Happy trails, not so happy feet

Yesterday morning Kristiina, who owns Kira and manages the barn, took us (Lilo, Melissa, my two dogs and me) on an introductory tour of the forest.  There are lots of trails and although she has made a map of them all, it was good to have a guide when we ventured out for the first time.  Also, Little Love was definitely calmer with Kira leading the way. 

The trail was literally a small path in the forest.  Little Love is not a big fan of narrow paths, as she gets uncomfortable when branches and other vegetation touch her behind.  Maybe it's some form of claustrophobia or perhaps it reminds her of something that happened long time ago.  It was also fairly warm and the bugs were out.   But, considering all that, Little Love did extremely well in the forest.  Given, she wanted to be as close as possible to Kira, which made it a tad challenging for me, since I was walking, too.  We managed some sort of balance, although there were moments when I was taking the "off road" route next to the path...

Twenty minutes later we popped out of the forest onto a narrow dirt road.  Little Love was pleased and since she has such a long stride, she took the lead confidently, leaving Kira to trail behind.  The dirt road definitely worked better for me, too, since now we could walk side by side without a problem.  I will need to practice walking together on the path, so that I can walk ahead safely, instead of having to scramble on the side.  I was very proud of Lilo, though, as she crossed two small bridges without even blinking an eye!  She also figured out how to walk with her boots on around rocks and roots, although a she stumbled a few times with her front feet; the boots are sort of bulky and probably don't give her the feeling she needs to have the precision needed in the forest.

We walked back to the barn in 20 minutes, every now and then stopping for some grass.  As we passed several Ys in the road, Kristiina told us where they all lead to, so that we could go explore on our own as well.  She also said Melissa and I could take Kira with us any time.  This is great news, since I know how much more comfortable Lilo will be in the beginning if another horse goes with us.  I'm really looking forwards to exploring the trails; it looks like you can go on for hours!

Little Love was definitely tired when we got back to the barn.  She hasn't walked that long in one go since I walked her in Germany two and a half weeks ago (seems like a lifetime ago!).  She still looks fairly skinny and I talked to Kristiina about maybe giving her some more hay as well as the "müsli" (grain).  The bugs are so relentless this time of the year that the horses tend to be moving all the time, which means Little Love isn't prone to gain much weight.  I have been putting on her fly mask for the past few days and despite all the trees she rubs herself on, it has stayed on her head.  The mask helps her so much, since she gets really upset when the horse flies go at her head.  I'm happy a friend of mine gave us some fly spray that actually works, looks like Lilo has the least amount of bugs on her out of the three horses!

Tonight when I went to the barn, it was still really hot and muggy.  All horses were in the pasture, which is great, since that means Little Love is eating grass as well.  When I took her out of the paddock, though, I was sort of shocked to see her feet.  Her hooves have not been in the greatest shape, but now they were absolutely thrashed as if she had run a marathon on them in the past 24 hours.  Even the back hooves that looked semi-decent were torn on the edges.  Kristiina's daughter showed up to feed and she told me that the horses were running around last night because of the bugs.  The ground is really hard and dry, so it looks like Lilo's hooves took a beating.  Yikes.  I think I need to start keeping boots on her all the time for the time being if I want her to have any hooves left to stand on.  She didn't seem too bothered by the state of her feet.  I put her in her stall and once she settled down a bit, managed to soak her left front for exactly 13 minutes.  It's a start, but obviously not enough.  Soaking is going to be a challenge, as she needs to stand still.  Because of the bugs, the only place where this is possible is in the stable, but she still doesn't feel so comfortable in there, even when the horses are inside.  

I have connected with a trimmer I trust, now we just have to figure out when she can come as she has quite a drive to get to where we are at (but she is willing to do it, which makes me happy!).  I'll be gone a few days in Switzerland next week (tying off some loose ends, so to say), but perhaps the week after that.  If I can keep the boots on her feet for a week, maybe there will be something to trim?  Wishful thinking.  Perhaps I could find something feed her that would make her feet grow faster...

