Hooves. And Farriers.

I have had a rough time finding a good farrier in South Carolina. Or maybe its just that I have had some serious issues in the past two years.

In 2010, probably around March or so, the farrier I was using did not return my calls when Avalon ripped off his shoe and a chunk of his foot. Avalon was dead lame, and he needed a shoe put on in order to give him some relief - he always went lame when he lost a shoe. We've got granite chunks in the pasture that pop up like weeds after every rain.

After a few days of no return call no show I found another farrier. I'm not going to name names here - let's just call him Barefoot Guy. I call him Barefoot Guy because he was very into the natural shoeing trend that's going around. And you know what? In many places, for many horses, you can go without shoes and it's better for them. That did not end up being the case for Avalon.

When he came he took one look at Avalon's feet and said that he had some heel problems. He was right. A few years ago I had to switch farriers when one collapsed Avalon's heel (the same heel) through fitting the horse to the shoe instead of the other way around. He was lame for 3 months off of that. As a side note, total South Carolina farrier count so far is 4 with Barefoot Guy being the 4th. So Barefoot Guy put shoes on all 4 of Avalon's feet for a couple of months, then said that his back feet probably didn't need them. I was concerned about it, but I gave it a try, and you know what, it worked. Avalon is still barefoot in back, in fact.

We continue to put shoes on the front, until Barefoot Guy tells me that he cannot fix the problems we are having with Avalon's heel by putting shoes on. He tells me that he's just in a holding pattern, and shoes are preventing Avalon from getting the kind of growth he needs to grow out that collapsed heel. I decide to give it a shot, since it worked well in back, and we pull his shoes in August of 2010.

Avalon goes dead lame, but Barefoot Guy says this is normal, and horses generally need a couple of months for their feet to toughen up enough to prevent bruising, and once they do they get healthy feet. He tells me it's temporary, and about two months later (right before he's due for a trim) Avalon seems to be getting sounder.

It doesn't last. Avalon gets sounder when his feet are long, and lame after a trim. The Barefoot Guy keeps telling me it's temporary, but my horse is lame. I call the vet out in November, because Barefoot Guy has me half convinced that the problem isn't bruising now, but that heel problem we are trying to correct. We nerve block parts of Avalon's feet to see where the pain is coming from - and it is definitely his sole.

I ask Barefoot Guy in December to put shoes back on Avalon's feet. My horse has been lame for nearly 6 months with him continually telling me that his feet will toughen up any day now, but my gut is telling me 6 months is too long for this to be a temporary issue. I want my horse back. Barefoot guy refuses to put shoes on him, saying that it will undue all the work he's put into Avalon's feet and that eventually Avalon will be permanently lame if he has shoes put back on, ever.

I find a new farrier in January. Farrier Number 5.

Farrier Number 5 is my current farrier, but I am now so paranoid about crappy farriers I have serious concerns about Avalon's feet. Next month (aka when I have money), I am going to get a vet to come take xrays of his feet and make sure they are balanced. Avalon is sound. But the way his feet look, I don't think he will be for long.

I took these pictures on July 3rd, which was a couple of days before Farrier 5 was supposed to come out and trim him. These pictures really concerned me.

This is his funky foot. The one I have had past heel issues (twice!) with, and the one that looks different than the other 3. I don't think it's a true club foot, but it's definitely low compared to the rest of his feet. I do NOT like the way his heel looks. It looks completely underrun/collapsed to me.

I always doubt myself with hoof issues because I'm not a farrier and I'm not a vet, and what do I know. That self doubt is why I let Avalon be barefoot and lame for 6 months - my farrier convinced me that he knew better than I.

This is the other foot. Far more upright, heel looks maybe a little but underrun, but really not like the other foot. Toe is too long, I think, but he's due for trim.

This is a front view. I am 90% sure that the "dishing" you see, or the flares, are a bad thing. My understanding is that this shows that the white line is separating from the rest of the hoof, because the feet are out of balance or too long.

I really think I was directly behind the foot when I took this photo. Shouldn't his leg be straight, not kind of bent inward? Are the two sides of his heel growing at different speeds or lengths or is the farrier just not balancing him right?

His funky foot is even worse. I know his heel is collapsed here, and I am worried that this picture shoes a prolapsing frog.

The pictures I took after the trim show significant improvement. But...I cannot just trust the farrier. Too many bad experiences. I want xrays and vet consult, because my gut is telling me that if I don't get this done right then I'm going to have a lame horse again.

Maybe the vet will tell me I just wasted $500.00. But I'm pretty sure he's not going to say that.

