LadyGascoyne
Still Fig-uring it out...
Today was a big day for us as Miri started has officially started work with our dressage coach and rider, for the first time since her injury.
I thought I'd do a bit of an overview of how we got here, as I know other posters have struggled with the same injury.
In June 2022, Miri arrived with us having failed a vetting and then beginning to present as more and more lame. X-rays showed imbalance in her feet but nothing sinister and based on clinical signs (horse not insured by seller and came to me already injured so decided on no MRI) she was diagnosed as having soft tissue injury consistent with a tear of the DDFT in the hoof capsule.
Her feet were in pretty bad shape, and our first port of call was to get shoes off and then start box rest. I won't sugar coat this - it was hell, and there were frequent times where I felt we may not ever get through it. Because she's such a good mare and does really help herself, we stuck with it but we did have The Talk with our vets on more than one occasion.
We did total box rest with hand grazing for 5 months which took us to November, followed by pen rest in a pen attached to her stable until the end of winter, April 2023. She had physio, a solarium and top care at a fab yard which specialises in producing competition horses and rehab. During this time we padded up her feet with wedge inserts into her hoof boots, and rasped every 2 weeks to ensure balance and compensate for lack of self trimming. She went onto a forage plus hoof and skin balancer, and we cut all high sugar feed.
We then began in-hand walking through to the summer, with limited grass turnout and pen rest. She stayed on her supplements and with a 4 week trimming cycle. This bit was the worst because I suddenly had a new fear which was not injury to the horse but injury to those who handled her. She was absolutely abysmal to walk. It was like wrestling an enormous yellow kite on a lead. The wonderful head girl at the yard persevered and managed her so well.
A year on from her arrival, we brought her home to be out 24/7 in the field with some in-hand pottering about the farm. Trimming at 4 weeks and supplements maintained. She still took the odd lame step so we worked closely with our vet to keep on top of any worsening or where our vet thought that we were dealing with atrophy and needed to keep her moving. We couldn't overdo the walking work so it wasn't a perfect barefoot rehab in that sense. It wasn't a typical find different surfaces and walk, walk, walk. It was more keep her active and moving in the field and use the walk work to baseline soundness.
Towards the middle of 2024, so after a year of farm life and down time, we got a "there are horses competing at Badminton who are less sound than her" from our vet so we moved her over to a nearby pro yard to begin getting her back under saddle. We began physio, in-hand and under saddle work, but ended up opting for a very light rider to work her under saddle due to her exceptionally dire behavior in-hand and actually being a total star under saddle. Trimming stayed at 4 weeks, supplements upped to include oily herbs.
We brought her back home for a winter holiday, and then took her back in Feb - still keeping her physio up and focusing on suppleness and working through the back. Through careful oversight from both me and the fantastic pro rider whose yard we are at now, the funny little horse has just gone from strength to strength.
Today we got to start what we hope will be the first of our proper schooling sessions. She just did a bit in walk and trot today so the rider could get the feel of her - and she was absolutely fantastic. I'm so relieved and I feel so lucky to have her. She's just the nicest character and she constantly makes us laugh. Today was such a wonderful day.
I thought I'd do a bit of an overview of how we got here, as I know other posters have struggled with the same injury.
In June 2022, Miri arrived with us having failed a vetting and then beginning to present as more and more lame. X-rays showed imbalance in her feet but nothing sinister and based on clinical signs (horse not insured by seller and came to me already injured so decided on no MRI) she was diagnosed as having soft tissue injury consistent with a tear of the DDFT in the hoof capsule.
Her feet were in pretty bad shape, and our first port of call was to get shoes off and then start box rest. I won't sugar coat this - it was hell, and there were frequent times where I felt we may not ever get through it. Because she's such a good mare and does really help herself, we stuck with it but we did have The Talk with our vets on more than one occasion.
We did total box rest with hand grazing for 5 months which took us to November, followed by pen rest in a pen attached to her stable until the end of winter, April 2023. She had physio, a solarium and top care at a fab yard which specialises in producing competition horses and rehab. During this time we padded up her feet with wedge inserts into her hoof boots, and rasped every 2 weeks to ensure balance and compensate for lack of self trimming. She went onto a forage plus hoof and skin balancer, and we cut all high sugar feed.
We then began in-hand walking through to the summer, with limited grass turnout and pen rest. She stayed on her supplements and with a 4 week trimming cycle. This bit was the worst because I suddenly had a new fear which was not injury to the horse but injury to those who handled her. She was absolutely abysmal to walk. It was like wrestling an enormous yellow kite on a lead. The wonderful head girl at the yard persevered and managed her so well.
A year on from her arrival, we brought her home to be out 24/7 in the field with some in-hand pottering about the farm. Trimming at 4 weeks and supplements maintained. She still took the odd lame step so we worked closely with our vet to keep on top of any worsening or where our vet thought that we were dealing with atrophy and needed to keep her moving. We couldn't overdo the walking work so it wasn't a perfect barefoot rehab in that sense. It wasn't a typical find different surfaces and walk, walk, walk. It was more keep her active and moving in the field and use the walk work to baseline soundness.
Towards the middle of 2024, so after a year of farm life and down time, we got a "there are horses competing at Badminton who are less sound than her" from our vet so we moved her over to a nearby pro yard to begin getting her back under saddle. We began physio, in-hand and under saddle work, but ended up opting for a very light rider to work her under saddle due to her exceptionally dire behavior in-hand and actually being a total star under saddle. Trimming stayed at 4 weeks, supplements upped to include oily herbs.
We brought her back home for a winter holiday, and then took her back in Feb - still keeping her physio up and focusing on suppleness and working through the back. Through careful oversight from both me and the fantastic pro rider whose yard we are at now, the funny little horse has just gone from strength to strength.
Today we got to start what we hope will be the first of our proper schooling sessions. She just did a bit in walk and trot today so the rider could get the feel of her - and she was absolutely fantastic. I'm so relieved and I feel so lucky to have her. She's just the nicest character and she constantly makes us laugh. Today was such a wonderful day.
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