Bathing and booting

Foxy is boarded out in the next town over from where I live. She is not working (and not sound to work) so I basically just go visit her and say HI. It is full care board and so I just make appearances and provide carrots :) Although life often gets in the way, I try and go every other day to check on her.

Since she was so unhappy yesterday, I went again today to check on her. I was mostly concerned about her lameness but also her eyes. She was out to pasture today when I got there and wearing her fly mask which is always good. But she had also rolled in some serious mud, which covered one side of her body and caked half the mask. She came charging over (at a walk) when she saw me and my carrots and seemed okay. Same ol same ol "pasture sound". Once I had her out on gravel and cement she was not all that comfy again but okay.

I can still do some "in place" training while I get this foot thing sorted out. saddling, bridling, sacking out, bending and stretching exercises, etc. But today instead I gave her a bit of a bath, mostly to get the disgusting mud off and to hose out her fly mask. Also brushed out her mane and tail and gave her some more carrots. Nothing too exciting but I think she has gotten lonely over the last year. The year prior to this one I spent 3-5 hours a day working with her. Every single day. Morning for an hour, evening for 2-4 hours. Sometimes more on the weekends or days off. Although part of me thinks that moving out here and having her away and more "on her own" is good for her, I still think that being as friendly as she is and having only me as her best buddy for a year and a half....she has gotten lonely.

So today we had some fun getting pretty and eating. Definitely a ladies night!

Then I had some success online tonight and found a few options as far as trimming. and boots! I am going to get some Easy boots for her. I am only put off by the cost but then I realized they are no more than a set of shoes (if not actually less). And I paid ridiculous amounts of money on that other set of shoes and even got a broken finger out of it. Might as well try the boots. They should definintely help with her soreness. And so tomorrow I will make some calls and see what I can get going. But I definitely want to hunt down some boots for her. She'll probably do the crazy marching band dance in the arena the first time I put them on, but I think she will be a lot more comfortable.

I actually work with a guy who does farrier work...I have hesitated to get him involved for a few reasons. For one, we work together! I don't want to get crazy and end up firing him if he is lame. And also, he is sort of old school and I think I need new school. However, he also has read up and even loaned me this big horse hoof/farrier book to read about navicular. He has also done some therapeutic shoeing after looking at xrays (done by my same vet) on another horse that helped. So I am thinking if I can get him to come out and do a better trim...and I can pop some boots on her at least some of the time.....that will be a good first step.