Riding Update

I have a lesson scheduled for Monday - and I NEED it. I never seem to get very far when I'm on my own. For instance, this week I was trying to get good shoulder ins from my two horses, who are completely capable of doing this, and who's toplines need some more muscle (especially Avalon) for my peace of mind. Shoulder ins help build up those muscles.

I think I started out really good. Get decent on the bit trotwork going, spend some time shortening and lengthening the trot, do some leg yields on a small circle to the rail, get some good lengthened trotwork on the diagonal and some nice collection coming around the corner out of it. All of that worked well for me, on both horses. Then I start the shoulder in.

FAIL.

I get something a little more like a shoulder in from Avalon, but there's something off about his hind end. I don't know what it is, and I have no one on the ground to tell me why he feels weird. His shoulder is mostly in the right place, and his head and neck are probably a little too bent to the inside. Not quite there.

Pete, on the other hand, thinks I'm a blinking idiot and just walks on the rail with his head and neck bent way too far towards the inside. As soon as I get his shoulder off the rail, he swings it back into line with his hind end. I cannot for the life of me get it right, not even for a split second.

Pete's definitely the horse I'm taking my lesson on.

Outside of my complete failure to practice a new skill and simultaneously limber and build muscle on my horses, things went OK. Avalon is still giving me this dainty miniature trot he's been giving me since he came off my attempted barefoot disaster, but I can usually get him to give me his big swinging trot after the canterwork, and sometimes just after some good trotwork. It's something that's worrying me, but he hasn't taken a lame step since I put shoes back on him, so I think it's just that it hurt for so long he got into the habit of trotting defensively. Or maybe I'm just taking more contact because I rode Pete for so long, and Avalon hasn't quite figured out that it's ok to trot big with that much contact. This is what I get for trying to ride him backwards for so many years, now I have to work to get him to move forward.

I made a really awesome discovery on Pete. He tends to have hissy fits (stick his head in the air and crophops a bit before settling down) when you ask for an upward transition to a canter. My trainer has been telling be to overbend him towards the inside when I ask, to reduce that, which works, but didn't eliminate it entirely. Turns out, if you loop the inside rein while you're asking (but keep contact on your outside) during the upward transition and take only minimum contact in the canter, he's chill. This is not a one side thing, so I don't think it's a pain response, I think I just rely too heavily in my inside rein and Pete is just not a fan. I can live with that. When he's not trying to get me off, Pete's canter is almost as nice as Avalon's.

We all know who the favorite child is.

I passed!

Well, I passed the bar. I cannot express how relieved I am that I don't have to take that test again. I actually had something to celebrate at that party last Saturday.

I managed to mess up my back Sunday trying to do a workout video. It actually had been twinging since my lesson the Sunday before, and I was pretty silly and thought it was good to go. My lesson really drove home to me how weak my core is, especially my lower back. I decided I needed to do some exercises to improve my strength in that area...but I clearly overdid it the first try. I haven't ridden or worked out since I hurt my back on Sunday, and I know I need another day to let my back heal up. So that means I have two horses who will not have been ridden for three days, and I have a canoeing adventure scheduled for Saturday. I'm going to go into my Sunday lesson with only two rides for the week under my belt. Not ideal. But I think if I rode this afternoon I might reinjure myself, to that's the way it's going to have to be. Maybe I can sneak in a ride late Saturday.

My last lesson can be quickly summed up as this: I can do a shoulder in on Avalon, but it's harder for him towards the right. By the time we were working on the right I had exhausted my core strength, and as a result he was running out at the shoulder. An improvement on my seat and core at the time could have fixed that. We actually did it later that week, but I started trying far earlier during the ride, so I had the stamina for it.

This is the first time I have ever had problems during a lesson where I clearly had the skills but did not have the strength to do it.

This is a really great additional motivator to continue trying to lose weight and get fit. I just need to try to do it more carefully!

Not as bad as I thought...

I weighed myself this morning. 185.6 pounds. I was expecting to have gained back almost all I lost, so that measly .6 lb doesn't bother me at all. I had a great lesson, and I successfully staved off a sugar craving with some fruit.

We took pictures today during the lesson.

I got some pretty decent leg yields.

Taking pictures helps you realize some things. I think my leg is slightly too far forward, and I am absolutely not sitting up as straight as I need to be.

Despite all of my little nitpicking on my riding, I must be doing something right - Avalon looks great!

I also start to lean forward during cavaletti.

This is Pete. Like I said, he's a bit chunky right now. I should have taken a front on picture, his gut is wider than his shoulders and hips right now.

And I saw a bunny!

Nothing like photographic proof of how large your butt is to make you want to work harder at losing weight.

Getting there...

