Wizard’s hoof progress: radiographs

Wizard’s radiographs from Feb 5 and March 27.

Left front, Feb 5

Left front, March 27

Right front, Feb 5

Right front, March 27

Left hind, Feb 5

Left hind, March 27

Right hind, Feb 5

Right hind, March 27

Wizard’s hoof progress photos: April 1, 2014

These photos were taken on January 8, February 1, February 9, and April 1.
Left Front…

Right Front

Left Hind

Right Hind

Wizard Session 429 and Veterinary Update: Shuffle Your Feet

Wednesday, 12/12/12

I tacked up Wizard in his surcingle and long lines, and we did a little walking work in the indoor arena. It was a little too muddy to work outdoors. He was feeling pretty silly, since his grassy paddock is too damp for a lot of horseplay. He danced around during our trot work, and was less interested in bending and responding to the aids than he was last time we worked. After he was warmed up, I put him on the longe line for a few rotations at the trot in each direction. As soon as he started his trot to the left, I could tell that he was off in the same right front that has been giving him issues. It was still pretty subtle, but more lameness than I had seen in a while.

Was it the wedge in his shoe? Did he slip in his paddock? I made a call to the vet, and scheduled an appointment for Friday afternoon.

Veterinary Report: Friday, 12/14/12

The vet first went over Wizard’s legs, and then watched him trot at liberty in the indoor arena. Naturally, as always, Wizard was much less lame for the vet than he was on Wednesday. The lameness was pretty subtle- too subtle to try another series of diagnostic nerve blocks.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to have x-rays done of Wizard’s feet, and of his right knee. Here are the results…

Right front hoof

Left front hoof

With Wizard’s low heels, the vet was expecting to see a negative palmar angle, and instead found the opposite with the rotated coffin bones, indicating an old founder.

I asked about the cause, and the vet said it could range from old shoeing issues to a result of Lyme Disease, which has been known to founder a horse. I am glad to have an answer, and a team of vets and a farrier who is ready to work on making Wizard as comfortable as possible.

As far as the knee, the vet said that it actually looks pretty good for an almost-17-year-old Thoroughbred who raced on the track and also barrel raced. The creakiness, in this case, was not a sign of anything worse lurking beneath.

Right knee

So now, the plan is to take pictures and chronicle the changes in Wizard’s feet. We will do more x-rays in about 6 months to see what progress we made. The other good news in all this is that I might have finally found the cause of any/all of his under-saddle/soundness issues. Fingers crossed.

Of Bare Feet, Bounce Castles, and Keratex

Wizard’s wintertime barefoot transition timeline:

Friday, 12/18/09: Shoes removed. Ground was frozen and Wizard was footsore. I felt awful that I did not pull them sooner when the ground was softer. Keratex Hoof Hardener applied when possible.

Saturday, 12/19/09: In a fortunate (for Wizard!) turn of events, we got well over a foot of snow. The snow seemed to make his feet more comfortable, as well as cushion him as his feet got used to being bare again (he was barefoot for a few years before I started riding him but he has very thin soles). I walked him in the indoor arena for a few minutes and he was sore but willing to walk a little bit.

Monday, 12/21/09: After being stalled during the big snowstorm, Wizard was perfectly comfortable on the snow and romped and played.

By Wednesday, 12/23/09, Wizard was more comfortable on hard and soft footing. The combination of the Keratex and the soft support of the snow seemed to help things along.

I shot these little videos on Saturday, 12/26/09. Seeing Wizard comfortably romp in the indoor arena reminded me of my nieces playing in their inflatable bounce castle on Christmas Day. Foot crisis averted!

Selena Ride 27; Wizard Ride 97: Mrs. Potato Head

Thursday, 9/17/09

Pony pedicure day. I had to go 5 weeks with the herd this cycle because their feet were growing like weeds and chipping a bit from stomping at flies. The farrier was pleased with the amount of foot they grew. It looks like I can still keep Selena barefoot for now.

Mary the Morgan also got a trim. While she was getting her feet done, we all noticed the strangest smell, almost like potatoes. The farrier said that it’s actually the smell of really healthy horse feet- I’m sure Mary’s owner was pleased to hear that :^)

It was dark after the farrier left so we turned the arena lights on and rode Wizard and Mary the Morgan perimeter of the property. Wizard was a little keyed up, but totally manageable and he stood quietly when I asked him to halt a few times. I casually walked him into the arena and walked around a few times, doing a few circles. His neck was tense at the beginning of the ride but by the end, he was relaxed. I had to remind myself over and over to give, give, give, especially when he curled his neck. I rode him for a total of about 15 or 20 minutes, just a little more than the last few rides. I hope to get out on the trails with him soon.

