Six Years With Gemmie

On December 28, 2009 I brought Gem into my life. We have both grown and changed so much that those who witnessed the horror of our partnership back then wouldn't even recognize us now. I am so proud of both of us and while we remain far from perfect, I have done things with her I wouldn't have dreamed possible before. I'm a one horse type of gal and have zero interest in finding a new partner any time soon, so she is stuck with me for many years to come.

December 2009. Poor pony needed groceries, TLC and exercise

 

April 2010. At the training facility in Ohio. Hair is beginning to grow back on her rump. She was very tired most of the time and if I knew then what I do now I would have moved her from there ASAP.

 

We then moved to WI that May and I have no clue where any of my late 2010 pictures have gone.

 

January 2011. We rented the house on the boarding property and I really miss having her in my back yard.

April 2011. Shedding out with dapples thanks to some good groceries, care and exercise.

May 2011. Her front hooves look near club foot especially the front right. We found Wonder Farrier Chad around this time.

October 2011. Finishing our first 25 mile LD. We came in 8th place with all As. I didn't know BC was a thing, so I didn't present for it.

 

February 2012. Snow. Lots of snow and sub 0 temperatures

March 2012. Starting to shed for the year with mud everywhere. Look how her front hooves have changed. I really, really miss Chad.

June 2012. Sleek, shiny and full of attitude

November 2012. Right before Wyatt joined our family. Looking a bit pudgy which I never minded going into a WI winter.

 

December 2012. Wyatt's first ride on Gem. She was not really sure what was going on.

Once Wyatt came along and the cold winter began, I didn't see Gem all that much. She enjoyed that winter and spring getting fat and being lazy. That June we moved to SC and into crabby acres where we lasted only a few months before heading to a lovely barn and organic farm.

 

September 2013. Looking a little round in the middle, but shiny and happy. Crabby Acres.

October 2013. After our first hunter pace. She was impatient and looking for more

 

December 2013. Found a lovely patch of clover to fuel up on at the Clemson Experimental Forest.

January 2014. I still can't get used to sunny, warm days all year round.

March 2014. Seasonal alopecia sets in as she sheds her yak like coat faster than the summer hair can grow in. Keeping the skin moisturized did the trick and soon enough she was pretty again.

 

July 2014. Biltmore 25 mile LD. She was looking a bit pudgy going into it. She didn't eat at all during the ride and we rode  slowly to go with a friend, but she still was happy at the end.

September 2014. Looking amazing at the end of a tough summer of conditioning. This is exactly how I would like her to look at all times.

October 2014. After finishing our first 50 miler at the Barefoot Shine and Wine in TN. She was a pill to start, but finished looking good. Her hydration was off, but that just gave me some homework.

After the 50 Gem and I parted ways for a while like we always do after spending so much time together.

 

 

February 2015. During the first loop at our second 50 at Camp Osborne Pow Wow. Her hydration was spot on and we rode 80% of it on our own without trying to kill each other.

March 2015. Looking good after the 50 a month before. 

 

 

June 2015. Hospitalized after suffering her medial heel bulb laceration. If I could photoshop out the bandages, she would be in probably the best condition I had ever had her.

 

September 2015. First day back in tack after her injury. Shiny and fat.

 

November 2015. Looking a bit skinny and without her topline, but we are working hard to bring that back.

So there you have it. Six years of trials, tribulations, dreams conquered, and changes. There are plenty more adventures to be had and I wouldn't want to have them with anyone else.

Gemmie Update: Hoof Growth

Trimming Gem's hooves has become something I both look forward to and enjoy. Watching the hoof respond to stimuli, change with it and grow has been fascinating. I am lucky that she has strong, thick, fast growing hooves which can easily accommodate any mistakes I make in quick order. In the beginning, I only used the fine edge of the rasp and did it laboriously, wearing both her and myself out after only two hooves. Now I have graduated to the courser side and can knock out all four as long as I keep up with it every 2-3 weeks. I hope to get a hoof knife to help with her bars in the near future.

