Regular eventing shoes were used on his front feet and other than the fact that he grows a lot of heel, the farrier said once his foot grows out, it will look completely normal.
Right now, the inside looks a little squished...
But there is not near the same amount of damage done to Bugs as what happened to Turk...
So, one more well on the road to becoming 'normal'.
Spooks, the black horse, on the other hand...Welllll....
We went the next step and now are on a holding pattern for a little bit to see if shoeing him is going to help a little or a lot or make the whole problem go away.
Considering the amount of $$ I have been dropping on these horses lately, I had kind of planned on holding off on shoeing Spooks until after I had Bugs done and was riding him myself. My Honey is a great man. He has never complained about my horses or the $$ I invest into them. Considering he is NOT a horse person, I think that is kind of special. But I can tell from his tentative questions about how much more work I expect to have to pay for, that the $$ being spent need to count for something. I don't blame him. I have never willingly dumped good money after bad to keep a horse going and I am not about to start now.
Unfortunately, the other day when I trimmed Spooks, I ran into a likely culprit of his growing lameness...
I did get one abcess completely dug out.This one, not so much...
So off to the farrier he went with Bugs...
The farrier was not overly concerned about the remaining debris in the crack of the hoofwall. It will grow out. You can see how far the crack and debris go up the hoofwall after the farrier removed all of the excess toe after placing the shoe...
The biggest problem that the farrier could see is that Spooks has very soft soles. As I have been trimming him and getting down to live, healthy growth, he has gotten lamer and lamer. The total opposite of what is supposed to happen right?
Well, some horses just have soft soles. I'm kind of surprised that this horse is this way, but my brother did say he always had to keep him shod when he used him, so apparently this is nothing new. To help protect Spook's tender soles and to draw out inflammation, the farrier melted mothballs and poured them onto Spooks' sole after he was shod...
Kind of like a liquid pad he said.Spooks was still walking tentatively on his new shoes and it is very obvious this horse is sore all over from having to be so careful how he walked. The farrier told me to give him a couple of days off, ride him for a couple of days and then let him know how things were going.
If Spooks is still extremely sore over his topline and croup, I'm to take him back and the farrier will pop his pelvis (if he needs it, right now it is impossible to tell if he is out or just sore) into place and put the horse on an electromagnetic machine he uses on his reining horses.
Here's the best video I could get of the funky way Spooks steps with his hindfeet. You have to sort of watch from the hock down and notice how he pulls his hind feet forward and places them flat on the ground. It's almost like he has stringhalt or something along those lines...
Any ideas???
11 comments:
OH MY GOSH!! That is exactly how my momma's paint horse walked! She had terrible feet and her current owners are in a constant battle to keep up with her!
Glad to hear you are getting them under control! But yes those $$ spent are tough!
I'm going to have to watch that a few more times. I see exactly what you're talking about.
Soft soles-- melted mothballs? Dude- for real? never heard of that one before...... Learn something new every day huh?
I'll get back to you post coffee, and watching the big horse move more. Trying to pin point WHERE it's coming from.
Watch his front legs too BECG- notice how he kinda picks his knees up differently and slams those front feet down like the hinds? I wouldn't have picked it up, but for the red horse walking by. Compare the two--- red moves like we'd expect to see. Spooks moves... well, like Spooks, except it's all the way around. That could be why he is so tender footed too. He just moves.. like Spooks.
Top line stays level, rump is fine, but knees down in front and hocks down behind he sure is different. Got me swinging as to WHY though. Hope someone out there can pin point more.
You know MM-I remember my brother keeping a box of mothballs in his shoeing box, but wasn't sure how he used them.
Bub put the moth balls in a tin can and melted them with a wood burner and then just poured them on the sole. The 'pad' looks and feels like wax within seconds.
My brother said he just puts the mothballs on the sole and touches them with the hot end of an old rasp and poof they dissolve.
The 'pad' lasts a couple-three days and it's primary function is to draw out inflammation and harden the sole.
At this point Spooks is very reactive to pressure down his back, over his loin and about collapses when you ping his hips. Particularly the left hip. Farrier noticed he was obviously stiffer and seemed to be in actual pain as he was trying to shoe that foot.
When he first watched him walk, he thought hock soreness, but Spooks did not react to testing, but he is reactive if you squeeze his hocks.
A couple of days and we should have a clearer picture of what exactly is going on.
Oh and the farrier put a bigger shoe on Spooks' back feet and curled the heel around to protect Spooks' bulbs. He said due to the fact that the horse has almost no heel and the way he walks, he most likely has some bruising in his bulbs.
Ugghhh-what a mess huh?
Well, we know for sure if you hurt in your feet enough, the rest of you hurts over time from trying to protect the parts that hurt. Maybe ol Spooks will be able to Un-sore himself after a couple days, at least a little bit, and start on a road to recovery.
I so wish you could have Kevin of Bluequine out to see him , I watched him work his magic on a couple horse yesterday and what an amazing difference . He does travel to the US but... Is there and Osteopath in your area?
I would be really interested in seeing a video of him walking about 3 days later, for comparision. He reminds me of the way gaited horses in weighted shoes move.
~Spotz58
fern-I hate to sound ignorant, but what is an Osteopath?
Spotz58-I'll do another video clip so we can compare. He does move like one of those gaited horses.
It's so strange how he picks those hind legs up, moves them forward and places them flat on the ground. Definitely not a normal QH movement.
BEC, it is explained pretty well on the site I linked to , but more ore less it is a treatment that is somewhere between chiro and physio. It seems a bit intuitive to watch , but overall it seems to be about balancing the boddy systems , and removing tension from muscle groups and making better use of lymphatics
An osteopath is a doc that works specifically on joints and bones. They're like a chiro with more medical training.
Wish I had something to say about Spooks. Sorry.
I find myself pulled back to this video repeatedly. If it was just the hinds I'd think he had sore glutes and hammies. Sore all over? Habit? Hmmm, I've been reading up on reflex chains too, so that makes me wonder. Not that I have a great grap on the subject, LOL.
Oh, well, if they were easy they wouldn't be so captivating!
~spotz58
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