This is Classie. Her owner advised me that she is 16 years old. She appears to be dealing with chronic laminitis. There is heat at her coronet bands. I’m curious as to what started her lameness on. From the appearance of her sole, the laminitis appears to me to brought on mechanically rather than organically. But I could be wrong. Classie is a sweet, very sensitive mare, who obviously has had some natural horsemanship training. The owner let me know that she was a 4-h horse. The lameness apparently came on in both horses suddenly.
Cricket is Classie’s pasture mate and of the two mares, her lameness is much worse. She is a horse in founder. Cricket is the smaller of the two and about 10 years.
When I play with Cricket, I’m not finding that she’s had any training at all. She’s a nervous horse and she has some emotional baggage she’s dealing with, but when a horse is in as much pain as she has been in, unless it’s a very stoic horse like Dexter was, (see old posts for his story) the mental and emotional outfall from that pain shows up in many ways. Those horses are typically mouthy, kickers, distrustful, easily panicked, and always worried, and they will often chew on whatever the can find. That fact is showing up in their loafing shed.
When I first met her, I didn’t like Cricket much. But I’ve got her wearing Soft-Ride boots and she is a different horse now. She is sweet, willing, more trusting, she’s good about hoof handling too. She is fun to be around, although, challenging horses usually find a comfy place in my heart and just hang out there.
This mare is a little pistol. Without her boots she can barely take step, but I let her out to run a few times with her boots on and OMG! She is FAST! With good feet, I bet she could run barrels or cut cows like nobody’s business. She has an extended trot to die for and can buck higher than many professional broncs. She likes her boots!
(This is Cricket’s left front hoof. Not pretty.)
I’ll keep you posted on their progress. I haven’t trimmed the mares yet as they were just trimmed by a farrier a week or so before I picked them up and hauled them home from Port Orchard. Boy, what a day that was, but that’s another story. Thanks Debbie for helping me bring them home and for loaning Cricket your hoof boots. My Soft Rides just arrived today so I’ll get them back to you. (For more information on the Soft Ride boots go to soft-ride.com.)
6 comments:
I hope you(now referred to as Doc) are able to make the horses more comfortable. I hate to see any one or thing in pain! You go Doc! ernie.
Thank you Ernie! I appreciate it and love the nick-name.
Pat
Thanks Doc. E.
About one month ago a pony was found by the SPCA. The hooves were so long and the little fellow was in so much pain it was walking on its knees! Is this whats happening to Cricket in the top photo?
Hi Ernie,
Do you know what happened to the pony? I've performed the initial trim on horses ln that condition with a hand saw. It usually doesn't take long to get them sound again if there are no other issues. You can fix the most amazing cases, but most vets and farriers recommend euthanasia, sadly, because they don't know what to do for them. Cricket is in considerble pain without her boots, and doesn't like to have to take very many steps, but if she has to, she will. She's a funny little horse. I really like her.
Pat
The programme did an up date and on the video clip the pony is seen walking upright. Initially when they found the pony it was confined to a small pen and was walking all day on straw and it`s own manure! He know has access to an outdoor pasture and above all someone who is held responsible for its needs! E.
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