Last night was hoof trimming night and Gem walked happily up to me in the pasture to find out what I had in store for her. The evening was warm with a crisp breeze carrying the scent of freshly mowed grass. She still has the filling to the hind legs even with no work in the last 2 weeks and standing in a cold downpour for most of that time. As I tied her to the trailer I watched her stomp heavily and repeatedly with the hind legs after some unseen pest. Maybe the filling has something to do with that? She was stomping very hard and I have never seen her do that before.

I brushed her out and hung a hay bag for her to munch on while I worked. The only hoof to note is the injured front right. Her heel bulb remains well healed and the hair is growing back. The medial bulb sits higher and more proud than the lateral and it may still remodel some, but I think this is the way it will be from now on. Not a bad outcome considering the damage done.

What was more interesting was to see the amount of new hoof since the last set of pictures. I know people say it takes a full year to grow an entire hoof capsule, but she is moving along much faster than that. I don't have the exact same angle as the old set, which is a shame, but these are close enough. The new ones are from 10/8/15 and the old ones are from 9/3/15.

The first two pictures are of the lateral front right after the shoes were taken off and she was trimmed on 9/3/15.


You can see the "bulge" as the new hoof wall began to grow in wider than the old one.

The red arrow shows the point of the new wall which was creating an area that looked like it was going to crack. The shoe is still present here.

Next is the lateral front hoof from 10/8/15:


Look at all that new hoof! This is just one month's worth of growth. The new wall has not cracked, but has a very distinct delineation from the old and is growing in white. It remains hard, but the color is off. This side was not injured, but did have some rubbing from the cast.

My paint skills are amazing, aren't they? The red box shows just how much new growth has happened. The yellow line shows the angle the new wall is growing in versus the old.

 I don't have a comparison from 9/3/15 of the front of her hoof, but here is the new one:

Red line shoes the new band of growth

 The medial, injured side is growing as well (thankfully):

Medial side 9/3/15. You can sort of see the anterior growth line as well to compare to above.

 

The blue arrow shows the crack that formed from the laceration entering the hoof wall and the subsequent metal wire sutures to hold it back together. The red arrow shows the entry point into the hoof capsule and the area the surgeon was most concerned would grow out a crack.

Medial side now.

The red arrow is showing the level of the horizontal crack which at the back of the hoof is only an inch from contacting the ground. This crack is the reason al her rides are now in the Renegades to avoid it all coming off. The yellow arrow shows that vertical ridge that extends from the scar on the heel bulb. She will most likely always grow this due to the damage created. Once it grows all the way to the ground, I will be able to better assess if she can travel barefoot or not.

Things are coming along nicely. Both the crack on the medial side and groove at the junction of new and old hoof will grow completely out. If she continues this rate of growth, it should be out by the end of spring. I'm not overly concerned about either of those. What I will keep an eye on is the vertical medial wall crack. 

Biltmore Hunter Pace: Singing in the Rain (EDITED on 9/29/15)

Is that thar a 'durance hoss?

Saturday night I went to bed without setting my alarm. After two solid days of rain and cold (ok...cold for SC means in the 60s...I've become a wimp) with more rain and dreariness predicted for Sunday, I had zero motivation to go to the next Hunter Pace. At 6:30 am Sunday morning Wyatt came bursting into my room shouting "We going to a horse show mom?" How could I say no to that type of an alarm?

There was a 40% chance of rain and highs in the low 60s, so I bundled up in a fleece vest, long sleeve shirt and my riding tights. I even remembered to grab an extra set of shoes so I could ride with dry feet. Mental note though: grab socks too. Gem was not very happy to see me with bridle in hand in the early morning mist, but she obliged and let me grab her anyway.

We arrived around 10 am at the big field behind the Biltmore house where all horse events seem to be staged out of. I was surprised that there were so many trailers present with the gloom that seemed to invade every nook and cranny of the morning.

