How are the horses?
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThe horses are fine. They're still shedding out and with the optimism of spring I'm about convinced that I want to go to a (small, local) dressage show to feel bad about myself and my riding and my horse again. What fun!
So Finn (he's 3 this year) is working on riding readiness skills. He's young, but also he has balls and needs a job, so... riding readiness it is. He's good with saddle pad, saddle, pretend put-the-bit-in-your-mouth (the lead rope), all the things. Is now wearing saddle with intentionally flopping stirrups for his ground work outings. It's a snoozefest, at least at home. We'll be starting to walk across the road and up over the hill here in a week or so, to go "away" from home and see how that is. I do not expect a whole lot of difficulty as he's generally a good boy.
Bird is still a bit shaggy but getting fitter -- we're going on regular rides to work on that and he's a bit less "dad bod" this year because I did a better job on not feeding him so damn much in winter.
The super exciting and difficult tests I am looking at doing are training 1 and training 3. (I do not like the way T2 is written, it does not flow well.) Instructor says she thinks I could do First-1 but that's a lot going on and the weak link here is me and my effing nerves. Like, I get super fraught and then Birb is There must be invisible danger that only she can see! We are GOING TO DIE!! and he's really not like that in our day to day. And then it spirals out of control because I get more tense and he gets more tense and we both look like we're incompetent nutjobs. So, let's stick with nice, easy circles where maybe I can remember to breathe and shit. If I can manage that, perhaps then we will look at more complicated tests later on.
I'm still waiting on his coggins (though Spring said she mailed them out) and also he was lame this morning (though fine last night, I'm thinking maybe abscess -- hoof was a little warm but the leg is cool and tight) which... OK, Bird. I dug his lame foot out when I fed and it looks OK on a cursory inspection but I didn't have time to play hoof knife before work. After work, I suppose.
So Finn (he's 3 this year) is working on riding readiness skills. He's young, but also he has balls and needs a job, so... riding readiness it is. He's good with saddle pad, saddle, pretend put-the-bit-in-your-mouth (the lead rope), all the things. Is now wearing saddle with intentionally flopping stirrups for his ground work outings. It's a snoozefest, at least at home. We'll be starting to walk across the road and up over the hill here in a week or so, to go "away" from home and see how that is. I do not expect a whole lot of difficulty as he's generally a good boy.
Bird is still a bit shaggy but getting fitter -- we're going on regular rides to work on that and he's a bit less "dad bod" this year because I did a better job on not feeding him so damn much in winter.
The super exciting and difficult tests I am looking at doing are training 1 and training 3. (I do not like the way T2 is written, it does not flow well.) Instructor says she thinks I could do First-1 but that's a lot going on and the weak link here is me and my effing nerves. Like, I get super fraught and then Birb is There must be invisible danger that only she can see! We are GOING TO DIE!! and he's really not like that in our day to day. And then it spirals out of control because I get more tense and he gets more tense and we both look like we're incompetent nutjobs. So, let's stick with nice, easy circles where maybe I can remember to breathe and shit. If I can manage that, perhaps then we will look at more complicated tests later on.
I'm still waiting on his coggins (though Spring said she mailed them out) and also he was lame this morning (though fine last night, I'm thinking maybe abscess -- hoof was a little warm but the leg is cool and tight) which... OK, Bird. I dug his lame foot out when I fed and it looks OK on a cursory inspection but I didn't have time to play hoof knife before work. After work, I suppose.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-23 11:06 pm (UTC)I think I found the abscess...
For the non-horsey audience, the pinkish/white-ish wet droplet thing at the rightmost edge of the hoof is ick from the abscess. Basically an abscess is a small infection in the hoof, but since the pressure from the ick has nowhere to go (hooves are kind of fingernail-like and don't have much expansion potential so any swelling is painful right away), the horse gets REALLY LAME, REALLY FAST.
The way a hoof abscess is treated is that you locate the area of the hoof that looks sus or feels warm, then grab a hoof knife and start shaving away a wee bit of the surface to see if you can find the source of the problem. Abscesses need to drain and this isn't... necessarily call a vet territory.
The thing is, you are not shaving off very big slivers of hoof surface. First cut out the sole, check with your thumbs for any give or wetness or irregularities or anything. On the sole, you're taking small flake-like shavings off the sole, one layer only, to kind of clean things up so that you can see what's there. Next, you're going to look along the bottom of the bearing wall of the hoof, from the quarters (in the back) up to the toe. You're still taking off thin flakes of hoof surface. Partly this cleans up the hoof surface so that you can see any suspect areas and partly it keeps you from making any horrible horse-laming mistakes. But that's honestly not likely with a hoof knife anyway. If you have cleaned up the entire surface of the hoof and you cannot see any suspect areas at all, probably call a professional for help. But, if you see anything suspect (a small dark crack, an area that appears wetter, an area that looks moist or soft, etc) you can dig a little more in that area. Do not under any circumstances use a power tool on your horse's foot. Do not go deeper than 1/4 inch. Use good sense and caution. Remember, it's always OK to call a pro if you are uncertain about proceeding.
If you do hit ick, it will kind of ooze out at you, as shown in the photograph above. Yay. This is the goal of your exploratory surgery. Kind of use your thumbs to press on the sole and see if any more ick comes out. If you get more than a teaspoon of liquid ick, call a vet. Usually an abscess is a teaspoon or less of liquid ick. A whole lot of liquid is a problem. Any sort of gushing is a problem. Stank is not a problem, more of an expectation. Also your ick can be some shade of white-ish or gray-ish or yellowish or blackish but it should not be bright red blood. Bright red blood is also a problem, call a vet.
After striking ick in your mining expedition, it's useful to let horse graze on clean(ish) grass for a while to encourage movement and weight bearing, which will help drainage. If your horse is in a stall or a paddock, you can pad and wrap the hoof overnight (duct tape and diaper, obvi) and check it again the next morning. If he's in a big grassy field, you're probably OK just turning him out. I'm not a huge "soak soak soak" fan because it seems like all that soaking makes for soggy, weak hooves. If you want to soak, maybe every other day?
Also, coggins papers came in the mail today, yay!
no subject
Date: 2025-04-26 02:31 am (UTC)lolol
I used to get really nervous, and still get a little nervous. I think at best we can get 80% of what we get at home.
Glad it was something easy that made him lame.