Preparing for the winter

How do you know its fall? It is a definite sign when you realize your horse's coat is getting thicker. The temperatures haven't dropped drastically, but it looks like Little Love is preparing for the future. Which is a good thing, since last I heard they are predicting a really cold winter for us. I am looking forward to that with mixed feelings. It would be nice to have some snow (emphasis on the word some, not the same as tons), but when temperatures linger below -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) for weeks on end... it gets a bit old. I'm starting to think ahead and have looked into getting metal "spikes" (well, they are really like these raised screws) for Little Love's boots, so we can get up and down those hills also when it gets slippery. From what I remember, the first times the temperature starts going into the freezing digits is at the end of October (next month! Yikes).

Thinking about the future has also brought me back to the question about the saddle. I know I was sort of on the fence about purchasing one, but have finally decided to go for it. I don't plan to start riding Little Love a lot, in fact, quite the contrary. I'm hoping to use the saddle for short trots and canters while we are on the trails and perhaps when the snow is too deep for me to tread. Although, if it is too deep for me, it may also be too deep for my horse! LOL. I definitely need to build up the muscles on her top line before I even consider sitting on her back. And ask her for permission. I have contacted a saddle fitter and am now hoping to hear back from her, so we can get the process moving forward.

In the meanwhile Melissa and I have been taking walks with Little Love to build up her stamina (and help burn some of that sugar :-). Yesterday I ventured quite far on my own. Little Love seems quite comfortable on our walks, she takes new thing in stride and looks for me when something is not quite right. I, too, have learned to stay in my body and be with her, even if I'm not actively seeking contact at all times. Yesterday when my husband called during our walk, I immediately noticed a change in Little Love's focus. She started scanning the surroundings with heightened interest. Someone has to keep an eye on the environment, after all, and if I'm on the phone, I'm obviously not doing it. When I heard it was not an emergency, I told my husband that I would call him back later. I have learned my lesson about cell phones and horses!

Tomorrow it is time for the trimmer to come again. It is about time. I trimmed Little Love myself about two and a half weeks ago, but her hooves seem to have kicked into a whole new pace when it comes to growing. Which is great, of course, but means she needs to be trimmed more often. Especially her bars are quite high at the moment and I can see it affecting her. I would have trimmed her myself, but the trimmer wanted to see for herself how and where the hooves had started to grow after her last trim (I only take the bars and heels down when I trim). Especially the right front is a bit tricky.

Then, on Saturday my friend Selma, the osteopath, is coming to work on Lilo, Kira and Metku. Hopefully she will be happy to see the progress we have made with undoing the tensions in Lilo's ribcage. I certainly have made my best attempt in completing all the stretches, but we'll hear the verdict tomorrow!

Day 154

It was great to see Little Love again!  She was happy to see me, too.  Before, when she wasn't mine and was living at the large commercial facility close to my house, it used to be complete hell to come back after a break.  She would be so freaked out and dissociated from everything that it always took me at least a day or two to get any kind of connection with her.  But now that she is obviously in a better place mentally and emotionally to begin with, she accepts my absence as well as my return with a grain of salt. 

Today a man who owns an Argentinian Criollo gelding came over to see the barn.  Becky has been looking for a new friend for Col for when Little Love and I leave and this man answered an advertisement we placed in the local newpaper.  He was really nice and both Becky and I had a good feeling about him.  But the one who really got us sold on this guy was Little Love.  In general, she doesn't like men and she doesn't like strangers.  She did, however, like this guy.  When we were standing on the barn aisle, talking, she approached the three of us and just sort of "joined" our little group.  The man turned to pet her and I felt myself tense up in anticipation of Little Love's "normal" reaction = pinning the ears back and backing away.  But, none of that happened.  She allowed this strange man to pet her neck, just like that.  I have to say, he was very respectful of her space and never tried, for example, to touch her on the face like people usually do.  Even Becky noticed Little Love's reaction (or the absence of it, more like) and mentioned it to me afterwards.  We decided it was a good sign; I trust Little Love's judgement when it comes to people.

Every time I am gone, even if it is for just a few days, I always notice Little Love's front feet when I come back.  And I don't notice them in a good way.  Today was no different; I was shocked to see how "crooked" they really are.  In fact, it felt like again they had gotten worse, the medial wall getting shorter and more upright, and the lateral wall slanting out.  I had this same feeling last time I was gone so perhaps they were always this bad, but I just get used to it when I see her every day. I really need to go back to some old pictures to see if they are the same or if they are actually getting worse.  The right front, which has always been the worst foot, is particularly asymmetrical.  I so desperately need someone who knows what they are doing to look at them and trim them.  I am doing what I can, but in the end, what do I know?  Not much.  In any case, it's definitely time for new pictures.  Perhaps, if I take a really good set, Claudia can explain how I will be able to help Little Love in the long run.  I'm not so sure I'll know exactly how to trim, but at least I could give it a try.

Day 129

Today I trimmed Little Love's front hooves.  It was a heck of a lot easier than when I did it the first time.  I guess I felt more comfortable.  Although I'm still not sure I'm doing a great job at it.  But perhaps not the worst possible job either?  Little Love was definitely more patient with me this time.  She let me go at it without really caring.  Which was helpful. 

I trimmed her back hooves already yesterday.  There wasn't so much to trim there; my "mentor", Claudia Garner, advised me to trim only the bars for now.  So that I did.  I like trimming, it's really intriguing to see how much you can change the way a horse moves with just a few swipes of the knife.  Not that I'm that good yet, but seeing someone like Claudia do it is amazing.  Makes you want to be able to do that!