I decided to go with front boots only on Gem. I knew there would be a lot of slick clay and mud and both wanted the extra traction her bare hinds would provide as well as being a little concerned with the hinds staying on. Since I had already fiddled ad nauseam with the fit of the fronts previously, this time I could just slap them on in 30 seconds and be done. If for no other reason, that sold me on the boots right there.

**Oops...I never wrote about the boots from Wednesday. Well, the long and short of it is that the fronts fit pretty well and the hinds don't. I'll write up a true boot post to explain once I hear back from Renegade**

The trail would follow the permanently marked green loop and I started the ride alone although the timer sent the next rider out 30 seconds later and she caught up to us quickly. I forced Gem to walk down the gravel road to warm up her muscles. Once I let Gem trot, we caught her quickly again, but then we made a wrong turn and lost her as she shouted the proper way. I never did see her again.

The other rider passing us as we got back on track

I had never ridden on the green loop before, so I was really interested in where it would take us. It turns out that it would take us straight up into the clouds. The trail was recently graded which I found out meant that they put huge chunks of gravel down on the hills. I was really glad I had the boots on her fronts and she moved out wonderfully.  The trail was still pretty solid this early in the morning.

Heading up the first hill around a mile into the ride

The gravel didn't last long, but the ascent sure did

Gem was feeling really, really good and was moving beautifully. I still held her trotting to a minimum, but when I did let her trot she would rocket off at a glorious 8-9 mph pace even over the rocks and up the hills. Even walking a lot of it, we began to pass others.

The leaves were already starting to change up in the mountains

As we alternated walking and trotting I looked around at all the wonders around me. My mind keep jumping back to the fact that at one point a single family owned all of this. This was the Vanderbilt country home, not even their main residence, and they had it all to themselves. How amazing would that be?

Around mile 2.5 a couple of ladies came flying up behind us as we meandered up another steep climb. Gem pulled over as asked and we bid them a good ride. This was the third group I had seen since starting and the third group who made comment about my matching red and black outfit. Hmm...maybe I'm a little overboard these days?

They quickly dropped to a walk, however, as the trail weaved down a steep hill and Gem and I caught up to them. This time we passed them once the trail widened and stayed ahead for quite some time. Eventually we dropped down a really steep and very sloppy hill that led to a creek. I hesitated slightly as I looked down at the boots. Not only were they getting a muddy workout, but now we would be doing a water crossing that would come up well over the top. If this wasn't a good trial run, I didn't know what would be. Gem crossed readily and I was so extremely pleased at the other side when the boots were still in proper order.

The women came up to the hill on the other side and yelled across asking me to wait for them. They were not sure that their geldings would cross without another horse already over. Gem was not pleased at all about standing still and so we turned in tight circles until they cleared the obstacle and then shot off up the hill. The ladies stuck with us.

Steep down hill, water crossing over the boot height and then boot sucking mud on the opposite bank. Both front boots stayed through it all

While Gem seemed pleased to have some company for a change, she was downright rude about remaining in the lead. She would not let those two pass her for the world and even when we reached the double track road again, she body blocked them any time they tried. My mare is getting very competitive.

Right about this time the sky opened up and the rain just let loose. It was a cold, soaking rain and as we broke out of the single track and onto the dirt road Gem and I had the same thought: lets get the poop out of here. I let her open up and she flew at an extended trot that took my breath away. The other ladies tried to keep up, but even at a canter we left them behind.

It was short lived though as we came around a corner and nearly ran smack into the very rotund butt of a draft waiting out their half way hold. We were two groups back and the ladies behind me came up shortly thereafter. Gem was not a happy camper. I had never had issues getting her to stand still under tack before, but between the crowded hold and the cold rain running into those beautiful black tipped ears she was extremely tense and very unhappy standing. Those were a very long 3 minutes!

Eventually we got the okay to move out and the ladies followed us. We were 3.5 miles in and it wouldn't stop raining until we finished. Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain I kept my phone tucked away in my vest pocket so no more pictures of the trail to share.