Day 44 Crumbling sole

Today, when I took Little Love's boots off, I noticed that the sole of her front feet is crumbling off at the tip of her hoof (in front of the frog).  I scratched it with the hoof pick and it literally just came off in flakes. I suppose this is old and dead sole that is exfoliating and I shouldn't be worried.  I'm wondering if the boots are sort of aiding this process, as the feet "brew" in the boots now that the ground is soggy.  The smell was definitely interesting, my dog loved it...  which says a lot.  Yuk.  Maybe I should give Little Love a "night off" from the boots to let her hooves dry.  Or should I? She is definitely more comfortable with the boots on.  and isn't moisture good?  Can there be too much moisture? I still soaked the 20 minutes today, regardless.

Little Love was again a bit slower this afternoon, perhaps because of the short canter she did yesterday in the pasture.  She has been quite energetic in the past few days, but I'm starting to get used to the "down" days that follow the "up" ones.  Today was definitely one of those days and we ended up not walking for very long at all.  I have also noticed she hasn't laid down for a few nights now.  Another sign that all is not well, I suppose. 

She is certainly spending a lot of time on the ground rolling when she is outside; she was so caked in mud today that I couldn't get all of it off, no matter how hard I worked.  Little Love actually let me scrub fairly hard, something she usually doesn't enjoy, but now that her hair is coming off she seems to welcome some brushing.  She even let me do it while she was standing in the buckets!  I don't know why she dislikes brushing so much, perhaps it is too evasive to her sensitive nature, so I do it as little as possible.  But on days like today when she feels comfortable with it, I try to take advantage :-)

Day 37

Yesterday and today, with the help of the carpets, I was able to walk Little Love out to the front of the barn to soak her hooves.  Getting her to step out of her stall still takes some work, but she definitely is working on coming out in a different manner than before.  She WANTS to come out, but she just needs some time to think and to maneuver her feet around. 

A month ago I could never ever have imagined putting Little Love's foot in a bucket and expected her to stand there for several minutes and now she can do that with both her fronts at the same time - no problem.  She stands like a statue for exactly 20 minutes, after which she is done (seriously, you would think she is the one with the watch!).  She seems to know that soaking is good for her and welcomes it as part of her daily routine now.  I sit next to her on the ground and keep her company, while she eats hay.  Periodically she will lift her head and breathe into my hair or face.  Those moments I have a strong sense that she understands I'm trying to help her.  
I would like to soak the back feet as well, but they are still a bit of an issue.  I had a go at soaking one of the back hooves yesterday.  Little Love expressed her opinion about that pretty clearly and managed to crack the bottom off the little silver tub within 30 seconds.  I tried a bigger bucket a few days ago, but she sent that flying in her stall.  Maybe we'll just wait for the rains to make the pasture wet...

Here's a picture of her feet in the little tubs.

Hand walking Little Love in the arena yesterday was a tad challenging because Becky had washed Col and was walking him back and forth in the parking lot in the sun.  As long as he was out of sight, Little Love managed to focus on the walking, but as soon as Col showed up from behind the corner, she became stressed out and started calling out to him (he, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less, which made Little Love more frantic).  She also seemed to forget that she had sore feet and jogged next to me a few times.  We only walked 15 minutes, but she actually broke into a bit of a sweat; more from stress than the work - no doubt.

All this excitement had backfired on her by today, she was quite slow coming in from the pasture.  I soaked her hooves and handwalked her, nevertheless, but she was definitely feeling her feet more than before, even in the boots.  After ten minutes of walking I let her loose in the arena so she could roll and decide for herself how much she wanted to move.  My husband John (who has been quite understanding of my need to own a certain black horse and spend lots of my free time with the said horse) came out to the barn yesterday to rig up some posts and a makeshift fence that I can set up when I want to spend time with Little Love in the arena in "liberty".  The arena doesn't have a fence around it, but conventiently is surrounded by a dense bush on three sides leaving only the one short side open (with a low "dressage fence").  Becky doesn't want anything permanent there, but we agreed on two posts on the corners.  I have a good 20 yards/meters of white tape (used for electric fencing) that I roll out and attach to the said posts, creating a temporary enclosure.  This works great (thank you John :-)! 

