The Trim

Well Farrier was here today, and I asked him to not put shoes back on Trax because we were going to boots.  He was totally okay with that.  I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since after all, he is my horse, right?

Here are pictures of his hooves after the trim.

Well not "Right" after, he had to do a few things first.

Things like....

Escape from the round pen where I put him to chill out while the other horses were being taken care of.

Then he found a nice spot of long grass to graze in.

Then he saw me coming and we played, "Catch me if you can" in the arena, which happens to be missing once side of fence due to some construction we are doing.

Then he extended the game to the driveway.  As he headed out towards the road I thought "I'm gonna shoot this horse if he makes an escape through the neighborhood today"  But something in Sassy's pen caught his eye, and he went in there first.

Then he had to whinny and cry for his herd because once he realized he couldn't get back to them, then he was lonely.

Silly old paint horse!

Right Front from the side
This is the one that always grows a little more upright

Left front from the side
I'm kind of not digging the toe on this one. 

Right Front

Left Front

Right Rear

Left Rear

I should have cleaned them a little better because the manure in the rears make the crevices look deeper on one side than the other, but really they are about the same.  Also when trying to hold his rear hooves while taking pictures, my angles got all funky so I don't think these pictures are that accurate.

Charlie didn't take too much off of him I don't think.  I noticed that when walking him across the gravel drive, he didn't seem too tender which was a nice surprise.   One thing I notice from the pictures is that it sort of looks like his left front is "toeing in".

Doing the measurements was interesting to say the least, but I got them done.  His fronts are a little harder because that long toe throws him off on the size charts. But I decided that I do have a rasp and I think I can make some adjustments so that the boots will fit.  When I say it throws him off I mean that width wise that foot is a 4, but length wise it is a 5 but it is only 1/16 of an inch from being a 4 so like I said, I think I can fix that.  I'm gonna try anyway.

DD mentioned getting a rubber mallet.  I'm pretty sure there is one in TC;s shop. I hope.

One thing I wanted to ask in my last post but forgot, for those of you who use or have used the boots in the past.  Do you use them on all four or just the fronts?

We talked about options with Sassy, and one thing that has me a bit discouraged is that while he was working on her it REALLY bothered her to have to stand on her left front.  I mean really really.  He asked me if she had been injected, which she hasn't, and we discussed that. Not that he was saying I should. He was just curious. He isn't a huge fan of injecting, but says that sometimes it is the right thing to do.  I did bring up the subject of heel first landings, and the possibility that by getting her to land heel first we could stop the progression.  He is in the "Toe first is the symptom, not the cause" camp.  So I didn't even bother asking if he would be willing to help me try a different approach.  I have been doing some research looking for farriers around here who are in the other camp, and may be making some calls soon to seek out something different.   I had 2 different vets tell me that I needed to try what we did this time, and clearly it isn't working. I mean if I keep her buted she has some relief, and in fact if I move her in a straight line she doesn't limp hardly at all, but the minute you turn her or put her in a round pen she is pretty darn lame.

I did some reading on the Nervectomy that I was told we could try.  I won't be doing that.   One thing I thought of the other day is that both vets diagnosed her with navicular but both said it was mild.  There are horses who are much worse than  her who do fine with what has been done to her. So why isn't it working?  What else is going on here?  So many unanswered questions with this horse.  I wonder if I ever will find the answers.  I keep saying, I'm going to give up, but something inside me says to just keep trying a little longer.  So I do. I understand that I am the steward of my horses and it is up to me to recognize when it is more humane to let them go than to keep pushing on.  Perhaps if I didn't keep reading all these stories of navicular horses who are healed, I'd have given up.  Maybe I still will give up.  I'll bet anyone who has been following this blog is sick and tired of my constant "I just know this time it will work" posts.  LOL

I was not going to have Killian done but decided at the last minute to go ahead and get it done while Charlie was there.  Killian's feet actually are looking pretty good I think.  He is a horse who does great in a shoe so new shoes he got.

Tomorrow I'll go get my boots and hopefully have time to get them on, try them out a little and take some pictures.  If not, it will be this weekend for sure.