Gem wanted to go and I wasn't in the mood to hold her back. She was moving great, the boots were functioning well and the trail was just getting more and more slick. I made the decision to just let her go and pull her up if anything felt off. She was more than happy to respond to the new freedom and chose an 8 mph trot that covered the slick ground rapidly.

Since she had decided she would lead (another novel experience) and the other two wanted to ride with us, I asked if they were okay with the pace. They laughed and said they would try their best to experience the endurance pace I was setting. I spent the next two miles chuckling as I listened to their whispers behind me:

"Did you know we could trot this fast?"

"How do they keep this up for miles on end?"

"I don't think we will be able to walk for a week after this!"

"Why does it feel like we are in a rush to end this ride?"

"Is something chasing us? It feels like a speed we would go if something was chasing us."

It was awesome!!

We passed several more groups through this stretch and the trail was really getting muddy. I felt bad for anyone who started later as the trail would be really slick and torn up the longer it rained and the more hooves that it saw. There were a lot of sections that needed to be walked and nearly every downhill was taken at a walk. I was so proud of Gem as she navigated the terrain. Seriously, she has really become a stellar trail horse, ping ponging and all. Overtime we reached a downhill I quickly determined if it could be trotted or needed to be walked. If I let her trot, she would come back into a collected trot and slow down to carefully handle the hill and then take off again once we reached the bottom.

Things went on as we got more and more drenched until mile 6.5. We were half way up the last steep climb and there was a river of mud trickling down it. One of the ladies pointed out that she had lost a boot. Darn! I pulled over and swung off. They asked if I was ok and I told them to move on ahead and get out of the rain. Honestly, I was really bummed. They had perform so well up to this point. The front left was still perfect, but the front right had spun off and was now on top of the front of the hoof held on by the pastern strap. Gem hadn't cared at all and would have continued on as if nothing had happened.

I swung off and stood in the rain looking at her hoof. Having had it stay put through all the rocks, hills, mud that came up over the pastern and a creek crossing that did the same, I was really bummed that it had now decided to flip off. Looking at how it sat on her hoof and the part of trail we were on, that best I can figure is that she planted the foot and when she went to push off the hoof slid out from inside the shell and it flipped over the front of the hoof. I replaced it and tightened up the toe strap hoping to not have to fix it again.

As I swung back into the saddle I realized the bigger issue with having the boot come off: my seat, previously keep dry by my butt, was now drenched. Riding with a wet butt is not fun.

We were also now alone and Gem returned to her typical jumpy behavior. The mare drive me nuts sometimes. She zig zagged like a drunken sailor down the remainder of the trail and we crossed the finish line 8.12 miles and 1 hour 52 minutes after starting.

Seriously, you owe me for this one. 

Thankfully, the rain returned to just a mist as I untacked back at the trailer. Her hooves looked great and the front right boot had stayed on until the end. Gem got wrapped up in her fleece cooler and placed in the trailer to dry off and not cramp as I went to turn my number tag in and grab lunch. Wyatt had entertained himself by jumping in every puddle and getting soaking wet and filthy dirty and gave me a giant hug when he saw me.

After all was said and done, I was really glad I dragged myself out of bed to go. I really love these events and Gem is just getting better and better all the time. The results are going to be really interesting to see in a few days. They typically send a rider out (or claim they do, I am not sure they actually send someone out and don't just know from previous events what that finish time should be) and if they had it would have been on dry, firm ground. The way the trail was looking by the end, there is no way those who started later could safely move fast over those trails. I just might not end up in last place for once!!!

**UPDATE: Results are in and while we still sucked we got way closer than normal. Our finish was 1:53 and optimum was 1:40 so only 13 minutes off. This still put us mid pack/closer to the end, but was way closer to finish time than before. Of note is that the two ladies I rode the second half with came in first and had I not had to stop and fix the boot losing track of those two I would have most likely placed. That being said, if I didn't have the boot on in the first place, I would have walked a lot of it and would have been an hour off time yet again, so there is that.**

And One Step Back

Now for the other story.

