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. 

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?

Gemmie Update: We Ride...Well...Sort of

Yesterday was September 1st. Not a special day by any means in terms of historical events, holidays etc... But for me September 1st was a very special day indeed. It was the day I finally got to do this:

 

 



But first lets back up a bit.

When I arrived at the barn and grabbed Gem's bridle it was with the thoughts of 1) yay!! I get to ride my horse and 2) Pete probably is sore from Sunday and could use a day off. Having been partnered up with Gem for so long now I am used to her giving me the horsey middle finger after a strenuous ride and not wanting anything to do with me. I just expect it and being conditioned to that I also expect it from every horse. You can just imagine my surprise then when Pete came charging over to the gate from out of sight as I walked past to say hello.

A horse that actually wants to be with me? That wants to ride and explore? Holy crap what is that?!

I actually felt really bad as I petted Pete and explained that today was Gem's day. He looked sullen as I walked away without him and I promised that I would ride him on Thursday (which will actually be a lie and end up being Friday) as I went to get Gem.

As I walked towards her, I mumbled under my breath that she better not run away or be annoying since there was a perfectly nice gelding begging for the attention. I needn't have worried though - Gem has changed since her injury and has become much more affectionate and friendly with me overall.

I led my portly mare out of the pasture and to the trailer where I inspected her feet closely. I have some very interesting, well to me anyway, observations on her injured hoof that I will save until later in the week after Mr. Farrier comes out. I am baffled by something I am seeing and really want to get his opinion before I have diarrhea of the keyboard on the subject. The actual soft tissue injury is nearly invisible at this time as her hair is growing back in.

Dusty and Wyatt showed up around this time and since we are at a walk only for the next month, I figured why not let Wyatt ride along too. It would serve many purposes:

1) Keep Wyatt happy - always a good thing with a tired toddler
2) Keep Gem calm in the start by being led so she didn't do anything too stupid
3) Allow Dusty to watch her walk

We started off around the 1 mile track and Gem was up but behaving. She would throw in some trot steps here and there but was basically well behaved being led. A mile later, Wyatt got off to visit with the cows and I took her for a spin myself for another mile.

She was lazy and slow, but did well at the walk. While walking is boring, it will force me to go back to basics with her and who knows? Maybe it will help get rid of her race brain.

I was concerned with noticing a definitive short striding to the front. It occurred with both fronts equally and was sporadic so I am not allowing myself to freak out just yet. Part of it was due to her not really moving out as she was doing her best WP impression. I think she is also still getting used to the shoes and her feet are in need of a trim as well. It is hard to judge her full movement when she is trudging along at the walk, but as we progress throughout the month it will be something I keep my eye on.

After a 2 mile ride that took an hour, yes we moved at a lovely 2 mph pace which is slower than I walk when carrying Wyatt, I untacked her to find her sweaty.

This would be a gorgeous shot of her if she wasn't looking so grumpy

It is still in the upper 80s, low 90s here, but seriously we barely crawled. Poor mare is way out of shape.

Gemmie Update: Turned Out

According to the vet, Gem should only be out for 4 hours a day right now. I call rubbish on that. She has been out in her enlarged pony paddock now for nearly a month and has been doing well. Dusty went to pull Coggins on Pete Friday, or it could have been Thursday I really can't remember, and found Gem wrapped up in the garden hose. She had pulled a loop through the fence, had twisted it around her good leg and had the rest in her mouth swinging it around. Bored mare.  He freed her up and I lamented to poor Nicole (aren't you glad you became my friend??) about how she is trying to send me to an early grave.

Between that and her riding date only a week away, I thought it was high time to put her back out in the big pasture. The more energy she can work off before I get back on her the better.

Sunday afternoon was the day. We headed over in the afternoon with the plan of sending her out and sticking around a while to make sure she settled in. The herd has changed quite a bit in the two months since she has been out of the pasture with her best friend leaving and a few new additions. I wanted to make sure she would be ok.

You look suspicious Gemmie

Why must you reach over the fence to drink? Can't you be normal and walk around to the other side to drink safely? 

She followed me along her fence line all the way to the gate nickering quietly. She was never loving or vocal pre injury. I'm not sure if she now finally believes that I won't leave her or hurt her or if it was the extra time spent doing the bandaging and feeding or if she is just lonely, but our bond has most definitely solidified through all of this.

First stop was the trailer to check her leg out.

Very not happy with how tall her heel is growing in the stupid bar shoe, but the rub from the wrap is healing nicely and you can see how much new hoof growth has occurred. It has only been 3 weeks since the shoe went on. She will need short cycles in shoes. 

I couldn't be happier with how everything looks back here. No matter how bad the communication and outpatient care was, that surgeon did a darn good job in the OR. 