Letting Lilo loose in the arena made me think of the "old times" when we spent hours in the indoor arena just hanging out and getting to know each other.  Those times were not so long ago, but they seem to have taken place in another lifetime.  I think Little Love thought of that, too, as she got really excited when I took her halter off like she used to do before.  She sort of leapt into the air and as she was performing something that was meant to be a buck, she remembered her feet and landed back on the ground with this look on her face that said: "Ouch, that hurt".  Poor girl, she really wanted to kick those heels up, but just could not.  But, hopefully soon she will be able to do that again! 

Day 34 From worse to better :-)

Winston Churchill said "If you are going through hell... keep going."  Great advice, as you don't want to stop in the middle of hell.  So move we have, slowly.  And now finally hope is restored.  There is light at the end of the tunnel and this time it is possibly not a train coming at me (and Little Love) .

The boots with gel pads arrived with Becky this afternoon from England (after a bit of drama; she called me last night telling me the mail didn't bring them, but eventually they were found at the doorman's residence - the address was partly wrong, how they found their way to the right place is still a mystery - or a miracle).  I can't tell you how hopeful I felt when I looked at them.  Would this work?

Getting Little Love to come out of her stall to the concrete was slow, but the banana worked again.  Once she was on flat and solid ground, it was easier to fit the boots on. The right one fits perfectly.  The left foot has really been giving her grief and is sort of an odd shape, so I wasn't surprised to see that the boot sat on it a bit crooked.  It also seems like the boot is a bit big for her on that foot. But, luckily I was able to secure it, nevertheless. Tomorrow we'll work on fitting it better.

Little Love sniffed the boots thoroughly when I was adjusting them to her feet.  I told her the boots were a little strange, but that they would help her.  Once she had them on, she stood still like a statue, afraid to even blink.  I had the halter on her and tried to coax her to move, but she had literally grown roots.  She gave me this look that seemed to say "you seriously think I can walk with these things on?"  I ran to get a second banana :-)

The first step was very short and very tentative.  The second one was hesitant, but by the third one, Little Love became more confident.  And low and behold, after about five steps, she was actually walking.  She was WALKING!!  Not hobbling or gimping or falling over, but walking.  I opened the gate towards the parking lot and she needed no more encouragement; she marched towards the arena and away from the barn like she had been waiting to do that for the past two week.

"Oh my god Becky, you have to see this!"  I hollered at Becky who was inside the barn.  She came running out to see me laughing and crying as my horse walked WALKED WALKED around the cement parking lot.  Little Love started neighing and whinnying, she was so loud, it was like she was singing her joy out to Col who responded from the barn.  We made a few laps around the parking lot and down to the arena, and it was literally like a switch inside Little Love had gone off; she was her alert and hyper self!  Wish I had the whole ordeal on video, it was amazing.  I could not stop smiling, this was like Christmas ten times over, just to see her so ALIVE.  Wow.  I have my horse back.

So yes, the boots work.  Unfortunately the neoprene guards that came with them are way too small, but I talked to my friend Kristiina in Finland and she has an extra pair that fits her horse (who also has thick bones like Little Love); she is sending them over first thing on Monday.  Until then we'll just have to make do without and hope the boots don't rub too bad.  I plan to start handwalking tomorrow, but with short walks so Lilo doesn't get rubs from the boots.  Also, knowing what she has gone through, I don't want to rock the very, very sensitive hoof balance/pain management scenario any more than I have to. 

Here is a picture of us in the parking lot, I think we both look positively relieved.  Little Love couldn't stop looking at the horizon, as if she was just dreaming about going out for walks over the fields and forests.  No kidding.  It was starting to get a little old hanging out in the pasture and in the barn! 

Ps. Also the swelling on her left front had gone down last night, so another piece of good news!