I rode Selena indoors. We followed the same basic ride plan:

– Walk 10 minutes on a loose rein
– Trot work on a large oval, asking for relaxation and stretching in the neck
– Walk in shoulder-in
– Figure 8 at the trot, asking for bend in each direction
– Trot over ground poles that were set up in a line-diagonal pattern
– Walk in serpentines, asking for bend in each direction
– Trot and ask for Selena to chew the reins out of my hands and stretch downward
– Walk until 100% cool

Selena got excited trotting over the poles and hopped over one of them. You can’t take a jumper out of the dressage horse, eh? The ride went well. Now that she is fitter, I want to work more on suppling exercises in order to prepare for more bending. I also want to work more in shoulder-in.

Wizard Ride 40: They Call it Cupboard Love…

1/18/09

On Saturday, my husband and I camped out in our apartment, waiting for the pipes in the bathroom to thaw. Never has a shower felt so good as it did at 3am when water finally trickled back into our bathroom. New Jerseyans crept out of hiding and hibernation on Sunday. After the deep freeze, temperatures finally rose above the freezing mark during the afternoon.

Sunday night after work, I ventured out to the barn to ride Wizard. Before I even turned off the ignition in my car, I could see the outline of Wizard’s ears and face through the window of his stall. I walked in the barn and started preparing my tack for my ride. Then, I heard something special and pretty flattering: a nicker!

Now it could be Uncle Jimmy’s Squeezy Buns. Or it could be the carrots. Or it could be the Dengie. It’s called cupboard love when a horse loudly greets you in hopes of getting a snack. Whatever it is, Wizard never greeted me before and he did today. He normally only nickers at feeding time. And it was kinda cute, even if he was just hollering for carrots.

Wizard fidgeted through grooming and tacking up. The weather has made turnout time less fun than usual for the horses and as a result, many of them are full of pent-up energy.

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes. He walked beautifully in both directions and when he picked up his trot, he did play on the longe line a bit, hopping and breaking into a canter. Ian was in the arena and both of them were finding inspiration in each other’s antics. Since Wizard was not misbehaving in any blatant way and sine he was listening to me, I did not correct him when he played on the longe line. Longeing is certainly work time and not time for a party, but I think that it would be expecting too much out of a horse to not play a little in this sort of weather.

I noticed that Wizard looked a tiny bit not-quite-right on the longe. It was not any pronounced unevenness in his gait but I saw something. I studied his gaits on a circle and straightaway and my hunch is that his feet are a bit tender from the hard ground. The indoor arena has wonderful footing but in a deep freeze like we had this weekend, the ground has not quite recovered yet. With all the frozen footing in the horses’ turnouts, any little piece of uneven ground can bruise a horse’s sole. I did not see any actual bruising and Wizard was moving out willingly. As a precaution, I did not trot under saddle. When he was finished longeing, I hopped aboard and cooled him out under saddle at a walk for about 15 minutes. His personality changed from antsy to mellow during the session and he seemed to relax quite a bit from the work.

After I rode, I groomed him, gave him warm water, filled his bucket with Dengie, and bid Wizard good night.

Wizard Ride 32: A Pedicure and a Happy Mouth

Saturday 1/3/09

Wizard had his feet trimmed by my local farrier. He saw good improvement in the feet and was pleased with how they held up. Wizard has thin soles so I expect that he might be too tenderfooted to do a lot of riding over hard surfaces. Right now, he seems just fine barefoot and I plan to keep him barefoot as much as possible.

After his pedicure, I turned him out in the big outdoor arena and did a fun free longeing/liberty session. The weather was sunny and the ground was not frozen. The arena was dragged so the footing was quite nice. Wizard ran around like a youngster and after he got his ya-yas out, he began to longe in circles around me without a longe line. He’s so much fun. My mission is to get this same mood and behavior under saddle. At liberty, he’s like a big Golden Retriever, as my mom remarked.

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes. He jumped around and fussed at the far end of the arena, but he was in the ring with a silly young Thorughbred who was bucking on his longe line. I gave Wizard a pass. When the other horse left, he longed just fine. I used a mullen mouth loose-ring Happy Mouth bit on Wizard for the first time. Improvement, but still a lot of chewing. My reins are so long that my hands are past the laced portion. He stretches down, but it does not feel like those nice toe-touching stretches that we want in dressage. Then the reins are totally long, and he scrunches his neck up really short and tucked under and then he tenses up and bounces a little bit. I’m trying to just let go and allow him to trot, but it feels so awkward and crooked. I’m sort of wondering if he’s going to do the porpoising thing from Ride 4 again. So part of it is my own trepidation and part of it is me over-analyzing everything.

So we just worked on walking this time out. He was tense and started doing a little bouncing but I got a flat-footed walk eventually. We rode for about 10 minutes. Now that the weather is milder, I’m hoping that my friend can hop on and take him for a spin tonight and maybe give me some pointers.

Here were are. Wizard is chomping on the bit. The rein was looser in the frame before but I’m tightening it here. You can see how low he wants to carry his head. I’d let him carry it that low but then he tucks his head up and I have a foot of extra rein. Also note the neck strap. It’s too short to really help me until we are trotting and cantering.