If you follow the scar from the back of her heel bulb in the natural arc it took you will see the vertical deformity/line in the hoof wall. This is what I am most concerned with growing out. It appears as though it may be a permanent thing which isn't unexpected since she damaged the periople (I think that is what the vet called it - the root of the hoof as such). The concern is that this may be a weak point prone to full length cracking and make barefoot not a very good option. Time will tell as the hoof wall grows out completely. 

You can also see the crack in the hoof wall. This is what I am waiting to grow out before attempting barefoot again. If it is going to crack, I want it to cause the least amount of damage when it does. Going to get her out of the bar shoe next weekend and into a regular shoe. Then watch as this area grows out. Once it is no longer in a critical portion of the hoof, I will switch her to the NG Easy Composite Shoe to begin frog loading and then try barefoot. 

Wyatt asked to get on her and when I took a step back I realized just how fat she has become on her medical leave. 

Once I was happy with my inspection (and coated her again in No Thrush) it was time to let her out. I will admit to being nervous. I am completely going against doctor's orders and there is a lot at stake, but she is determined to hurt herself in her boredom and everything looks so darn good. It was time.

As I untied her I got the brilliant idea to try to capture her movement by hand trotting her and having Dusty video it. As you saw from yesterday's teaser post, it really wasn't necessary but I didn't know that at the time. To say Gem was UP would be an understatement. She was telling me loud and clear that she was ready. She is moving perfectly sound at the moment which is a big relief.

As I walked her back out and past her pen she nearly pulled me to the gate to the mare pasture. I made her calm the poop down and listen like a good mare. With the gate closed behind us, I took off her halter and held my breath.

As the videos show, she took off to greet the mares only to find out that they were not who she thought they were. Whoops! Once she realized that, she came flying back to me just as fast and stayed behind me pacing while she snorted and checked out the herd from a far.

I laughed and told her that she just happened to meet the new comers, but that the boss mare and several others were still the same. I don't think she believed me.

Even with the shoes on, she has a beautiful heel first landing. Being barefoot for so long coupled with her living arrangement has helped her to develop this and is my hope of being able to get her back out of those shoes once again. 

Even fat, she is still the most gorgeous horse I have ever laid my eyes on.

Eventually I went and sat down half way between the gate and the mares who were at the very back of the pasture. I was hoping that she would chill out and decide to go meet them or that they would take an interest and come meet her. Neither happened and she settled in to graze peacefully behind me. I really enjoyed the warm early evening sun and peace of the farm and stayed there for 45 minutes.

It was my nephew's 5th birthday though and dinner was waiting. Time to be more pro active. I moved over to Gem and tried to get her to follow me over to the herd. She made it a quarter of the way and then beelined it back to the gate.

I apologized for abandoning her, but it was now apparent that as long as I stayed around she would have no interest in re joining the herd. This made my heart swell a thousand fold, believe me. My aloof mare who has never shown me much affection has finally, after 5 1/2 years, decided to let me in! Unfortunately, she can't come live inside my house and so she will need to learn to find her place once more in the herd. I left her with a big hug and a promise to return before dark to check on her.

When I returned, she was happily once again in with the herd. I would have loved to see if she went to them or they came to her. I am suspecting that they came to her because they were all now at the front of the pasture instead of the back. The other mares all pinned their ears when she walked around, but that should hopefully settle down once she finds her place. It will be interesting to see where she ends up. She always used to be bottom rung, but after her second 50 she came back with an attitude and became second in command. Time will tell.

As I left, the grassy lane looked so inviting. The gelding pasture is off to the right, the mares are behind the bushes on the left. This is a lovely hill going back up to the barn behind me to gallop on and Gem was just beginning to understand the glory of galloping under saddle when she got hurt. Someday soon.

SQUEE!!

Time to let Gem run free. Hoping she behaves herself and doesn't do anything stupid.....

Ok...that went well. Perhaps there isn't anything to worry about....

Just standing there staring at the herd. Good mare....

 

Or maybe not.

At least she came back to me.

I HATES It

When I last left Gem she was happily and safely tucked into her small pony paddock with my portable electric fencing. According to barn staff she didn't stay happy for long and soon began cantering circles, leaping, bucking and rearing for most of every afternoon. In addition, and even worse in my opinion, she learned that the tape was easily knocked down and she was then able to open up the paddock into a more suitable size for Queen Bee. Crap.

Options at the barn are limited, but workable. The best scenario, in my mind, was to let her out with the three crippled geldings in the arena pasture. It is larger than I want, but the next smallest on property at about 10 acres. The geldings are harmless and the fencing is in good repair. She could have room, friends and hopefully no accidents. The BO was happy to do so, but those geldings are on borrowed time and he was really worried that any added stress (such as an unruly Arab mare on medical leave) could tip them over the edge. He was willing to try it if we could be present for an entire afternoon to watch her and pull her if she riled them up.

