It's been a very busy summer. Since returning from the clinic in Yelm in June, a lot of changes have occured. The first one has been a monumental one for my first horse, 29 year old Rose, who for the last seven years has been retired out to pasture, spending most of her time with Tetley, who is more than 30 yrs old. While I was out of town Rose was given two new pasture mates, one of whom was given to the owner to ride, the other, just visiting while his pasture was being sprayed for weeds. Initially, the young geldings were separated from the old folks by a temporary fence, made partially from old barb wire. Rose, being the beauty that she is, immediately attracted the two young geldings' attention. Unfortunately, Rose was more than willing to back herself up to the fence, raise her tail and "show off" her stuff. When the geldings tried to reach across the fence to connect with Rose, she kicked and caught her hind leg just inside the hock on the wire, tearing the flesh and creating a nasty open wound.
Initially, I was called to attend to Rose and to make daily visits to clean and dress the wound. But, after the visiting gelding left and the new resident gelding was allowed to mingle with Rose and Tetley, it was evident that the threesome was not going to work. The young guy constantly ran Tetley off and made Rose his own. Soon, she was calling me to take Rose out of the pasture and if possible find her a new home. After seven years, I wasn't sure where she could go and have the same freedom and daily movement she needed with the safety of a calm, experienced, docile pasture mate.
As fate would have it, I'd recently met a woman through my job whose mother owned the stables around the corner from my friend's barn. We'd talked and I immediately found her to be friendly and upbeat. When I tried to think of a place to bring Rose, it occured to me that the closest place, most convenient, would be at her stables. Luckily, when I called, she had not one but 3 stalls available! I moved Rose two days later after having the vet give her a "cocktail" of sedatives to make her ride in the trailer less traumatic. Rose has never liked riding in the trailer and with her injury, plus the stress of leaving her home and good buddy of 7 years,I thought it best to make her travel to her new home as comfortable as possible.
Just before we left, the vet took a look at her injury, now 4 weeks old and recommended a spray called Vetericyn VF (twice as potent as the over the counter version), used to help heal wounds. He had not heard of it before and said he was not sure if it would work, as the ingredients were simple saline and sodium phosphate and hypochlorous acid. It claims that it has an "oxychlorine compound" similar to what the animal's immune system produced. I was the first client to whom he was selling a bottle and he asked me to report on her progress. Well, within 1 week, the wound had reduced in size by one third and I didn't even cover it or bother to give her the sulfa oral powdered antibiotics he gave me. (I'm skeptical when the same antibiotic is given to horses for everything and would rather not expose them to it unless absolutely necessary). It's now been 2 mos and the wound is down to a dime size pink scrape, and like other horse wounds I've seen, seems to have created it's own structure with lines of demarcation filled in with new colored skin and hair. Nature is amazing.
Now that Rose is in a stall at a stable, she is on a daily schedule very similar to her retirement: out at 8 am with a pasture buddy (a young horse suffering from navicular syndrome, who after 6 yrs of failed treatment, including surgery and corrective shoeing, has become one of my trimming clients-more on that in another blog....). She comes in at 8 pm and in between has been enjoying the sunshine and the freedom of a two acre turnout.
The big change has been that,now that she is in my care, I have begun to exercise her on the ground and I noticed something interesting. While comfortable out in pasture on her bare feet, she cannot handle the pounding of heel first landings at trot and canter in the arena. It turns out, I had been trimming her feet to fit a horse standing still or standing on soft pasture. She really has not completely developed her heels and the inner structures sufficiently to be worked at more demanding gait or unforgiving surface. So....I am reworking my trim with her and re-evaluating my techniques. I've gone back and read over and over the article from Pete Ramey, "Heel Height, the Deciding Factor." and now it makes sense. Just because it says to keep the heel approximately 1/4 inch off the sole and give the coffin bone a ground parallel angle while standing still (or close to it), this does not work when we have a horse who's heels are mushy and underdeveloped. It just sends them up on their toes, wearing down the wall unevenly and slowing the whole process to a stop.