Well Pete has decided that I'm no longer screwing up when I'm supposed to be leg yielding, which is good. I haven't had any hissy fits related to the right rein for a while, though he's still throwing his random "I don't wanna!" pops in there. I'm actually ok with that, since its not something I'm causing, and therefore not a pain reaction.

Pete is, however, FAT. We've got more grass in the pastures right now than we've had for a long time with South Carolina's drought/flood cycle, and boy is he taking advantage. He's a porker. This is normally not good, but Pete has bad hocks, which means all that extra weight can cause him some real problems. I've cut his grain and hay down by half, and I've been riding him almost every day it isn't raining. He hasn't lost anything, but then again it doesn't look like he's gained either. I've started to do intervals on him, hopefully that will help. Maybe I'll drop some pounds, too.

Avalon has been kind of avoiding me in the bit, not quite getting as deep as he needs to. He's also been popping his head up and trying to run through my half-halts. Yesterday I had him long and low in the bit (Finally!) and I while he's still popping his head up and resisting during some half-halts at the trot, he's not running through me at the walk or canter. It's not perfect, but it's getting there.

Progress!

About that horse thing...

I couldn't figure out what to start writing about. So I decided I was going to post my handy-dandy 27 in 27 list, and tally up how many entries I had into vague categories. Whichever had the most goal entries was going to be the first thing I wrote about. Unscientific, but probably pretty accurate way to gauge what is most important to me at this point in my life.

Horses and travel tied at 5 entries each. And I'm probably not going to go overseas this afternoon, but I will go ride a couple of horses. Seems like we have a topic!

I've been riding for almost as long as I can remember. I have a picture of me at 3 or so sitting happily up on a dead broke quarter horse in a western saddle. My hair was a mess, the horse looked like he was bored to death, and the guy holding the horse was giving the camera the side-eye, but I was grinning like a fool. One of the most influential people of my childhood is a riding instructor who taught me from the 3rd grade until I moved away to college at 18. For three years of college my job was caring for horses. My current riding instructor got me my law job. It is a huge part of my life.

I got my first horse when I was 17. Avalon is a grey thoroughbred I got off the track when he was 4.

I still have him. I also have custody of another grey, Pete, whom I do not have a good picture of at the moment.

A lot of people think horses are something that only rich people have, like Rolls Royces or beach houses. The people who think this don't personally know anyone who has horses. Most horse owners, especially college students and younger, work very hard to keep their horse. I used to do all the barn chores in exchange for the stable I was at to waive board fees. Many people keep their horse in rural areas they have to commute 30 minutes to an hour to go see their horse. Some people keep their horse in their backyard. Horse owners are the same as dog owners: some people have their dog pampered at dog spas, buy them sweaters, and cart them around in Louis Vuitton brand dog carriers. Other dog owners tie their dog up outside their house and refuse to pay for the animal's vet care. The standards of costs and care swing just as widely for horses.

That said, I know I have been very privileged. I would not have been able to keep my horse through college without my parents' generosity (Thanks Dad!). It is very difficult to hold down a job to pay your living expenses, hold down a job to pay your horse's expenses, and still go to class full time and pass. I never earned enough working during college to pay both my and my horse's expenses. I did what I could, and there were months where I was eating ramen so that my horse's vet bills would be paid.

I've had people ask me why I bother spending so much time, money, and energy on something that few people see any benefit in. And it's dumb, but there's not really any way to explain it. Some people spend their time and money on trailing for marathons. Everyone else thinks they are crazy because they're running 26 miles voluntarily. (Please completely ignore the fact that, without training for it, no one can run 26 miles involuntarily, either.) You do it because you love it. I, personally, cannot see why anyone would want to play golf, but people spend countless hours and thousands of dollars on that, too. To each his own.

I ride dressage, mostly. I would like to event, and Avalon is a pretty good jumper, but I am very lazy about setting up jumps in the area, so I am a very bad jumper due to lack of practice. I hope that will change this year. I have no idea if Pete can jump. I got him about 6 months ago, and I am mostly engaged in trying to convince him that randomly trying to buck me off is a bad idea. 

Due to school, I have not seriously competed in years, but my skills (and Avalon's emotional well being) are the best they've ever been, so I hope to change that. I lost my trailer in an accident last June, so that is a barrier to getting to do the things I had hoped to this year.

I also believe that the reason I got chunky in law school is at least partially related to the fact that I only got a chance to ride about a third of the time I was accustomed to during college. I am SO GLAD I am finished with law school!

P.S.: So far I have been unable to find more than a couple of quality horse-related (or semi-horse related) blogs out there. Any suggestions?