Up and down month for the Hodges clan. Moved the boys to a new yard at the beginning of the month. Not ideal from a barefoot point of view in that its a dairy farm, so rich grass. However I was sick of them being in mud up to their bellies and with fences that constantly broke.its also opposite my house!
After a few days gorging himself on the novelty of grass, Boy was rather sore. Especially of the fist sized pointy stones on the track. Interestingly though, no pulses. I had been checking twice a day. As I had dropped him to a maintenance level of minerals a few months back, I upped that and it seems to have done the trick. Did notice slight ouchiness returning after 1 day of not feeding though. Tyler has remained fine throughout, although as he's not being ridden I may have missed some soreness.
So I will need to learn to manage my boys more strictly now that we are on actual grass. Have planted the seeds of a track system in the farmers head. Also got his girlfriend thinking of taking her horse barefoot. And the boys are much happier.
Ending the month on a positive note, but its certainly been a learning curve as to how sensitive the Boy pony is!
X
Not a big fan of rugging if it can be helped - it denys them their ability to regulate their temperature and anyway my old girl looks terrible when she's been rugged. So I try and give them lots of shelter options and tons of appropriate quality hay. But I realise this is not possible for everyone especially at livery. I've been to so many livery yards where the fields have no shelter at all - which must be particularly miserable in the summer.
Mind you Harvey Smith keeps his very posh expensive TBs unrugged on Baildon Moor (near my in-laws) in all weathers with no shelter at all and they look perfectly healthy and even fat.
That said the QH lives 24/7 in a Boatt because she is not only prone to sweet itch but is also allergic to the bite of the poo fly (more poo talk!). But at least it doesn't weight her fur down.
Well got back today and headed up to see my lads. Muddy and slippery here.
Link was covered from head to tail with mud! He seems to be much more comfortable on that foot and was moving around without too much evidence of lameness. He's still taking the odd slightly ouchy step on hard ground but nowhere near as bad as he was. No sign of abscess egress though. I still think there is a little heat in the foot, but there wasn't a pulse
Glad to hear Link seems to be feeling better. Cross fingers for you that he is fully recovered soon.
My two didn't seem to get over sugared yesterday despite blazing sunshine. Took them off the 'new' grass at lunchtime and put them back on the foggage. Feet cool, although Pickles sugometer was showing a bit.
There is a cob on my yard who is shod in front and bare behind and her owner was chatting to their farrier the other day asking what he thought of her going bare all round. He said whilst she was fine behind the front feet took more weight and were therefore more sesceptible to abcesses etc if bare.
Low and behold the pony went hopping lame the next week on a front foot. Vet took shoe off and dug out the hoof looking for an abcess didn't find anything but pony put on restricted movement and poulticed daily.
The owner was thinking - so much for the theory of bare feet abcessing when it was her shod foot which apparently did.
Anyway in the end said pony got a bit better but not sound so was scanned and it was apparenty a splint.
Quite a few of the mares in the yard are coming into season - so a lot of squealing, bucking and farting, and general ill temper. The geldings are going a bit potty too and there have been a few kick injuries. This happens every year, and usually settles down in a few weeks. Also new growth really apparent now - the trashed areas are showing bright green shoots
I'm coming to the conclusion that there is an awful lot to learn about abscesses, their causes and progress. I thought they were simple, but nothing ever is.
Jake still out of boots. Absolutely stomping off on turf, flat tarmac. Amazingly capable going up knarly (big stone and mud) bridlepath up to mountain - the one path I thought he would struggle on. Not bad coming down it either this weekend and that was after 2.5 hours of hacking. Keeping to kinder tracks on mountain for now.
Fairly unbothered by big stones and tiny gritty surfaces when first out but still ouchy with 1cm dia. stones on flat surface. Dislikes steep inclines at all times - takes em slow but think it jives his hock.
Increasingly ouchy on gritty surfaces the longer we stay out. My chum (not barefoot) just shrugged her shoulders and reminded me that its early days yet and he needs to build up feet - support comes from the unlikeliest places eh?
Clearly we have hoof conditioning work to do but overall I remain impressed by bootless Jake. May need to start working on brakes though starting to run out of track....
Recent haylage has been rather strong and tasty plus grass looks like its growing - one of these is reason for Jake missing lots of meals this week - turning his nose up which means NO mag, seaweed etc. and today scouring/loose poos . So toda I've topped up with meadow hay now and at last he's eaten a feed. Jaylage/ lack of Mag etc. could be making him more footy on gritty surfaces, so he's been restricted to mud /hardcore/peagravel pen today.
Snips did just over 7 miles yesterday and c. 6 today. Variety of surfaces, lots of road but nothing very taxing stone wise. Sound as a bell and walking like a horse rather than the 14hh titch that she is. Pics kept up except for the canter bits. (I don't run that fast). Tiny bit of jumpies and lots of controlled canters (as in not tanking off.)
Except for squaring off the toes, feet are not wearing down at all which is a pain coz Pics is underrunning again. Farrier may never come back into work having been badly injured recently so we are a bit stuck. I will try and squeeze in another 12 miles on the road during the week.
Although they are both in season they are being brilliant.
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starting to run out of track....
- turning his nose up which means NO mag, seaweed etc. and today scouring/loose poos . 