Perseverating

And back to Mathilda. I feel the need to defend us. We weren’t ignoring her feet. We knew they were a problem. [Borrowing Trouble & More Mathilda]

In the past, Mathilda got shod for the summer. We finally learned to shoe her at the late May blacksmith appointment. Otherwise, she would get sore overnight when she suddenly decided it was summertime, necessitating an out-of-schedule blacksmith visit. In late May this year, she was still on the critical list. We were thinking day to day, or perhaps week to week, waiting for something to happen. Shoeing was too much forward planning. Plus she was having so much trouble with her feet, adding more weight to them did not seem wise. Now that she has stopped giving us fits on a daily basis, shoes are still out. It takes diligent file management to get her trimmed in the short amount of time she is willing to hold up each foot.

Sadly, we had even been congratulating ourselves on having gotten through to September with a barefoot mare. Yes, she was a little off on the rocky sections of the pasture but we tried to keep her off of those. We piled extra shavings in her pen. We put compost on the path to the water trough to make it softer underfoot. We painted her feet with Venice turpentine. It all helped a bit. Apparently not enough. Silly minions.

There is a lesson under all of this self-justification. For 20 years, we got used to thinking of Mathilda as a smart, tough old cow. A blacksmith in another state refuse to put shoes on her because her feet were so nice. In bad weather, she was the one to lead the herd to the safest place. She was the one on the easy-keeper diet. If any horse was a throw-back to the toughness of wild horses, it was she.

Now that she is not 100%, insults that she previously laughed off become serious. A simple cold can become pneumonia to someone who is already sick. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that a second mechanical issue, even a slight one, could be a problem. Damn hindsight.

So, lesson learned. I hope.

What was your most useful hindsight lesson?
(A productive lesson with a moderately happy ending, please. I don’t want to drown in a pool of borrowed regret. Got enough of my own.)
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

That Other Horse

I’ve been yapping on about Mathilda a good bit lately. How has the other party been faring? When last we saw Rodney, he had just acquired two front shoes to recover from an abscess.

He recovered immediately. He felt terrific. He immediately felt really, really terrific. As in what-hath-I-wrought terrific. Seriously, he bounced around the field with such enthusiasm and perkiness that I wondered how I would ever cope under saddle, should such a day arrive. No particular evilness, just ALERT! As in the old joke, Be alert. The world need more lerts. I’m happy to say he has calmed down to a tolerable level of Up Ears, Hello World!

Generally.

Just now incoming weather had him a little jumpy. He spooked and ran off when I went to catch him for his heating session. I was not amused. Sometimes, I am Zen itself. I am calm. I stop what I’m doing, move slowly, even backing off to give him space. Other times, I continue at my normal speed and tell him to deal with it. It depends on the legitimacy of his spook, the time since his last spook, and how ornery I’m feeling on the subject. Once the rain came thru, he longer had his knickers in a twist.

Whatever happens, no one will ever accuse Rodney of being boring.

His back continues to loosen up. The adhesion has shrunk to an area about the size of a fingertip. I want to be happy about this but it looks SO close to being all gone. However, when you progress in microns, a even tiny patch can take a frustratingly long time. Plus the softer area creates even more skin wrinkles when it butts up against the fixed part. How will that feel under a saddle?

Finally, I saw him cantering over the weekend. He was on an unknown, important horse mission that involved zipping from the water trough back to the barn. Gorgeous horse. Say what you will about the power and presence of a warmblood. For floating across the ground, there is nothing like a Thoroughbred.

You know how hard-working amateurs hate it when unemployed doctor’s wives spend their husband’s hard-earned money to buy over-qualified horses so that they can steal ribbons at the lower levels? I can’t wait.

[Illustration by Sara Light-Waller, Flying Pony Studios]
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

When you are a kitten, the world is your toy.

My Summer

My LEGO club issues a challenge for each meeting, a word or phrase for which we each build a small vignette. The challenge for September was What I Did Over My Summer Vacation.

Betcha never thought I could get this much mileage out of LEGO bricks & horses.