I am a self proclaimed uber anal groomer. It makes me cringe inside when others only scrape a small saddle shaped patch of mud off the horse and ride. To each their own and no judgments, but there is no way I could do that.

I brush her out entirely with curry and brush, comb out her mane and tail, run my hands down each leg, palpate each joint and pick out each hoof every single time. Because of this I know each and every square inch of my mare and I know when something isn't right.

Tuesday night I performed the same ritual and noted swelling in the left hind fetlock. Not a lot. In fact, it wasn't visible with my eye until after I felt it and if I wasn't so anal in my grooming I would have never known it was even there. But I am anal and I did notice it.

The swelling rested just above the fetlock and behind her tendon complex. It sort of felt like a joint effusion to me: like a small pocket of fluid built up in the space between the tendon and the cannon bone. There was no heat. She provided no reaction with my poking and prodding, no mark on the skin, no roughed up hair and no changes to the hoof. Higher up the leg was normal as well. She flexed the joint fine and offered it up no problem.

When I moved to the right hind it was similar although to a less degree. Again no heat, no reaction no signs of abscess to the hoof, bruise or any injury to the leg itself. What the heck mare?

I tried not to panic, but a lump did develop in my throat and I decided to focus on fitting the front boots only and leave the hinds for another day. When she moved funny at first I was worried but it eased up as she flowed in the boots better and better with each step.

Then we entered the round pen.

To the right she went w/t/c just fine. To the left she fell apart. She refused to pick up the canter at all and when she finally did she dropped it a couple strides later. It took a lot of insisting on my part to get her to hold it for a single lap around a fairly small round pen. This from a mare who routinely uses the round pen as an excuse to zoom around at warp speed.

What the heck mare?!

The swelling neither improved nor worsened with the work. She remained unfazed by my attention to it, but it still worried me.

Gem has never had swelling. Not after a training ride. Not after a tough 50. She did stock up a bit on stall rest, but it went away as soon as I got her back outside and it was the entire lower leg not just a small pocket around the fetlock.

She has also never been lame for me. I've never felt a stiff or hesitant step. It would be easy to blame the time off and quicker than I had planned return to work last weekend, but she has had more than 2 months off before (like when Wyatt was born and it was the middle of winter in the arctic and I rarely saw her and never rode her for 3 months followed by another 3 months of minimal effort) and we kept a 3.6 mph average for those 8 miles which were on soft grass footing and with negligible elevation. It was an easy ride on easy footing over easy terrain (hence being nearly an hour over time).

So what the heck mare?!

My plan is to head out after work Thursday and check on her with Dusty to give me his opinion. I can't handle, emotionally or financially, another issue right now not when I finally started to believe I had my baby girl back.

Walking. Lots of Walking.

Do you know what is really, truly, insanely boring? Walking.

Do you know what makes walking better? Doing it on my Gemmiecakes!

 

Tuesday night was Gem's turn and I plucked her out of the pasture to beat the threatening rain. She is looking good and has a great attitude which is good to see. I don't think she is mixing it up too well with the new herd and there is a new boss mare who is absolutely a witch, but such is life when boarding. 

Her hooves are rock hard and there seems to be no ill effects from making her barefoot last Thursday.  This morning I was checking up on my blog reel and saw this wonderful post from Rockley Farm. Now the gelding in the post was put in a bar shoe and then turned barefoot for very different reasons than Gem was, but the post specifically points out that a bar shoe will in fact weaken the support of the hoof and make the heel and frog both contract. It is perfect timing and a good affirmation of my own thought process.

