Adjustments

I'm back! Time for a little update on the pony kids.

Cassie is doing really well in training. She's not proving to be an extremely quick study, but she IS trying and doing well. She has a physical setback though, which we are trying to work through. I've always known she had this high/low syndrome in her front hooves. The left front is high, the right is tends to run out long- and is bigger. Over the years I've kept her trimmed to be comfortable, as every time we back that toe, she goes lame. There was never much point in trying to fix it, as she was not in any sort of training, and her fear of strangers too traumatic for her to sit through a farrier session. But, I knew that once she was in regular work with either myself or a trainer, that the hoof would most likely need to be addressed.

At the beginning of training, she started showing some soreness. Farrier came out, thinking we needed a set of shoes, which i suspected would eventually happen. Farrier says that horse has great hooves- no need to shoe, let's just try trimming her up and more frequently. In doing so, revealed some heal "corns" that had old blood in them. She walked off sound. Over the next 2 weeks, she has gotten progressively more lame- the angle was changed too much.

Farrier thinks now that we should try shoes and pads- that perhaps her coffin bone has rotated so much over time that the only way to keep her comfortable is to pad her up. Seems to think that'll get her sound very quickly. The good news is that her hoof quality is so nice that shoes will likely stay on for a full setting (which will be nice since Faith always needed resets after 3-4 weeks, LOL)

If the shoes and pad doesn't work, she's probably not going to stay sound enough for work. Right now her level of work is pretty light- 4 days a week, 45 minutes at walk and trot, some cantering.

So, if this doesn't work, not sure if I'll pursue it much more. I can let her hoof grow out and just let her stay pasture sound. Or I can see if over time of consistent theraputic shoeing will help. I'm wondering if it is coffin bone or tendon. If her hoof has been long basically her entire life, shortening it up has got to change things in her body...so is it reasonable to jump right to the coffin bone? I'm betting xrays are in our future.

But right now i'm hoping the silver bullet solution will work on Friday.


And now on to Cabo. He's doing well. He's had a couple of weeks off, but yesterday I got back and started working him again. He also got an adjustment done, out of the blue, as my body worker was at the barn for another client. Before I left, I noticed that he had been shaking his head a lot and sneezing, but i forgot about it completely. With the bodyworker, i was mostly looking for a check on his back, since that has been his main problem. When she was done she said his back was perfectly fine- strong, just a couple of front ribs out, but that he was REALLY out at his poll. I was super excited about his back- I think it is safe to say that 2 years later, he's fully healed. It was only when I was driving home that I realized the connection between his head shaking/sneezing and being out at the poll. So I'm excited to see if that adjustment fixed the problem.

So there ya go. Let's hope the farrier work works for Cassie. I may have myself a beautiful pasture pet in the near future. Such a bummer, but at least I have Cabo to play with! Here's to hoping he'll stay sound *knock on wood* LOL