Update on Fancy's Trailering Injury

April 15, 2009

Lisa: Fancy and I spent the day at the vet. Her orginal cast is removed.

Two cuts were made diagonally from each other and then the cast was split and pulled off. It doesn't sound like it would be, but this was quite an interesting procedure to watch.

The foot is healing nicely. There is so much granulated tissue that the doc had to scrape some of it off. It had grown all the way through the crack in the hoof. But everything is pink and healthy!

No bare cartilage showing and even though the vet didn’t say so, I am hoping that the white band that seems to be extending inwards from the coronary band is actually band tissue and her hoof will heal better than their prognosis. [I'm sure it will! Pat]



Fancy gets a brand new cast and I think this one went on much better and will be more comfortable than the first one. It isn’t up as high on her leg, and has more padding around the top. Fancy will be in this cast for 3 weeks if everything goes well.

Back at the barn Fancy is moving better but still depressed about being locked up.

On a happy note…I got a 3 horse slant! Yea! This particular accident will never again happen to us.
Lisa

501c3 Status!

Good news! We are now officially a non-profit corporation in the business of rescuing, rehabbing and rehoming horses with hoof ailments!

YAY!!

One More Scary Horse Hauling Mishap!

Live and Learn

I'm often asked whether I tie my horse's head or not when trailering. I think it depends on the trailer and the horse. But this is one situation where the horse was lucky his head wasn't tied. Read on:

Four young older teens in a hurry to trail ride. They hooked their older heavy 4 horse trailer to a small lowered half ton pickup. [That was their first and biggest mistake - Pat]

The pickup they usually use was in the shop for repair. They placed the two heaviest horses in the back end of the trailer. [Second, and nearly deadly, mistake]

They pulled onto the interstate [Mistake #3] and went less than 2 miles when the truck and trailer jackknifed blocking all traffic. Fortunately, two of the girls were following in another vehicle.

Those two girls could see the trailer swaying and actually held back the traffic with their car when the trailer started to jackknife. The horses were bruised and battered but okay. One horse went down under the other horses. The 1200 pound horse in the back of the trailer was flung around to where he was facing backwards. If he had been tied his neck likely would have been broken.

The police wouldn't let the horses unload on the freeway into the rescue trailers that arrived on the scene later. The rescue truck/trailers' drivers was directed to wait at the end of the exit ramp. They were going to unhook the wrecked trailer from the truck and tow the horses and trailer off the freeway. However they could not disconnect the trailer from the wrecked truck with the horses still inside due to the damage. Finally the girls were allowed to lead the horses off the freeway to the awaiting trailers.

The horse that incurred most of the injuries, was formerly owned by one of the drivers who came to their rescue. Imagine how that must have felt.

Beth's Trailer Experience!

Pat,
Here's our story, thank goodness it's not injury-related! Prior to moving to Washington from Illinois in 2006, we purchased a new (off the lot) 2004 Sundowner 727 2 Horse slantload, gooseneck. Originally I was hunting for a Brenderup, but couldn't find a nearby dealer and would have had to travel two states away with a check in-hand. No thanks. I am not fond of separating the horses, so we pulled out the divider to allow the horses to move into a comfortable position. I also don't tie them when they are loose. Some people will gripe about that, but honestly, there is no SAFE way to truly haul livestock.
The only trailer issue we had was due to not having bars on the drop down windows. We had screens with sliding door windows (very small, who designed this?). I bought a screen from Professional's Choice and using zip ties, was able to make it work. It was much too small though. So, we drove with one window down. Even though we traveled the higher (cooler) roads, it was still too hot in the trailer. One of my horses (the Arabian, of course) refused to drink while on the road and only took water when we stopped at ranches for the night. We walked the horses into the trailer each day and they would get into position while on the road. The Paint stood facing forward, the Arabian faced backward. Each time. The only scare we had was when we stopped to eat one afternoon and the Paint laid down. He was fine, just decided to lay down, regardless if the Arabian was in the way.
In 2008, we had to move overseas, so the horses went to live at the ranch they had come from. This time, I ordered custom-made screens to fit into the drop down windows allowing me to drive with the windows down. However, I didn't need to do this until we got to Kansas since we had snow storms following us most of the way and it was quite cool. This time we drove with the divider up, horses tied. Both horses were fine, the Arabian drank more, but he was also 2 years older (5) and had more trailer travel experience. If I can figure how to include it, I'll attach or email a photo of the Paint drinking (water) from a Taco Bell cup.
I was convinced by the owner of the ranch (where I worked and bought both horses) to convert my F150 to haul a gooseneck. He has been training and hauling horses his whole life and was worried about me hauling a regular trailer cross country. My dad agreed, as he's had jack-knifed trailers happen. It was a great decision and we had absolutely no swaying or problems (like we had with our camper trailer). The Sundowner worked very well. It has pads on the divider and walls, as well as rubber up the half the walls. I wish it had a ramp and barred windows. Oh, my trailer also has the emergency & dressing room doors open on the traffic side. I think most have changed to the other now. Lessons learned.

