Young Mares and Old Women

Miss Sassafras looking a little wild and sexy in the wind.
Sometimes I wish she was ugly and mean so I could feel ok
about just letting her go.  She must know that I am considering it too
She has suddenly quit being hard to catch, or any of the other
general bitchy little tricks she used to pull. 

I have come to the conclusion that I was, in some ways, much better off when I thought I knew stuff about horses.  Now that I know the cold hard truth (that I don't know jack squat) I find that I seriously lack confidence and it shows in how easily I am swayed by the power of suggestion.

For example, when we took Sassy down for her second visit, the farrier, Steve, says to me, "Yep she is moving much better again."  I was the one on the end of the lead rope so I never saw for sure how she was moving.  I trusted his assessment, and left it at that.

A few days later my vet came and had a peek while he was doing shots and stuff on the boys.  He says, "She is grade 2 lame on the right, her toes are too long and I don't think she looks comfortable at all." his parting words were, "I am not impressed, but the important thing is that you think she is doing better."

No! What is most important is that she really is more comfortable and doing better. Not that I just think she is.

2 days of those words stewing in my feeble brain is down right toxic and all sorts of thoughts start circling.   "This vet has never been happy with my choice in treatment with her, so is he just being overly critical, or is she actually uncomfortable?"  "Am I wasting my time on this mare?"  "Am I hoping for miracles too soon?" "Did I want to believe in the ELPO solution so badly that I saw what I wanted to see instead of what was there?"  Back and forth, front and back, round and round and round it goes. I'll be honest, it is times like this that make me feel like a foolish old woman who has no business owning horses.  Especially since I'm starting to wonder who I am supposed to beleive. The vet says one thing, the farrier says another, and the other farrier doesn't say anything at all. But then I go back and I look at that first after video we took and she was better, so that speaks for itself. One thing is for sure, the horse doesn't lie. Which isn't to say I think that the humans do, I think they just see things differently based on their own training.

So on Saturday I decide to actually work her and watch with my own eyes.  I put her in the round pen, and too me she looked really lame. Seriously head bobbing and if she turns, there is a serious short step. It also seems to me that she is intentionally rolling those clogs forward so she is standing on her toes more.  So I start answering my own questions.  She is uncomfortable, the vet was right, there is no help for her, its time to put her down...blah blah blah.

Still I am self aware enough to know that rash decisions are never a good option so I decided the smart thing to do is to call Steve and see what he says, gather as much info as I can, and then decide what I need to do. I am willing to admit that the power of suggestion is strong in me and by the vet saying that he saw something, I am prone to "seeing things" as well.

We talked yesterday. He wondered if perhaps there is a nail too close, as he feels she has very thin hoof walls. He asked me to take some pictures and videos on my iphone and send them to him. Then he would call me back.  He did say that if the nail is too close we could put a hoof tester on and she will react immediately.  I don't have a hoof tester but I did take the clip from the lead rope and tapped on each nail pretty hard to see if I got any reaction. There was none. Not sure if that counts though.

I am still waiting to hear back from him, hopefully that will be today.  Now the second time, as I was getting his videos it seemed to me that although it is obvious that she is exhibiting some lameness, it didn't seem as bad.  So what was different.  Well first off I did not have in the round pen the second time. The footing in the round pen sucks right now. So I was working her in the old pen which has nice flat ground. The round pen is very uneven and hard, from all the mud, and ponies being in there when it was muddy (the gate is usually open)  The old pen has been shut so no one can go in.  So with that in mind, I suspect the crappy terrain could have made her appear to be more lame than what she was.

I hope this link works, it is one of the videos I took last night  What I see when I watch it is that although she isn't really worse than when we started all of this. She doesn't appear to be much better (if at all) and I feel like the whole point of all of this is to give her some relief from the pain. I don't see where she is getting that right now. Her first set of clogs lasted about 4 or 5 weeks before she started exhibiting pain again. Now as I sit here and organize my thoughts I realize that all he did for this visit was trim her down a little and then put new clogs on with the exact same angles underneath.  He did not do a new diagnosis with the boot. He says that will be the next visit. I am guessing that his theory is that as she wore the clogs down her lameness returned, so going back to the original design should have given her relief. It sounds logical, but if she only had relief a few days, obviously the theory is wrong. I do not feel it was his fault though.  What I really want to know is why didn't I ask more question while I was there?

Do her toes look long to any of you?

I'll tell you why, because I am a silly old woman who lacks confidence and trusts the professionals.  Well that and I was busy trying to keep my 2 very naughty ponies from tearing up those nice folks' yard and driveway with all their pawing and other naughtiness. (especially when they mentioned how they do not allow their horses on the grass of the front yard because it is so fragile)  I was very distracted this time around and TC was not much help.

Is it wrong of me to wish I had just one horse that didn't have any medical issues,  personality issues, or riding issues?  Is there even such a thing?  Probably, but I suspect a horse like that is waaaaaay out of my price range.

I seriously long for the days when I was young and I "knew everything".  In my youth I thought that as I got older I would be wiser.  Instead I'm just fatter, slower, less confident,  and require more sleep! I also thought, when I was young, that I would never cut my hair short, I would never let myself gain weight, I would never ever ever wear stretchy clothes, or granny panties, and I would always be okay with high heels.  Now I find that stretchy clothes are nice, granny panties are a must, high heels are only ok for a very short time, and short no maintenance hair is freaking awesome!   Oh and I am gaining weight at an amazing rate. THAT I do have to do something about. I bought new jeans in Feb, and they are already uncomfortable. I had to buy more this weekend and they are a full size larger.  Not cool!

Oh, Steve just sent me a text, said he couldn't really see much in the videos due to the poor quality, but he does not think it is a nail. He said to watch her closely for the next week and if she is worse by the weekend we will make a plan. In the mean time I will do better video's with the good camera so that he can get a better look.  I guess it is the best we can do for now.

Old woman signing off for now.  Has anyone seen my walker?