(Procedural note: While I’m not a stellar photographer, I am better than this. I promise, the pictures look sharper before I load them. I suspect WordPress has a compression algorithm to save space. A) That’s my story & I’m sticking to it. B) Can’t complain when I’m getting the hosting for free.)

More Mathilda

Hubby came up with a BRILLIANT theory. perhaps Mathilda’s two acute problems are linked. If she is slightly (I hope) sore on the front that might get magnified by her wonky hind-end. If you are walking crooked to start with, trying to tip-toe at the same time is not going to be pretty. Fix one, fix the other.

Last time I looked into removable shoes, Easy Boots were the only option. Now horses have a whole closetful of options, of various materials and technical abilities. Mathilda needed cushioning but the shoe didn’t have to stay on for nor stand up to exercise. Our local tack store, Carousel Tack Shoppe, recommended the Hoof Shoe. Blinking at the price, we bought two.

Her new booties have a thick pad at the base and come up to her fetlock. Hi-tops for horses. The above ground section is a combination of webbing for ventilation, stretchy material for fit, and hook-loop closure for security. We could see her relax as soon as she put her foot down and felt the cushion underfoot. She immediately moved better. Still appalling, but at least baseline appalling. She also looks a bit more foursquare and even a little plumper, as if she is standing more firmly and is more relaxed. Her minions finally came up with the right answer. Silly minions.

If she is more willing to move about, she may be less stiff in the morning as well. We shall see. So far so good. All my worries of yesterday are still valid. Just not today.

Your removable shoe experiences?

(BTW, Google “hoof shoe”, I dare you.)
(BTW, BTW, I keep typing ‘show’ instead of ‘shoe’ – just did it there as well. Partly Freudian, partly from typing inches upon inches of show coverage.)
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

“Oh mighty warrior of great fighting stock … “

Borrowing Trouble

Blogging at the 11th hour after a crappy day. Everyone is fine, I’m just fretting about the future.

Mathilda took a handful of very off steps on her bad hind leg at breakfast. When it was time for her morning walk, the day had warmed up & she had loosened up. She is also a bit footsore in the front from being barefoot all summer. She usually gets shod in late May for stomping season. Causing me to wonder:

a) If a cool, pleasant evening causes her to stiffen up to this extent, how will we keep her warm in seriously cold weather, or at least as seriously cold as we get? She was already wearing her bodyweight in blankets last winter. The stall would block the wind and therefore be warmer, but we have the issue of her getting stuck again [Debriefing].

b) I had assumed that the end would be either a catastrophic mechanical failure, i.e. she goes down and lacks the strength to get up, or systemic, i.e. hanging head, poor attitude, and a general feeling of No mas, boss. At that point our duty is clear, if terrible. What do we do if the feet/back end give out but the front end is still perky and absorbing carrots?

Yes, I should not look for trouble. There will be plenty without my inventing more. OTOH, perhaps it is good to think about such things dispassionately ahead of time. Then we are not randomly making critical decisions mid-crisis. Now, if I could only work on the dispassionately part.

From this we can derive two conclusions:

1) Old sucks.

2) I should rename this blog Mathilda’s Meanderings.

Diagnosis

Looks as if I owe Cupcake an apology. The blacksmith found an abscess that had already opened and drained. He might have had it for a while, possibly low-grade or partially open that started hurting when it closed/reclosed. Blacksmith thinks it had more to do with the wet weather than recent “work”. Either way, Rodney how has front shoes. He is celebrating by cavorting about the field.

When he had his first injury – also a foot abscess [Blues*] – I didn’t know how to interpret his behavior. Was he an iron horse or a cupcake? The answer: he’s an iron cupcake. When he’s injured, he does carry on as if the end of the world is nigh. No stoic, wild horse, hid-your-injury-from-predators here. OTOH, he usually does have a legitimate grievance.

(* For those who came later to the party, Rodney was renamed shortly after this. [Square])

Your horse: iron or cake?
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

Handling the paperwork.