Fancy Cast! Part 4

Here are shots of Fancy's cast. Lisa has been reading your comments and she wanted me to respond to Laughing Orca Ranch that Fancy should be rideable by October according to her vet.

And to note that Fancy walked right into her trailer without a single hesitation. That's pretty cool. Lisa is trailer shopping these days.


That is an interesting cast. I wondered how far up the leg it would go, It's good see it didn't go halfway up her leg as I would have expected.









I know we all have some horse trailer hauling stories to tell and I thought it would be a great learning experience to hear your stories. If you have a situation you can tell us all about (with pictures - even better) I'd love to post here. My email address is patslark@fairpoint.net.

I have several stories to tell, but here are a couple that I will try to “briefly” share.

When I first got back into horses about 15 years ago, I bought my quarter horse mare, Missy. It had been 10 years prior that I sold my horse to try to survive as a single mom. During my early horse years, I had no experience hauling horses. If I needed to move my horse, I usually called one of my sisters to haul for me.



So shortly after purchasing Missy, I basically knew nothing about hauling horses and one day, I learned one of the most important rules of hauling. Do not tie the head of the horse to the trailer without first shutting the divider. (And do not open the divider until the head is untied.)

I know. I know, I see people doing just the opposite all the time, Some stock trailers are divider-less, or because of the way a trailer is built, it’s easiest to tie the head first, but I personally believe that is an accident waiting to happen. Just like mine did.

One day, as we were loading Missy for a ride home, my sister and I were yakking as we were loading and not really paying as much attention to what the other was doing as we should have been.

Missy' head was tied and started to walk out to close the divider behind me. Missy thought she was going to walk right out with me and when she felt her head was trapped, she went straight into severe panic mode.

Now, this horse was a solid-minded horse and a trailering veteran, but when she realized she couldn’t back out of that trailer because her head was stuck, her feet started going about 90 miles an hour up and down, up and down, stomping like crazy, on the tops of my feet.

I couldn’t get away from her because every time she lifted a hoof off of one of my feet, she'd stomp down on the other. Over and over. I was stuck! Scared and feeling the stabbing pain on the tops of my feet over and over again.

But it was happening so fast and I was so scary. Finally, my sister reached up from the outside of the trailer un unbuckled her head. Missy managed to unload herself without blasting over the top of me, and without flipping over backwards (something else we hear about all too often.)

My perfectly tenderized feet were two solid bruises for weeks afterward and I thought I had broken a bone or two in one of them, but I healed pretty fast.

Interestingly, Missy never hesitated to back into a trailer after that either. Some horses are amazing. But I personally will never tie the head before slamming that divider shut again.

In another incident, just recently, we were hauling a mare to her new home and we didn’t get very far down the road, and the mare was making a lot of noise in the back. So I got out to check on her and found her sweaty and scared and almost laying sideways. She was leaning on the divider and trying to climb the wall with her feet. She was in the first stall of our slant load trailer.

Although she had hauled pretty well previously, she was going nuts on this ride. My sister (always rescuing me) suggested opening the divider so the mare could spread her legs, which we did and she hauled just fine for the next hour until we got her to her destination.

Now I hear that is pretty common for horses to do. And it sounds like that is what Fancy was doing as well. I often wonder if they might get vertigo in the trailer sometimes and think they should be on their side. Who knows, but some horses really need to get a good base under them and giving them lots of room is a good idea.

I'd love to see the backward facing trailers manufactered here in the US. That's the way horses like to ride. My minis always chose to ride facing backwards when I don't tie them in, so if I do tie their heads, they are facing backwards.

It just seems to be more natural for them to keep their balance in a moving vehicle and I believe it's easier on their joints when the trailer goes over bumps. Trailering is tough on the knee joints. If you've never ridden, standing up, in a trailer, you might try it (in a safe situation) just to see. You really feel the bumps in your joints.

And old trailers from the 60s, 70s and 80s, that people are STILL using - oh my gosh, there is no suspension!

