sheep
Well-Known Member
My wee ISH lad has had his shoes off now for just over two weeks and I am pleased to report that he is doing very well indeed.
During the winter he was on a daily dose of danilon (half or a full one depending on how he was feeling) and now that the warmer weather has come in he is much happier, so he has been off the danilon altogether now for about 8 days. Pleased to report that this hasn't affected his footiness - he is still as good as he was on day one, happily walking across a variety of surfaces without showing any signs of discomfort. He is obviously a little more careful on any stony areas but he is striding out beautifully on concrete and tarmac.
He has a nice, natural spring to his step and has developed a nice overtrack too. He bounces about like an absolute twit when I'm leading him around, he loves the summer and the sunshine so he is in really good form. His hooves are starting to look a little untidy now but we haven't got any major problems and they aren't wearing down too much. My farrier is due out in the next few days for other horses on the yard so I will ask him to give him a very gentle tidy up.
The plan now is to introduce very gentle work, with some long reining and lunging, to see how he copes. If it is too much for him, he can go back to being a lawnmower! Current plan is to have him out doing 'something' a couple of times a week, short sessions as I do not want to push him too hard. I long reined him on Sunday afternoon for ten minutes, just in walk, and he seemed to enjoy doing a wee bit of work. We had a very brief trot on a circle at the end of the session (one circuit on concrete!) and I was delighted to see that he is looking sounder than he has in a very long time. If he is happy with light work on the lunge and long reining, I will gently increase the workload with a view to hacking out and perhaps some light flatwork.
All very optimistic on my part but hey, may as well hold on to a glimmer of hope - he is a super boy and I would absolutely love to get him working again! I will take some more pics at the end of the week, that will be us almost 3 weeks in, so will be interesting to note any changes.
During the winter he was on a daily dose of danilon (half or a full one depending on how he was feeling) and now that the warmer weather has come in he is much happier, so he has been off the danilon altogether now for about 8 days. Pleased to report that this hasn't affected his footiness - he is still as good as he was on day one, happily walking across a variety of surfaces without showing any signs of discomfort. He is obviously a little more careful on any stony areas but he is striding out beautifully on concrete and tarmac.
He has a nice, natural spring to his step and has developed a nice overtrack too. He bounces about like an absolute twit when I'm leading him around, he loves the summer and the sunshine so he is in really good form. His hooves are starting to look a little untidy now but we haven't got any major problems and they aren't wearing down too much. My farrier is due out in the next few days for other horses on the yard so I will ask him to give him a very gentle tidy up.
The plan now is to introduce very gentle work, with some long reining and lunging, to see how he copes. If it is too much for him, he can go back to being a lawnmower! Current plan is to have him out doing 'something' a couple of times a week, short sessions as I do not want to push him too hard. I long reined him on Sunday afternoon for ten minutes, just in walk, and he seemed to enjoy doing a wee bit of work. We had a very brief trot on a circle at the end of the session (one circuit on concrete!) and I was delighted to see that he is looking sounder than he has in a very long time. If he is happy with light work on the lunge and long reining, I will gently increase the workload with a view to hacking out and perhaps some light flatwork.
All very optimistic on my part but hey, may as well hold on to a glimmer of hope - he is a super boy and I would absolutely love to get him working again! I will take some more pics at the end of the week, that will be us almost 3 weeks in, so will be interesting to note any changes.
Building the work up slowly is the right thing to do. I hope he is able to return to ridden work in the future. Fingers crossed. 