Afterwards I walked Little Love around a bit, just to see how she was moving.  Not bad.  I also spent some time just hanging out with her.  I needed to explain to her that I will be going away for a few days.  My best friend turned forty a few weeks ago and to celebrate the new decade in her life, she wanted to do something special with me.  When I turned forty a few years ago, we went on a two day trek on horse back in the French Jura mountains.  It was so much fun at the time, but now I don't think I could sit on any poor horse for six hours a day.  I'd rather walk, actually.  So, this time we will be doing something a bit different; we are going to England for a two day Epona Introductory Course (go to http://www.taoofequus.com/ for more information). 

I've done this sort of at thing before and can say without exaggeration that it changed my life.  So, I'm really looking forward to this course.  Not that I'm expecting it to change my life (again), but I'm sure it will give some food for thought.  The course is called "Accessing Authenticity" which sounds like something I need right now (don't we all need that?).  Anyways, I'm excited to go, but at the same time am worried about Little Love.  Mainly it's her skin condition.  It really is not getting better.  Today I washed her with another medication.  This one you actually leave into the coat.  It's potent stuff and can only be used every fourth day.  I'm hoping it helps and holds her off until I get back.  Also, I got her a fly sheet.  Just to cover all my bases.  She's not exactly in love with the fly sheet, but I told her it was important to tolerate it for a few day, just to see if it helps.  I'll be back on Sunday to view the situation!

Day 107 Back home

I'm finally back in Switzerland.  I was gone for ten days, but it felt like three months; so much happened and I learned a ton about hooves and trimming.  Now it was time to put some of the stuff I learned into practice...

Seeing Little Love was sort of a shock; her skin condition is back with a vengeance (on top of her back) and her hooves look absolutely hideous!  Yikes!  Little Love, true to her nature, was slightly frantic.  She never does well the first day I'm back from a trip (or maybe it's me who doesn't do well?).  It didn't help that Becky was off riding with Col and Little Love felt like she had been abandoned.  I took her out into the arena where she showed me that despite the horrible angles on her feet (were they really this bad two weeks ago?), she was sound at the trot.  And this was without boots.  This was a relief, because like I said, her feet don't look so great.  Also, the day before I left for Finland, she had a bad fall on the road and I was worried this would come back to hanut her, but apparently not (I haven't told you all about what happened, because I never had time to write, but I'll post something soon on my other blog that recounts the whole experience - it was horrible). 

After letting her run around for a while, I soaked her hooves and took pictures of her fronts, deciding to focus on two hooves at a time.  Her fronts are quite crooked, the medial wall being more upright and tall than the lateral, which is breaking off in chunks.  This pattern was already manifesting itself in Little Love's legs when she had shoes, but somehow over the course of the past two weeks had gotten a lot worse.  Or did I just know to look for it?  After seeing so many horses in Finland with relatively good feet, I was appalled to see how little toe height Lilo has.  Not to mention to fact that she is probably slightly rotated (and perhaps party separated?) in her right front.  There are so many things wrong with her hooves that trimming them with my pathetic experience will be a challenge to say the least.  But, I have to try. 

I decided to go back in the evening, after analysing the hoof pictures on the computer and giving everything a bit thought.  This I did.  I soaked her again and then went at the trimming like a mad woman.  At first Little Love didn't think this was a good idea.  Perhaps she felt my anxiety, which didn't make trimming very easy.  But, after a while we both got a hang of it.  I took her heels down and worked on the bars that were really high.  The bars are also really crooked and laying over the sole when you get close to the frog.  My knives were not the sharpest, so I have to get back to the bars once I have bought a sharpener.  I also did a bit of rasping of the wall where it was too thick.  All in all I think I did an ok (and very careful) job and left Little Love in a better state than before I started.  Which is the general idea.   Phew.  I was sweating, though, perhaps more from the idea of trimming my own horse than the actual trimming!

Today was a new day and when I got to the barn, my horse was still standing on all four feet and was not dead lame.  I guess my trim had not ruined her for life!  I'm not sure if I was imagining it, but it looked like she was walking straighter... I had also washed her with the medical shampoo and her skin looked a lot better. 

Becky suggested a long walk and we went together, she rode and I walked, as usual.  We did a new loop that took us well over an hour; we were all hot and sweaty when we got back (except the dogs that were wet from swimming in the stream).  Afterwards Becky and I walked the fence line of the pasture next door.  We just recently discovered that it was part of the property.  It's conveniently located right next to the current pasture.  After a few small repairs we were able to let the horses in for some grass.  I think they both thought they had died and gone to heaven!  Col, true to his nature, walked the fence line first thing, just to check that there weren't any openings where he could wiggle out.  Little Love, on the other hand, just wanted the grass! :-)
 
Here is a picture of Little Love investigating the new pasture:

Pictures of right hind foot

I talked to Claudia about the hematoma and she said: "Hematoma in the frog from trimming? I don’t think so. There may be some bruising, but it is hardly from the last trimmer." 
She didn't see anything in the picture and neither do I.  However, something is going on with that foot because Little Love is definitely walking carefully on it.  There are times when she sort of stumbles from the sudden pain she feels in the foot (not every step, but just sometimes on hard ground).

On the left is the "before" picture of the sole of the right hind, on the right is the "after" pictures.  I'm sorry, I don't know why they downloaded sideways, I couldn't figure out how to change that (if someone knows how to fix it, let me know)

This trimmer doesn't seem to believe in trimming the bars much, although in this particular foot she did more than in others.  The frog of this foot was quite high before the trim and she trimmed it down.  Perhaps this is causing the soreness? 

Here is the hoof from the side.  This is definitely her "best looking" hoof of all her hooves.  She doesn't have enough toe height and that is her problem all around.  Probably another reason why she is sore.  Hopefully those boots will arrive in the mail SOON!