Horse "not right" and trusting yourself RANT/MOAN

Ah right, sorry. If you just mean giving up trying to fix her and get her in work for a while then, yeah, its as good a plan as any. Its probably the most likely way to sort the problem too if you don't mind just waiting and seeing what happens after a good, long rest.
 
i'd make up a boot and fix it on with making tape, then try her on the straight and on a circle, and on hard and soft ground, like an arena, then the road then the field. and see what happens;

the ground is concrete hard in some areas, has she got flat soles,? if she was mine i think i would try and keep off hard ground if she's shows lame, the boots would be good, she could wear them all day and come into shavings bed at night, to rest properly and have feet supported,, sometimes a course of anti-biotics and box rest for 10 days has cured lameness for mine when all else failed, never to return i'm glad to say!

sometimes i've found you just have to keep on trying, and one day you are just looking back with relief, but its so hard at the time .
 
She's not worth anything knackered anyway and having done nothing for the past year well... :rolleyes:
TBH she' doesn't cost me anything other than trimming and worming if I leave her alone. We don't really need the money from her, she's no bother around the place, particularly. So yeah feasibly she could just stay here indefinitely to see whether she comes right or not.
 
i'd make up a boot and fix it on with making tape, then try her on the straight and on a circle, and on hard and soft ground, like an arena, then the road then the field. and see what happens;

the ground is concrete hard in some areas, has she got flat soles,? if she was mine i think i would try and keep off hard ground if she's shows lame, the boots would be good, she could wear them all day and come into shavings bed at night, to rest properly and have feet supported,, sometimes a course of anti-biotics and box rest for 10 days has cured lameness for mine when all else failed, never to return i'm glad to say!

sometimes i've found you just have to keep on trying, and one day you are just looking back with relief, but its so hard at the time .


Our ground is currently hard yes, although the field she turned out in is the best of a bad bunch. Here's a photo of her yesterday
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Poor you - its so hard when this happens.

Havent read all posts so this might have been covered - has vet decided whether they think the pain is coming from high up in joints or lower?

Has back person had a look?

Congrats on pregnancy, sounds like she will have time to have some field rest which I also agree can sometimes put things right.

For feet we all swear by the Top Spec balancer - using the Lite version. Feet on all of ours in the yard have improved.

She is lucky to have a lovely mummy!
 
She was xrayed, where they found she had sidebones (an incidental finding apparently as they certainly weren't a new feature) we didn't go for MRI scan so vet pronounced soft tissue injury in the foot.
She was then attended by our farrier, who said we could start work (we didn't) and then later by our new barefoot trimmer, who said the same. That was about 3 weeks ago now, she was ok for the first two but now "not right" whatever that means, but she wasn't right. :rolleyes: if that tells you anything I do not know! :)
 
She is gorge! I couldnt get mine to be happy barefoot so no expert I'm afraid.

Thanks, she is rather yummy. Her only redeeming feature currently. The annoying thing is, she was my horse of a lifetime, the horse I'd waited my whole life to have! However, I'm not going to wait my whole life again (lol) to get to ride and enjoy her as I planned. sigh! Thanks for your reply!
 
The only horse I bought thinking "This is the one, the horse of a lifetime, the dream machine..." about was a massive disaster I hardly ever rode between lameness and madness episodes. I've since reverted to my twelve year old dream of getting a purebread arab, which is working out much better. You can't make too many plans with horses, they'll always go tits up! Things will work out for you one way or another, don't stress about it.
 
When mine was barefoot the farrier told me she was not bearing weight properly on her feet and he showed me how they were wearing on the outsides.

Might be a stupid suggestion ..... when I had trouble it turned out to be 2 things. If she is ok on a straight line but not ok on a circle I would still get good back person out. All the time she has been lame she will have been overcompensating and so her 'not looking right' could still be higher up and a physio or good back person may be able to help.
 
I would say then that the first problem is still there and she needs more time, did the vets scan her leg, we are 9 months into a suspensory injury so feel your pain, I would turn away until your baby is a few months old and try to bring her back into work then.
 
TBH trimmer was really pleased with her feet, he said she had good quality feet, was happy she "could" go barefoot and to commence work slowly (which I had hoped we were doing)

BB, she was nerve blocked, lame when backs NB'd sound when both fronts were NB'd. Xrayed and found the sidebones then. Vet suggested as sidebones were advanced, they weren't what caused this lameness so diagnosed soft tissue injury.

Hope that helps :)
 
I would def sort out her diet, regardless of what you then decide to go on and try with her.

There are horses that can go happily barefoot without any kind of nutritional support, but to be truly 100% comfortable they are few and far between. Sorting the diet most certainly won't do her any harm and may very well help alot. Once she is comfy and you don't have footiness clouding the issue then you might either have a sound horse or one in which the issue is shown more clearly.

Alot of people get on very well with a few handfulls of fast fibre with a good vit and min balancer - Equimins meta balance, pro hoof or Forage Plus summer or winter balancer are all very good. For some reason Topspec products are commonly associated with soreness issues so I wouldn't use their balancer. Sort the feed and stick with it, you will most likely get some positive changes pretty quickly but to help your horse grow better feet you will need to stick with the changes and allow them a chance.

I would also boot, again v little outlay and one which can be easily recouped if you find they don't suit (unlikely tbh, they are always handy things to have around!). As well as ebay, then keep an eye on there http://phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org/forum4.php or post your own wanted there. We had easyboot gloves which were brilliant. thesaddleryshop has loads of info on how to measure and size charts. To pick the type of boot then pick the one that the dimensions of your horses feet fit the best. That will be the boot that is most likely to stay put.

Both of those next steps have negligable outlay and will most certainly help, even if they don't fix any underlying issue, which may well be the initial injury/diagnosis you mention. Feed, boots and some time out should help hugely.

Out of interest, since removing shoes has your horse shown any 'more sound' periods of time? Can be worth trying to pick things apart a bit and working out when they were last best and seeing what you were doing at the time - diff trimmer, more/less time after trimming, turnout/work amount, worming or vaccinations etc.
 
Oh sweets.

Here's what I would do. Video her now, lunging. Start her on a supplement, general purpose with a bias towards good foot health - something like the NAF general purpose. Then I'd chuck her in the field and ignore her for a month. Bring her back in after a month and video again - watch the difference. Then if still not right, I'd get the vet.

Look after baby, and you, and she'll come right. I would primarily be giving her time. x
 
Out of interest, since removing shoes has your horse shown any 'more sound' periods of time? Can be worth trying to pick things apart a bit and working out when they were last best and seeing what you were doing at the time - diff trimmer, more/less time after trimming, turnout/work amount, worming or vaccinations etc.

She has been off work since removing shoes, so hard to tell really. Since shoe removal she's been out 24/7, on hilly turnout with medium quality hay and no hard feed (very good doer).
 
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