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:

Day 16

Today for the first time in at least 9 years (and maybe longer), Little Love went out in the pasture with another horse.  At her previous home, she would go out with other horses, but each horse was in its own individual paddock with an electric fence in between.  Sometimes the barn worker would forget to put the electricity on right away, and the horses would immediately use the opportunity to socialize.  But those moments were rare. 

Becky was eager to put the two horses out together already earlier, but I felt that Little Love had not quite adjusted to her new environment and it would have been too much to throw yet another "unfamiliar" thing at her - so we waited.  But yesterday when I put the horses out separately in the two paddocks side by side, I could tell from their behavior that they were ready to be together.

And they were.  We put them out in the morning, and as you can see from the first picture, it was quite cold even though there is still no snow on the ground. The horses sort of sniffed and then Little Love did her "mare squeel" which made Col move away politely but swiftly.  And that was that.  It got a lot warmer with the sun out and I realized that blanketing Lilo had been a little excessive (I don't believe in blankets, but she has had one all winter until now, so I worry that I shouldn't just take it off cold turkey...).  She rolled the second I took it off and then her and Col had a little canter, until they settled down to graze. 

It felt good to see Lilo with another horse at last.  It also felt good to know that she remembers/knows how to do that as sometimes horses that have not had the opportunity to learn this at a young age, can struggle with it later in life.  In any case, horses are meant to be together and although Little Love and Col are just a herd of two, it is still a herd.   With him she can relearn social skills (if needed) and perhaps some day she can be part of a bigger group of horses.