It was very nice of him to allow this, but in the end I decided against it. I would feel awful if Gem was the reason one of those geldings had to be put down. I couldn't risk it.

That was a week ago and both the last I had seen her and had heard of her shenanigans.

This past Sunday we loaded up and headed out to see what state I would find her in. The barn staff was there and I saw that they had opened up the second half of her pen to make a larger area for her. This basically doubled the size of her paddock. Gem was sedately munching on grass in the new area. The tape was completely torn down with stakes laying in a mess all over the place on the other half. Miss Gemmie had clearly shown her displeasure of the original set up. She was looking shiny, fat as all get out and perfectly pleased with herself. barn staff confirmed that since they opened the other half, she calmed right down.

I grabbed her halter, scolded her for being such a PIA and lead her to the trailer to take a close look at her.

Her right hoof is looking the same: tight, painless, scarred in well. The hoof wall is cracking at the injury point, but nothing alarming and will just have to be monitored as it grows. All swelling has resolved to her other legs as well. As I walked her, I watched for any hints of lameness and saw none.

The palmer hoof itself was a mess though. The bar shoe just plain sucks. I HATES it. it traps everything in it and she has a massive case of thrush now. I scraped and chipped away a lot of it, noted how her heel is already contracting quite a bit and cursed the shoe a ton. The hoof was covered in No Thrush Powder, my favorite thrush remedy, and I moved on to her front left.

It was much better than the right since it only has a regular shoe, but still I could already see the years of being barefoot washed away as the heel is contracting and the frog is getting weak. I HATES it. Have I mentioned that?

Gemmie got walked to the barn and I lamented to Dusty. Couldn't I just pull the shoes? Pretty please? No, I can't. Sigh. She will remain in the bar shoe for 3 more weeks (6 weeks total) then I will switch it to a regular shoe until I can't take it anymore. Probably next late spring.

I trotted her in hand a little ways back out to her paddock and she trotted very sound. A good sign indeed.

2 more weeks until I can ride my fat pony again. 2 more weeks until I can decide if I want her kept where she is or put back in with the other mares. 2 more weeks. Just 2 more weeks.

Gemmie Update: Freedom

Monday morning I woke up really tired. The weekend had been a blast and I was not ready to face pure reality just yet. Endurance ride hang overs are real. Nonetheless, I had to get Gemmie to her check up at Tryon at 9:30 am. The one good thing about having a horse on stall rest is how incredibly easy it is to get her loaded up and out.

I made it there about a half an hour early without any mishaps along the way and hand grazed Gem in the sparse grass growing along the gravel drive. The vet was out on a farm call and was reportedly on her way back.

I looked Gem over while she ate in the sunshine. Her coat has remained glossy if dusty, her mane and tail have been torn up a bit from her boredom in the stall and she has gotten very, very fat.

Eventually the vet arrived and I walked Gem inside. I mentioned to her that she is stocking up on the right hind only nearly every day now which began right after the shoes went on. I find the location to be unusual. If it was due to not fully loading the injured front right it should be the back left that is stocking up. She agreed and said she would look at it. I also told her of a wound that began once the cast was off and we switched to the smaller, less padded dressing. It is on the coronary band on the outside and I asked if we could stop the wrapping. She nodded and said she would look at it.

Once inside, she removed the bell boot and took a closer look. She thought the rub might be due to the bell boot, but there is no way. It is definitely from the elastikon. She agreed though that I could leave the wrapping off and keep a close eye on it. If it seemed like the boot was rubbing, I was to cover the area again.

Rub from the bandage.

Next she removed the wire sutures in the hoof wall.

Wire sutures removed. The hoof wall is banged up more from the wires than the actual trauma.

She poked and prodded at the injury site and was very pleased with how well it has healed to date. I was hoping she would let me walk and maybe trot Gem a little on the soft barn floor to watch her move, but she never offered and I didn't ask. She did look at the right hind and basically said she had no clue and to watch it as Gem got more motion and see if it didn't go down on its own.

At this point she seemed ready to walk away. I stopped her and asked her what was next in terms of her stall rest, outside time, working, shoes, barefoot, follow up....I swear I had to ask each and every question super specifically or I wouldn't have gotten any information out of her at all. So frustrating!!!

I didn't stop badgering her until I was completely satisfied with everything. The last question I asked was about her follow up and she gave me the best answer ever: no planned follow up. YEAH!! I could drive away and wash my hands of Tryon for good. If lameness or other issues pop up, I feel comfortable switching to a different vet knowing that the original injury and surgery had healed and we could deal with it elsewhere.