Fancy - Part Three

Today Morgan and I went to see the cast put on. Her foot is continuing to look better.
There are still some parts that are nasty though – like that white area by the remainder of the bulb…that is bare cartilage. Urk.

But everything else is fairly dry and pink so they wrapped it up.



I didn’t get any pictures of the cast process because Fancy has decided that the vets make good chairs and she leans (practically sits) on them at every chance while they are holding her foot up. I got to stand at her head today and try to talk her out of squishing the nice ladies.



Tomorrow she is supposed to go home, so today I put a new wall mat in the trailer.

There is a very good reason it costs so much to have those mats installed!

She had to remain for observation today to make sure the cast fit right and that she would walk on it.

Fingers crossed that we go back to the barn on a nice sunny day.

Lisa

Wow, that hoof is starting to look great! The vet is doing a wonderful job with it. I can't wait to see the casting job! Thank you for taking the time to share this story with us Lisa!

Pat

Fancy's Hoof Injury - Part 2

From Lisa:

The kids and I went to Pilchuck Hospital yesterday to groom and love on Fancy. She seemed to be doing well, bearing weight on the bandaged foot. We left her a much cleaner horse than when we got there. She must have itched horridly with all that dried sweat and blood under her blanket. Tuesday was a nice warm day so we left the blanket off to keep her from getting sweaty.
Wednesday we went out again. This time we timed it so that we would be there for the wrap change. Again, we did some bonding. I think she was glad to see us – what do you think?






Vet says that the sugardine wrap seemed to help dry up the tissues. It does look a lot better. I see now that she didn’t take off quite as much as I thought she had. Don’t get me wrong, this is bad enough; I just thought it was worse.


The circled area is where she removed some of the coronet band. In these photos it seems like it might be less than originally thought. I have higher hopes for a great recovery.




The tissues are drying up nicely. I expect a cast to be put on in two days if everything keeps to this schedule. She got a good soaking in Epsom salts and weak Betadine today followed with a fresh wrap with Scarlet Oil. Morgan got to be the vet’s assistant.



Things are looking up. Fancy is down to ½ gram of Bute 2x a day and isn’t limping. She is not sound of course and she favors the foot while standing in her stall but while walking she looks great. Thank you to all the well wishers and support I have received from all my friends.

Back to me.

I received an email from Sharon Cregier after she viewed Part One of Fancy’s story. This is part of the text from her email. I thought it might interest you as much as it did me. We do need to find ways to make traveling safer for our horses. Something Lisa mentioned to me on the phone was that the first thing she was going to do was get a different trailer.

Dear Pat,

Next May I will be giving a presentation at the international Animal
(Air) Transportation Association conference. It is in Sydney,
Australia. The presentation concerns scenarios just like those
presented by Lisa and so graphically pictured.

Yes, there IS a solution. If you will provide your postal address, and
that of Lisa, it will be my privilege to send you both a complimentary
dvd.

In the meantime, please visit www.equibalance.co.nz I have been
compiling data on horse transport accidents for three decades. I am
aware of the American Horse Shows Association study which found that
most of the injuries presented at horse shows are transport related.
And Nat Messer's AAEP newsletter observation that many horses
transported to his clinic for routine procedures arrive with colitis.
The reason is: Horses are being transported in trailers designed for
dead weight, not live weight.

Horses must travel in trailers designed to accommodate their behavior
and center of balance and allow them to lower their heads at will.

To date, only one horse trailer in the world meets these requirements as
well as the stipulations for horse and handler and automotive safety as
establised by the OIE -- a world organization having to do with animal
health. It is a trailer which is so safe women and children load their
own mounts.

I do not receive any compensation for presentations on the problem, and
solution, of horse transport. I am not monetarily affiliated in any way
with any manufacturer.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours for the horses,
Sharon E. Cregier

Fancy's Hoof Injury

Yesterday, I was contacted by Lisa, a horse owner whose horse had suffered a severe injury in a horse trailer accident the day before, March 30th. Lisa has given me permission to post her poor mare's condition. The pictures as you can see are graphic, but it will be interesting and information to follow her case as she heels. This is, unfortunately, not an uncommon hoof injury.

It usually heels with a large scar around the back of the hoof over the soft tissue or at best, a seam that runs down the wall from the coronary band. Something, we've probably all seen years after the accident. I feel like the more we do for this type of injury, the less scarring the horse will end up with.

