never mind aiming for a narrow tub so I think we went out fairly early - it is good fun though. 

Saturday night was BBQ and Broncing Bull - (Pics to follow).  I did not have a go however Lewis did.  Did not want to tweak my back in any way or form.  Sometimes I just roll over in bed and it twangs so dont want to find out what would happen falling off a bull!  Was great fun though watching everyone.  The kids were really good at it too.   I went home to see to dogs and sleep in my own bed although almost everyone else camped and luckily the weather was kind. 

Sunday morning early start to smarten and spruce ponies for the Showing Competition.  Two Sections - Tack and Turnout  and Ridden.  Again everyone really made an effort and Penny was our judge.  I remember being the judge last year and its really hard.  I won the adult section in both categories which was nice as Sadie was not too happy that Dainty was in field on other side of fence and I caught her twice in her stable trying to rub out her tail plait!!  Was also a good excuse for my tack to get a good cleaning. 

Sunday afternoon was gymkana games and the higher and higher competition.  I decided not to enter Sadie as it all just gets far too exciting for her brain.   The higher and higher had to be abandoned as the forecast rain finally made its appearance with thunder and lightning so we ran for cover.   It is to be continued this week some time.