Ok...so now what did she say? In general, I tend to follow doctor's orders to a T. To date I have done exactly everything the vet has said to do exactly how it was supposed to be done. Part of it is just my natural propensity to do so, but a big part is knowing that the orders are there for a reason and that a) it is always better to do the time now than double time later after you have messed it all up and b) how insanely frustrating it is to be on the other side as the doctor with a patient who doesn't follow orders and then complains to you that things are not healing right. So. Very. Frustrating.

However, when the instructions make no sense I feel that I have every right to ignore them and to devise my own plan that follows a much more logical path. I will type out her exact instructions in bold followed by my thoughts.

The vet's instructions:

1) Stall rest to continue for 3 more full days without any hand walking. I didn't understand this at all. Everything is healing. The bar shoe is on to prevent any motion. What good would three days do? When I asked she said the sutures had only been out for a week, but I corrected her that it had been two. She seemed to back track after that but didn't ever really explain why theatre extra days. Given no logical reason, I chose to ignore this.

2) She can then go out for 2 hours in a small paddock or round pen for the next 2 weeks. After that she may have the time out increased by 2 hours every 2 weeks until she is out for a total of 12 hours for 2 weeks and then she can go back out full time. First, I do have a full time job and while I will bend over backwards to make sure Gem heals this is ridiculous and just plain not doable. Second, if she gets out for only 2 hours she is more likely to freak out in excitement and do something stupid. Third, according to this time line she would not get to go out for a full day for another 3 1/2 months. That seems insane when everything is firm, healed and doing well. Plus wasn't the entire point of the bar shoe to prevent any excess heel bulb motion? Why bother putting it on her if she is just going to stand around all day long? So I chose to ignore this too.

3) I may begin to ride her walk only in 1 month. I'm actually surprised it is so soon, but very happy as well. Come September we will begin slowly walking on the grassy barn trails only. I think I will start with some hand walking to see how she is moving and then progress to under saddle. She didn't mention for how long or how far, but did preface it with "you do endurance so your good with conditioning" I'm pretty sure that was a cop out. When you combine this with the above stall rest plan I think it makes even less sense to keep her in for so long. According to the above plan, Gem would only be out for 4 hours total when beginning under saddle work. Would her under saddle work count as her out time? Who knows.

4) After 30 days of walking only, add in short trot sets and work up to longer trot sets to her tolerance for another 30 days. I can get behind this but again no specifics as to what pace or how long. At this point she would be out for 6-8 hours but allowed to trot under saddle. Hmmm....

5) After 30 days of trotting, she may return to canter work and go back out on trails. This is too aggressive for my likings and I will make a whole other post on my back to work plans for Gem. For now, I will say that I don't plan on taking her off property for real trail work until the first of the year and we will be going slow and steady throughout the fall.

6) Shoes. Maintain the bar shoes for 3 more cycles. Ok. I don't like the idea of shoes, but I will follow this recommendation closely.

7) After that she is to go into a regular keg shoe until the one year mark. Ouch. Way longer than I had hoped, but ok.

8) We can try barefoot at the year mark, but she wasn't too optimistic. The hoof wall was damaged in a very small section. There is a chance that this will form a vertical ridge that will run the entire height of the hoof wall. If this happens, she will be prone to cracking this and could lose the entire back quarter of the hoof wall. Not good. In this case, she would need to be permanently shod up front with this region floated in the shoe to prevent much weight bearing to the now weakened section of hoof. If the wall grows in fine, then she doesn't see any reason to not attempt barefoot once again. A bit of a bummer, but there isn't much to do about it. She didn't recommend a hoof supplement, but it can't hurt any so I will be researching this in the near future and adding it to her daily regimen.

And that was all folks.

I thought about her instructions on the way home and talked it over with Dusty. I just plumb don't agree with or really understood the excessively conservative stall rest especially when it is in stark contrast to her aggressive return to work. According to her plan she won't even be out full time when she is allowed back to basically full work. How does that make any sense?

So....
Out she went!

Finally getting to graze once again in the southern sunshine

Her modified paddock was once a pony paddock. We used my portable corral tape to block off the back section where there is a pony sized metal shed she could get hurt on and to reinforce the fence line.

Happy mare!

1...2...3...GRAZE!

No clue the dimensions, but it is about the size of a medium round pen only square.

I debated long and hard about turning her out during the night and bringing her in during the day with the other stalled horses, but in the end I decided to just let her out. It isn't big enough for her to cause much trouble and it is so much better for her to be out. I checked back in on her in the evening and her back right leg was nice and tight and the wound from the wrapping was dry and looking already a 100 times better. I left a message for the BO to feed and hay as he saw fit (probably a bad idea since he loves to overfeed) and if he thought she was too hot in the sun with no shelter to bring her in during the day. Otherwise leave her out. She will stay in this small pen for at least a month if not longer.

I can't explain how much of a relief it is to have her back out. I will keep a close eye on her and return her to partial solitary confinement the moment she seems off or something isn't right. For now, she is outside once again.

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