So as terrible as it is and as sorry as I am to know Lisa and her pretty mare are going through this, we are going to follow Fancy's story, with updates as I receive them with the hope that sharing her recuperation will help other horses. And I know we all wish Lisa and Fancy well in her recovery.

Here is Lisa’s story.

The horses, kids and I were on our way to Poulsbo to spend a few days with
Andrea and her kids. Fancy has re-developed her trailer anxiety so I spent
the last three days really working on this and thought we had it managed.
Everything was loaded up and the horses were calm. We headed back home
because I forgot a few crucial things like stirrups and chaps. I could see
Fancy was throwing her weight around, but it didn't look too bad. We pulled
into our cul-de-sac and this is what I saw when I got out of the truck.



This is NEVER a good sign with a horse trailer. There was a trail of blood down the road - why someone didn't notice it and wave me down, I don't know. (People don't notice things like this. - Pat)


Fancy gets in the trailer just fine. It's what she does once we are under
way that is causing the problems... By the time I opened the back I knew
something very bad had gone down, I was hysterical - screaming at the kids
to go in the house and get dad to call the vet because I thought Fancy was
going to have to be put down. OK - I've never seen clotted horse blood
before and I thought she had gutted herself somehow. Yes I am a drama queen
- shut up. ("Who wouldn't be in this situation?!" - Pat)



She was throwing herself to the right and trying to climb up the wall with
her left legs. She managed to rip the mat off the wall but then the rivets
that were left in the wall ripped her up.



I am pretty sure the kids are scarred for life. I might be too. I am sure
Fancy is.



She had blood on her forelock, it was even up on the ceiling.

Fancy was a wreck. She was a sweaty mess and my brain was not
working. My neighbor, Craig, suggested offering her some water and she was
glad to have it. "Thank you Craig - I wasn't thinking well."

Then I carefully unloaded her out of the trailer. Reba was a rock, very calm and soothing, she stood right next to Fancy and quietly nickered once in awhile. Fancy started shivering so I put a blanket on and ended up adding two more. One wrapped around her neck and two on her body. I was afraid she was going into shock. Leslie and Curt brought their trailer down so that we could separate the horses and take Fancy to the vet. There were many phone calls made to the vet during this time.



She was bloody from her front legs to her tail. Even Reba was wearing Fancy's blood.

When Leslie arrived, Reba looked at her and then turned to Fancy with the
quietest sweetest low nicker I have ever heard, as if to say "She's here, you're going to be alright". (Sniff...- Pat)


Fancy removed the entire outside corner of the hind left hoof.

This is where ALL the blood came from. She could hardly put any weight on
it. I gave her 2 grams of bute for the pain, but I didn't want to even wash it because I knew the water would cause so much pain. She gamely walked to
Leslie's trailer and got in with no fuss.

Reba was not happy about the separation but she loaded back into my trailer and we took them to Pilchuck Vet. Hospital in Snohomish.






At the Hospital, after sedation and much cleaning and X-rays. No, the
towel is not bunched by the hoof.

This shows how much hoof she lost. The X-rays show that she did not fracture
the coffin bone, but she did scrape it near the heel. That is gonna hurt
for awhile.

You can see here how much tissue is missing. She removed a fair bit of
sole, but the bar is left so at least she has some support. You can see
that she removed part of the coronary band by the heel so she may
have a deformed heel from now on. This is going to take about six months to
grow back in. She will have to live in a stall for quite a bit of it.

That isn’t going to go over very well with her.

As I try to find the positive here, I have an X-ray so I will be able to see
if my barefoot trimming is right according to the coffin bones and in looking
at this photo I can see that her frogs have grown in nicely - much better
than where they were a month ago.

Fancy will NOT be going on the Chief Joseph ride this year. I may not be going as a rider since I just spent the budget tonight and she still has 3 days in the
hospital.

So if any of you can learn from this - this is my very hard learned advice.
If you feel motion in your trailer - GO CHECK THE HORSES.

Don't assume it is business as usual. I really thought we would end up in
Poulsbo with her all sweaty and maybe with a little hide missing from
stomping on herself, I was very wrong and I will never make that mistake
again.

Happy trails to you all and I hope you never go through this. I will keep
you updated.

Lisa

Back to me now. As you can tell, this accident is very fresh and Lisa is still reeling. Please let us know if you've experienced the same situation and what was done for your horse. Any advice for us is welcome.

Thank you, and thank you Lisa for letting me post this as you go through it. Not an easy thing. Stay strong.
Pat

Horse I trimmed today.

