My idiot horse

Don't get me wrong - I really do love the guy - but sometimes he is just such an idiot! He has finally gotten through all his previous lameness problems (shoulder inflamation, tender hoof/frog) and yesterday was to be E's first lesson on him since June. This was kinda important because she's become really afraid to ride him and we all know that the only reason he's been so naughty with her is lack of use.

Anyway, we get out to the barn to clean on Thursday and guess who's barely walking??? The big dork had been playing with some of his horse buddies, racing around and bucking, and it appears he has pulled a muscle on his left front leg.

We are using Bute to help him with his pain and hope that this has resolved itself by Monday. If not, I'll take him into the vet to have the leg looked at.

There are two horses that we may consider this next week. One, Serrano, is an older TB/QH cross who's never done any arena work but is supposedly wonderful out on the trails. My concern with him, however, is that he might find the arena riding we often do way too boring. The second horse, Lottie, is an older mare who has done 4-H, trail riding, lesson horse - well, just about anything we would consider doing, really. She's little - about 14.3 hands - and fat, but cute. Both horses are sound and appear to be great beginner horses. Our friend who is helping us find these animals agrees that E deserves an animal that will be easy. She's had to work hard for a long time already and it's only fair that she have some easy fun now!

I'll keep you updated....

Conquering fear

We spent a few hours out at the barn yesterday, cleaning & doctoring and just generally enjoying the beautiful fall day. E took Curly into the round pen for a long while to exercise him and to make sure he was attending to her.

I wanted her to ride him - which she eventually did - but she was very frightened. All she could think about was her last ride and getting bucked. After much talking and encouragement, E managed to get up in the saddle and go around the arena at a slow pace for 30 minutes. She was scared the whole time.

But she didn't want to get off, either, because she felt like she should be working him. Only she didn't feel confident enough to actually work him. The ride ended in tears.

E will begin lessons again to help her get over these new-found fears. She says she still really wants to ride, only that she doesn't trust Curly. Understandable, really.

But she still loves him.

I have begun to ask around for a horse to lease. We need to find something that will work for her....soon.

House call

The vet came out to the barn this morning to take care of many of the horses living there. One of our old friends, Whiskey, was put to sleep, another has pigeon fever and there are a few others with various lameness issues. Curly's hoof problems really have turned out to be pretty minor when placed in that company!

We all agreed that the frog sloughed off due to thrush. The amount that has come off is not usual (all the way down to tender regions of his hoof) but it will grow back. Curly is already moving around almost normally and the vet gave E. the go ahead to begin riding again. He also gave me a bottle of Coppertex to put on daily for the next 4 days or so. The stuff stains terribly and smells, but it will protect that tender region as he toughens up a bit.

I am now beginning to research various boots to use while riding the trails. The general consensus is that Curly will never have wonderful, hard hooves and riding out on anything other than a nice soft arena will require some sort of hoof protection.

Dr. Mom

After doing some research, I am wondering if perhaps Curly just had a bad case of thrush that infected his frog, causing it to fall off. Part of his run stays wet a lot of the year and he has also developed a nasty habit of pooping in his stall and then standing in the mess - both things that encourage poor hoof health. We have been battling what I thought was a minor case of thrush recently. My second guess is that there is still a bit of infection left in the hoof from that nasty abscess last year.

So we are now going out to the barn on a daily basis to clean Curly's back hoof, rinsing it with either bleach water or an idodine solution and mucking out his stall. I am hoping that by keeping everything as clean as possible we can take care of any infection that may be lurking in that hoof.

Curly was a little worried looking when he saw us walk up yesterday with the blue bucket and some towels. I'm sure he remembers the not-so-pleasant doctoring from last fall/winter! Hopefully this go-round will be less traumatic.

I'm calling the vet today to get his take on it all as well.

Recurring problems

Life with Curly has not been so smooth the past couple of weeks. He has not been ridden since Sept. 30 since it appears he is still having lameness issues with his rear right hoof. (And when E did ride him, he tried his darnedest to buck her off! We all came out of our chairs when he started hopping around...)

E and I are pretty religious about picking out his hooves every time we touch him. And eight times out of ten, we find a pebble or stick stuck in the yuck. Yesterday during this routine the barn manager was chatting with us. She noticed that he pulled his hoof away when I started working on that back one, so she asked to take a look. She was able to pull away pretty much his whole frog - it was all detached, just sorta hanging there. And then he was really tender-footed! He wouldn't do more than tip-toe on it.

The barn manager took Curly into the round pen after this - he was having some issues with ignoring us and being very disrespectful (He continually refused to do as asked, ignored personal space and was constantly turning away from us - not good!). He was able to get around on the lame foot, and would put weight on it eventually, but it was definitely tender.

I had been taught that the frog is supposed to slough off sometimes - maybe not as extremely as Curly's did yesterday, but still shed some. But his reaction to our ministrations makes me think there is more going on. Perhaps another abscess? Some other (hopefully not permanent!) problem? The vet will be coming out to the barn this week for another horse, so the barn manager will ask him to take a look at Curly as well.

All of this started conversations about if we can afford to keep a horse who is not ride-able....E was pretty upset by the end of the afternoon. Understandable, really.

Walking in the rain

E's ankle is bothering her tremendously (again) so I had a solo trip out to the barn this evening.

It was rather nice, actually. I mostly did chores, mucking out Curly's stall and run and generally tidying up our area. Since I had to walk back and forth between barns, I decided to take Curly on the short walk to break up his day a little. He was so excited when he saw me pick up his halter that he rushed over to me immediately and dropped his head to have the halter tied on. In the middle of our walk, a rain storm blew in. It was fun to feel the rain come down while we rushed into the dry aisle of the main barn.

I just love this fall weather.

Workin' again...

Yesterday, E took her first ride on Curly since last July. She was ecstatic when I told her they could travel around the arena at a slow walk for 20 minutes or so. She didn't waste time saddling up, choosing to ride bareback instead. Both horse and rider were so happy to be working together again!

E made quite the funny picture once the ride was done. Riding bareback had left large dirt stains on her backside, plus so much horse hair she was actually able to curry it off. The fact that she wore mis-matched boots yesterday just made her seem all the sillier:

The post-cleaning version of E's outfit...

Why the mis-matched boots, you ask? Her ankle has been acting up again, necessitating the use of an ankle brace. When wearing the brace, she needs my (larger) left boot. Funny looking, but effective!

I also think she just likes to be weird sometimes. :-)