Miss Herself is back to work again, and feels basically exactly the same as she did before all of the massive workup that I did on her. This is a little bit disappointing, but I guess not altogether unexpected - she's been living this way for years and years now, so nothing is going to be magically fixed overnight. Whether or not it will ever seriously improve is hard to say, but she is getting along decently enough. In addition to the dental work and the BL Pellets, I also casted her all the way around for a little temporary help while we are experiencing this neverending wet-dry-wet-dry-wet-dry cycle.(Hopefully it is all over for the summer... bring on the um, drought?)
She loves the casts. The wet-dry cycles we were going through were wreaking havoc on her poor little thin soled feet, and I had to do something a little more drastic in order to break the cycle. It would pour, her feet would get soggy from the massive amounts of rain, and then would still be soft by the time the ground hardened up again (which is always within a day). She was right crippled on the sharp gravel driveway, and was starting to even be footsore in her pen. Since boots are not really designed for 24/7 usage (she needed them in her pen as well), I opted for temporary casts. In her casts, she can march up and down the gravel roads without issue, and clearly feels much better. The casts are not long-term, and will probably come off in another week or two. We'll reevaluate then to see what we have going on.
We're slowly going to up the workload and see how the handles it in preparation for fall and winter hunting. I don't really think she'll be up for first field (although you never know), but she'll make an excellent second field horse for sure. I spent yesterday morning getting to know the members of our local hunt, roading the hounds on foot and drinking entirely too many mimosas at their annual picnic. They were all very funny and welcoming and I certainly hope to make roading with them a regular summer occurrence... and hunting with them in the winter one as well!
And if you haven't heard yet.... check out Bay Girl's blog for some very exciting news!!
Have you heard of Fusion boots? http://www.eqfu.no/home
ReplyDeleteThey are relatively new on the market, but have great reviews. They're unlike the Easycare style boots in that they're more like human sneakers, versus hard sole boots. They're incredibly breathable, just like sneakers are (None of that taking the boot off after a ride and it smelling terrible on the hoof from lack of air).
-Melissa, http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com (too lazy to log out. . . )
I didn't know that you were planning on doing foxhunting with her! Are you going to Cloudline in Celeste or somewhere else? I live in the Metroplex and I have been out there before.
ReplyDeletePlease continue blogging! I find everything you blog about interesting and I check daily for updates.
Andrea, I love all of your blogs and I check up on your blogs every day. I have learned A LOT from them and BECAUSE of them, 3/5 of my horses are barefoot and I'm working on my jumper to have him go barefoot too! Can you please do a post on what a cast actually is, what they do to help, what they are used for OR could you do a post on conditioning hooves so that a horse can jump without them? My horse, Buddy, is on shoes because he doesn't have much of a heel and was "jumping the hooves off his feet". He is currently now on supplements but I am waiting for us to move from Texas to Missouri (for college, this fall) until I take his shoes off. Any suggestions on how to transition him from shoes to barefoot?
ReplyDeleteYour blogging mojo will come back, especially when you and Pangea get going a bit more and get stuck into those hunts, that sounds like great fun for you both! I love reading your blogs and also check in daily.. I can't wait now to go over to BG's blog and catch up on your news, fingers crossed it's what I hope it is! :D
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