I'm now putting boots on Rose as much as possible and will be leaving her heels a little higher (maybe up to 1/2 inch) until she shows that she can walk, trot and canter on the ground she lives and works on (mainly arena or grass for now). It's exciting to see her move out more and I've actually saddled her up and walked her around. She is so smooth and so comfortable to ride on. I'm so thrilled and I hope she will enjoy the new activity as well. Maybe she hadn't planned to come out of retirement, but I know she has a lot of good years ahead of her. Maybe by helping young and old riders gain their confidence and find that balanced seat, as a lesson horse. You're never too old to get a new job. WELCOME BACK ROSIE!!!!
Here's a video of my daughter Laura riding Rose for the first time in seven years:
Initially, I was called to attend to Rose and to make daily visits to clean and dress the wound. But, after the visiting gelding left and the new resident gelding was allowed to mingle with Rose and Tetley, it was evident that the threesome was not going to work. The young guy constantly ran Tetley off and made Rose his own. Soon, she was calling me to take Rose out of the pasture and if possible find her a new home. After seven years, I wasn't sure where she could go and have the same freedom and daily movement she needed with the safety of a calm, experienced, docile pasture mate.
As fate would have it, I'd recently met a woman through my job whose mother owned the stables around the corner from my friend's barn. We'd talked and I immediately found her to be friendly and upbeat. When I tried to think of a place to bring Rose, it occured to me that the closest place, most convenient, would be at her stables. Luckily, when I called, she had not one but 3 stalls available! I moved Rose two days later after having the vet give her a "cocktail" of sedatives to make her ride in the trailer less traumatic. Rose has never liked riding in the trailer and with her injury, plus the stress of leaving her home and good buddy of 7 years,I thought it best to make her travel to her new home as comfortable as possible.
Just before we left, the vet took a look at her injury, now 4 weeks old and recommended a spray called Vetericyn VF (twice as potent as the over the counter version), used to help heal wounds. He had not heard of it before and said he was not sure if it would work, as the ingredients were simple saline and sodium phosphate and hypochlorous acid. It claims that it has an "oxychlorine compound" similar to what the animal's immune system produced. I was the first client to whom he was selling a bottle and he asked me to report on her progress. Well, within 1 week, the wound had reduced in size by one third and I didn't even cover it or bother to give her the sulfa oral powdered antibiotics he gave me. (I'm skeptical when the same antibiotic is given to horses for everything and would rather not expose them to it unless absolutely necessary). It's now been 2 mos and the wound is down to a dime size pink scrape, and like other horse wounds I've seen, seems to have created it's own structure with lines of demarcation filled in with new colored skin and hair. Nature is amazing.
Now that Rose is in a stall at a stable, she is on a daily schedule very similar to her retirement: out at 8 am with a pasture buddy (a young horse suffering from navicular syndrome, who after 6 yrs of failed treatment, including surgery and corrective shoeing, has become one of my trimming clients-more on that in another blog....). She comes in at 8 pm and in between has been enjoying the sunshine and the freedom of a two acre turnout.
The big change has been that,now that she is in my care, I have begun to exercise her on the ground and I noticed something interesting. While comfortable out in pasture on her bare feet, she cannot handle the pounding of heel first landings at trot and canter in the arena. It turns out, I had been trimming her feet to fit a horse standing still or standing on soft pasture. She really has not completely developed her heels and the inner structures sufficiently to be worked at more demanding gait or unforgiving surface. So....I am reworking my trim with her and re-evaluating my techniques. I've gone back and read over and over the article from Pete Ramey, "Heel Height, the Deciding Factor." and now it makes sense. Just because it says to keep the heel approximately 1/4 inch off the sole and give the coffin bone a ground parallel angle while standing still (or close to it), this does not work when we have a horse who's heels are mushy and underdeveloped. It just sends them up on their toes, wearing down the wall unevenly and slowing the whole process to a stop.
I'm now putting boots on Rose as much as possible and will be leaving her heels a little higher (maybe up to 1/2 inch) until she shows that she can walk, trot and canter on the ground she lives and works on (mainly arena or grass for now). It's exciting to see her move out more and I've actually saddled her up and walked her around. She is so smooth and so comfortable to ride on. I'm so thrilled and I hope she will enjoy the new activity as well. Maybe she hadn't planned to come out of retirement, but I know she has a lot of good years ahead of her. Maybe by helping young and old riders gain their confidence and find that balanced seat, as a lesson horse. You're never too old to get a new job. WELCOME BACK ROSIE!!!!
Here's a video of my daughter Laura riding Rose for the first time in seven years:
