Dale Moody the farrier came today. Magic was a good boy. Not perfect but 10 times better than last time. We were much better prepared. Last time I got home just as Dale arrived, put oats in the stalls, let the horses in and immediately took Magic out. Maybe he was irritated about not eating but, for whatever reason, he was very difficult to shoe. At one point I remember seeing Magic’s foot with a nail sticking out on Dale’s shoulder and Dale was standing up at the time. Nobody got hurt but it was dangerous. This time I had, at Wanda’s suggestion, cleaned and hammered on all Magic’s feet every time I rode. I got here with plenty of time to put the horses up and for them to eat before Dale got here. I gave Magic a light dose of sedative. It was better this time. That is the best way I know to solve problems with horses. Make the situation better. It does not have to be perfect, just a little better each time. And with time, the problem no longer exists. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Tuesday, October 4 2011
Little More and I rode around the Oak pasture this morning. When I mounted Saturday and today Little More seemed unsteady. Saturday he was so unsteady I jumped off. I have had a horse do that before that became unsteady when I mounted and actually fell. It seems like the same thing that happens on some horses when you first tighten the girth. They seem to loose control and fall backwards. The horses I have noticed it on were either new to the saddle or either had not worn a saddle for a long time. I got back on Saturday and made a short ride. Today he was not so unsteady and was able to move off. Little More seemed a little off today and Saturday. I trimmed his feet Saturday before the ride and he might be tender-footed. I am taking short rides until I feel that he is 100% and able to do more. I never have ridden him enough for him to feel comfortable trail riding away from known territory. I rode him for about a month in the spring of 2010 before I noticed the lameness in his off hind when trotting. He did show me that he was a horse I wanted to ride.
My farrier, Dale Moody, came yesterday. We put new shoes on Magic and trimmed 4 others. Magic was very difficult to shoe. He pulls his foot away, usually at just the wrong time. Dale has been very good to show patience. Dale has kept his cool but it is very easy for a farrier to loose his temper when a horse acts like that. It is dangerous. We have expected Magic’s behavior to improve with time but that has not happened. Dale has shod horses for me for 35 years and we’ve never had a horse give us this much trouble. Lots of green horses too. I tell Dale Magic is a good horse in other respects. Dale says that is kind of like “Well, other that that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” I need to look into tranquilizers or something else.
However, the result of the shoeing has shown dramatic improvement. Magic was not able to keep shoes on for much more than 4 weeks at first. When he was barefoot, he was tender-footed and got stone bruises. He often limped for a week after shoeing. He kept the last shoes on for a long time and walked perfectly this morning. Thanks to this blog, I can produce this chart of his shoeing:
Shod Removed / lost Duration
02/21/2011 04/19/2011 8 wks 1 day
04/28/2011 06/04/2011 5 wks 2 days Quicked/Abscess
06/07/2011 07/26/2011 7 wks Started with stone bruise, OK in 2 weeks, OK until end
07/26/2011 10/03/2011 9 wks 6 days Gimpy one week, OK till next
Tuesday, July 26 2011
Dale Moody the farrier came today. He put shoes on Magic and trimmed the other horses. This is the first time we have gotten Magic’s feet taken care of before he lost a shoe or something that caused tender feet. Magic has a problem with shoeing. He has acted up before and I attributed the misbehavior to hammering a sore foot. No excuses today. He just acted up. Once he pulled his foot away from Dale and the nail was exposed to the maximum. The nail ripped and hung in Dales paints. Dale was able to stop the foot before it cut his leg. I have never had a horse that is bad to shoe before. I appreciate Dale’s patience and determination to get the job done. I hope our calmness and persistence convinces Magic to improve his behavior. It was hot. Dale was dripping. The other horses were well behaved. It has been 7 weeks since the last shoeing.
Tuesday, June 7 2011
I rode Newt to the Oak pasture. Lunged walk, trot and canter in both directions. He was calm at the canter until his foot slipped (dew on the grass). Then he must have been embarrassed for slipping so he bucked a little. Whenever they slip or stumble, they do not like it. I would like to find out what is the best footing. I am riding Newt barefoot with no problems and I want footing that will allow barefoot. I expect shoes would help his traction but then he gets tender-footed when the shoes come off. We rode the needlepoint, oval and circle. He did the exercises better today. He did two good canter circles. The next time he got to the “barn draw” area, he started drifting that way, I applied corrective aids and, whoops, that was too much so he did a little bucking. (obviously not hard bucking or I would not have stayed on) That was clockwise. On the other rein he slipped on the canter depart and did a little more bucking. We are making improvements. We rode the trail all the way to the west end of the pasture.
Magic’s problem with tender feet or whatever gets worse each day since he lost the shoe, off front. He went six weeks and one day before he lost a shoe. I need to get him some boots for a situation like this. I hauled Magic to Sherri Ricketts and Dale put on new shoes. This time he got eight nails in each shoe and Dale liked the results much better. The sore foot did not seem to be sensitive to hammering and only one sore foot. So this time was better. Dale thought the leg was sensitive to lifting up and suggested that we do that foot last next time. This was Magic’s first haul since he got here. Loading at my barn was no problem. No problems while hauling like last time between Diamond T and Conway. He was reluctant to load at Sherri’s. He would not respond to the target or the treats. Response to asking for a step forward with the lunge whip was not good either. He did respond to a rump rope. I make a big loop tied with a bowline, slip it over his rump and pull from the front where I also have the lead rope. It worked. He loaded in about 20 minutes. I was happy to see him respond to pressure. If he does not respond to the clicker target or the treats and does not respond to pressure, then he will not load. I had plenty of that in February. I expect that after a few days, I will be able to ride him again. I hope so.
Thursday, April 28 2011
It has rained a lot, 14 inches, for the past week. It seemed like it never stopped. Nice weather today with lots of mud.
Dale Moody, the farrier, came today. He put shoes on Magic and trimmed all the rest. Magic has a stone bruise, off front, and we all had trouble when Dale was putting the shoe on that foot. At one point I plainly saw Magic’s foot, with the shoe on and a nail sticking out, on Dale’s right shoulder blade. Dale was standing up at the time. Dale never quit, nobody got hurt, nobody got mad, and Magic has shoes on now. Tonight I took Magic some oats laced with bute. Hopefully the shoes will take the pressure off the bruise and in a few days he will be running and kicking. All the horses are a little tender-footed after the trim.
A stone bruise is a temporary thing. Magic will get over this. It is somewhat of a comfort to have been through this before. It take a horse quite a while to get acclimated to a new situation, particularly one that is so different from the one they are accustomed to. A barefoot, pasture life in the Ozarks is a lot different that life at the racetrack. I can see a lot of advantages but it does take some getting used to. It seems like Newt limped around for a year before his feet got to where they could take it.
Monday, February 21 2011
Groomed, worked and rode Magic in the round pen. He did good in the round pen. I work him at a walk and trot in both directions on a lunge line with a cavason. That is what seems to work best with him. I ride him in the round pen at at walk and trot in both directions. We do a few stops from the walk. I ride him some on the rail and some on a circle about 5 feet from the rail. To ride the smaller circle it is necessary to communicate with the reins and leg exactly where I want him to be. It causes both of us to pay attention. Magic, for a green horse, shows good sensitivity to the leg. We rode in the Bull Pen. He showed improvement today. Less inclination to return to the gate. He did shy a little jumping forward just after we turned back toward the gate.
I have ridden 3 OTTB’s in this same pasture at this same stage in their training to become riding horses. All three of them, to different degrees, shy, spook or jump forward just after we turn back towards the gate. Little More got past it. I have not progressed Newt forward in his training from this stage specifically because one shy was particularly violent. I did not know if it was malicious or just lack of confidence for a long time. It was not a jump forward but a spin and then bolt. I have recently seen Newt spook by himself in exactly the same way. It is a relief to me because I now think the original incident was a spook and not malicious behavior. And I would for sure rather get my neck broke by accident than on purpose! He was moving out to the pasture when he spooked by himself. The thing I noticed was that his first move was to lower his center of gravity about a foot by spreading his legs out. He really got low and then spun. It is almost impossible to keep your seat with this type of spook. But it is better than thinking that the specific purpose was to get me off of his back. (All this is speculation on my part. I do not claim that it is knowledge.)
Magic and I did not get to go to the trailer today. Dale Moody, my farrier, drove up just after I got off. We put shoes on Magic and trimmed 6 others. Magic wanted to take his foot back sometimes but seemed to improve as we got to the last shoe. Dale noticed that Magic has three white spots on the inside of his knee on the off front and three more on the inside of his cannon bone on the same leg. He commented that was an indication of a surgical procedure. New Vocations did not provide an information about this and I did not ask. Lisa said he was examined by the vet and diagnosed as sound. She said I could talk to the vet if I wanted to but I did not. I have never seen him take a lame step.
Occasionally when I am leading Magic, he will balk. Not permanently but for a minute he will not move forward. I expect as he learns to trust me he will be more inclined to step forward. If I tap him on the butt it does not induce him to step forward as most horses will, it only seems to increase his resolve not to step forward. I saw that resolve grow in his eyes as the haulers were whipping his heels to induce him to get into my trailer that night in the Saline County Fairgrounds. This is the biggest problem I have seen in Magic. Our situation that night at the fairground may have created the problem. We will get past it in the future, somehow. We have time on our side now and time was against us that night.