This is Sea. An Arab mare about 15. Rescued and the owners have been trying to rehab her feet, but during the past year or so, even they got a little behind in her hoofcare. A farrier was called in to trim her at one point, but was adviced not to do too much at once.



This is the inside of her right front foot (taken from her left side so I was shooting from underneath her body).








This is her left front.

Solar view of right front.

Right front again.

Solar view of left front. You can see from solar views that she had likely she suffered from Pedal Osteitis at one point.








After I explained that not doing enough with her trim was detrimental to helping her get better. The owner was okay to let me do what I felt was best for the horse after hearing the analogy of our fingernails. I told her that when our fingernails get long, the growth of nail past the nailbed is no longer connected to anything. If we walked on our long finger nails, it would put pressure on the connection of nail to finger until separation of the two occurred and how painful would that be?!





Left front - trim is nearly finished for today.

Left front lateral view.

Right front. Pictures taken just before I added a few finishing touches. Sea was getting a little antsy.

These trims are fun for me. I love the challenge and the obvious changes I can make in just a short time.

This is a cute little mare and she was fairly cooperative with her feet, but I didn't want to push it with her so I only trimmed and changed as much as I thought she could tolerate at one time.

A few more trims and some growth of well connected wall and this horse will be kicking butt all over the pasture!

The Mountain Top Can Be a Lonely Place

So I've ruffled a few feathers lately for refusing to admit horseshoes are okay in some situations. For some reason, when people say we are all entitle to our opinions. I think they mean as long as we add lame statements like, "...but whatever works for you and your horses is okay."

There was a time when I would say whatever it took to get along, but I'm getting too old to be diplomatic anymore. Not only will I not give in just to get along. If my feelings on the subject of shoes: "No horse - is better off - wearing horseshoes!" seems a bit confrontational to anyone...well, TS.

When people don’t want to hear what I have to say, rather than try to get me to admit I'm wrong, maybe they would do well to review their own values on the subject.

I was invited to the thread to speak to the hoof issues of Remmer, which I did, but since hooves are my specialty, I continued responding to questions and comments about hooves- not necessarily Remmer's hooves. and was finally admonished for perpetually taking the thread off-topic. Oops!

This forum was started by an awesome group of people who came from the Parelli Savvy Club Forum. They left and started their own forum where they could speak freely, without the censorship they were experiencing on the Savvy Club forum whenever they were in disagreement on things Parelli's stand for and teach. Such as their choice in hoofcare. WHICH IS OUTRAGIOUS!

They call themselves Bad Apples, because that's how they were treated on the SC forum. I thought I might be a bad apple also, but I've come to realize that I don’t believe I’m truly “A Bad Apple.”

I personally admire Pat Parelli, always have, probably always will. For living out his dream. Has he made some mistakes? Yes, we all do, just not as publicly.

Has he been screwing up with their horses' hooves? Yes, and it's becoming obvious to everyone, but them - seemingly.

Is he arrogant? Yes, but you’d almost have to be to continue going out in front of millions of people and shouting from the mountaintops that you disagree with the majority. You step on peoples’ toes when you refuse to admit “they” are right and you are wrong, and that takes guts!

Just ask Dr. Robert Bowker and Pete Ramey and those who came before them, just how much determination and fortitude it takes to continue on when you are confronted by the entire horse community to admit you are wrong, when you know in your heart you are right and you just want to help the horses who are being tortured, maimed, and killed by what others are doing to them. I'm also accustomed to being out-numbered in my philosophy and teaching, so it never comes as a surprise when people react negatively to my statements.

I compare the logic of horseshoes today to the logic people had regarding smoking in back in the 40’s and 50’s. Everyone did it. No one recognized that it wasn’t healthy and there were few outward signs that smoking was slowly killing people.

When a few scientists began to realize the harmful affects of smoking spoke out to the masses, the tobacco companies lowered the boom on them. They were sent back into their labs likely threaten with slander suits, paid off to shut up or publicly admit they were mistaken. Smoking was socially acceptable and those who smoked outnumbered those who didn't. After all, our own government had been purchasing cigarettes by the truckloads to distribute to our military personnel for years!

Later, as people were getting sick and dying from lung cancer and other smoking related illnesses, it became clear that the tobacco companies had ulterior motives for quieting their adversaries.

Then, when science and the medical field jumped on the anti-smoking band wagon, we learned that not only was smoking shortening lives, second-hand smoke was even worse.

Smokers were not only killing themselves they were killing the non-smokers around them. Kind of like getting kicked in the head by a horse with shoes on!