I hopped up on her (wishing I was brave enough to do these rides bareback) and we headed out to ride around the farm at a walk. She behaved very well with only a few reminders that we were in fact walking only. About 10 minutes into it, I decided I should probably use this time more effectively than just walking around the tracks on a loose rein and so I started working with her on walk-halt-back transitions. I varied the distance of walking, the time spent standing and the number of strides backing up each time and kept her guessing. By the end of the ride she was stopping with just my seat and standing still until I asked her to either back or go forward.  Success!

I admit that it was very tempting to let her go, but I kept myself in check. No sense in rushing anything. She felt fine and sound at the walk without any short striding at all. Afterwards I tackled her feet on my own a bit. While I love Mr. Farrier and we will be using him for Pete and to check on my own trimming on Gem, he leaves the toes too long for me. I brought her rear toes back a good bit and worked her heels down a touch as well. The rain started by the end of both hinds, so I left the fronts for another day. I really need a hoof stand as holding her with one hand and rasping with the other is just not very efficient. It is on my Christmas wish list.

Dusty is off running a 50k in NC Thursday which kills my barn day and then the next Pace is on Saturday, so I am not sure when I will get the chance to tackle Gem's fronts again. The latest will be next Tuesday which is fine. Doing a little each week isn't a bother and is less stress on both of us than tackling all 4 until I can get a hoof stand and move quicker. Once I have her feet looking the way I like I will try the Renegades on her again, so hopefully by the end of the month. I'm really wanting to get them on her before we can start trotting again in October. Once we can trot again I will hit the trails once more, but want to protection of the boots until that crack is grown all the way out.

Gemmie Update: Mr. Farrier Comes Again

The Plan:  Remove bar shoe and replace with steel keg shoe right front.

The Execution:

Time sure does fly by. Thursday night was time to get rid of that bar shoe and place her into a regular shoe. I understood the point of the bar shoe to prevent any heel bulb expansion and allow full healing to occur. With no tendon involvement and pretty spectacular healing, I really wasn't fully understanding the need to continue to shoe her. Yes, I have drank fully and deeply the Barefoot Kool-Aid, but that doesn't make me wrong. In my mind, if I wanted her to grow the most normal hoof she can then it just made sense to get the hoof functioning as normal as possible = barefoot. However, the vet had said shoes for a year and the hubby was concerned over the medial hoof wall crack, so shoes it was going to be.

I arrived early and saw this wonderful harbinger of fall in the South:

He was a good 3 inches across and bright yellow with blue and peach legs. If you look at the center of the web, it gives away this extremely interesting spider. It is a Signature Spider and each signs the web with its own "signature". I love the spiders down here and fall is peak time for them to come out.

As I waited for Mr. Farrier to arrive, I got a close look at Gem's hooves. I've been keeping my eye on something that is off about her injured hoof. Below is the front right lateral hoof wall (outside). This was not injured in any way. There is a small healed rub mark from the  dressing along the coronary band, but the actual wall was not injured. As it is growing out the new growth is growing in a solid 1/2 - 3/4" wider than the old hoof wall thus forming a bulge and crevasse.

I tried getting a shot from behind to show how much farther the new growth is protruding outward.

Lucky for you, I also discovered a paint app for my Mac. The red line below is drawn straight up the side hoof wall. The red arrow is showing the bulge as the new growth is coming in wider than the old hoof wall. The yellow arrow is pointing out the crevasse this is creating at the junction of new and old hoof wall.

The red arrow below is showing the crevasse from the side view.

Below is her medial hoof wall which was injured and the resultant crack.

The sold red arrow below is showing where the cut entered through the hoof root and into the hoof wall itself. This area is being watched closely as it will most likely end up as a weak area prone to cracking. The blue arrow is pointing to the horizontal crack from the injury and subsequent wire suturing. 

Mr. Farrier arrived and I bombarded him with questions. What was going on with the lateral hoof wall? Will this normalize with time? Is the medial crack of big concern for breaking off? Will she have a vertical weak area? What will putting shoes on her do functionally right now? Should I look into the synthetic lines? Will she ever go barefoot again? When?

Poor Mr. Farrier didn't know what he walked in to.

He just slowed me down, crawled on his hands and knees to look her over closely, then sat with his back against the barn wall and we hashed it all out. Seriously, I am in LOVE.

The lateral hoof wall is due to the fiberglass cast she was in for over a month. The restriction placed on the hoof made it shrink in narrower. We compared the width of her right versus left fronts and the right is a sold inch narrower. Since I had just measured her for boots prior to injury I know that this was not the case pre injury. He admitted to never seeing this in person before and basically we just have to watch as it grows out to see what it is going to do. The hope is that it continues to grow down the entire way at this new width and that in a year's time she will have a whole new, healthy hoof capsule. What will be really interesting is when this section comes into close contact with the ground. Will it chip off? Will it be an issue?

Next was the medial crack. Dusty's big concern all along has been this coming off and taking half her hoof with it. Its why he pushed for shoes. As Mr. Farrier looked at it closely, he remarked how extremely tough her feet are, how the crack was tight, and concluded that for the moment it is not going to do much of anything. Once again we need to be patient as it grows out.

Last we discussed shoes. My main question was what function would the steel shoe be providing that being barefoot wouldn't allow? Will it protect the crack from propagating? After a 30 minute discussion we concluded that the shoe would be doing nothing. Her feet are rock solid awesome. The crack isn't down far enough to be offloaded by the shoe. In fact, he said that he is concerned that by not allowing the hoof to function naturally, that we would be limiting its ability to grow back normally. He worried that we would force the hoof to remain more narrow thus creating a large crack laterally. He also said that once the cracked medial wall (he referred to it as a hoof wall scar) grew down to be weight bearing, that it would not allow a shoe on as it would not give a solid, flat surface to shoe. This would then require a filler but even then you run the risk of having the heel bulb drop as it tries to make contact.

We both looked at each other and shook our heads. Barefoot it would be.

We both then pulled out our phones to call someone to confirm that we were not crazy. I called Dusty who had questions, but in the end agreed that allowing the hoof to function naturally would be the best bet. He cautioned to keep a close eye on her early on and call Mr. Farrier out if there is any issue to shoe her immediately.

Mr. Farrier called his mentor who is a highly regarding lameness/hoof expert vet. She talked to him at length and agreed with the plan.

With a little lump in my throat and a whole lot of second guessing, I watched as he removed her shoes. I know this will make me sound crazy. I wouldn't have believed it if Mr. Farrier hadn't also mentioned it, but as soon as the shoes were off and Gem put her bare feet on the ground she let out a sigh, chewed a bit and then broke out into a full body sweat. We were both shocked and it solidified our decision. Increased blood flow, increased air flow, better proprioception and natural loading seems like the best way to get the hoof to be "normal" again.

Once he had her trimmed up, he asked me to walk her out of the barn and onto the paved driveway. I walked her coming and going and then asked her to trot. She was spot on solid, sound and heel first. He remarked that she looked fine, but may be a little sore in the next 5-7 days given the fact that she hasn't been bare in 3 months. He also remarked that she hadn't lost much of her natural concavity and that her sole callus was still intact.

 He painted her with some hoof tuff stuff and recommended I get some to apply 3 times a week for a while. I will get some this weekend and start ASAP. He wants it more to seal the medial wall crack from moisture than anything else.

After he was gone, I grabbed my own rasp and finished her toes the way I like. He does a great trim otherwise and her heels will need a bit of time to come down more again, but he left her toes much longer than I prefer. I just touched them up and made a more aggressive mustang roll and called it quits. For $30 you can't beat it.

In the end I am feeling 75% confident about this choice. A part of me is really scared I did the wrong thing and she is going to ruin all of this hard work, but only time will tell that. I have the Renegades which I plan to try to fit her in the next couple of weeks. I am hoping they work out still even with the mildly deformed heel bulb. I think it will be safer to ride her on harder or rocky ground in the boots until a whole new hoof wall is grown down.

What do you all think? Did we make a good choice or not?