Need to Chat With Someone!

I have been home all day keeping an eye on the horses. They broke out again last night. From their carefully placed fertilizer piles I estimate that they were out anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. Since our grass has turned green I have been restricting their intake of the high-carb sweet grass and had recently gone from a scant three hours a day to just over an hour.  (Good reason to break out, say the boys!) Pippin foundered before I bought him, so I am extra vigilant with him when spring arrives. (For my non-horsey friends, founder - technically called laminitis - is an inflammation of the layers of the hoof. It is very painful and in severe cases can require euthanizing the horse. For reasons that are unclear, overindulgence in high carb foods is just one of the causes of laminitis.) The horses had gobbled enough grass that they weren't even hungry until after noon - unheard of! Anyway, I've been checking for heat in their feet and for a radial pulse - darn near impossible to feel anything in their thick furry fat fetlocks! They've had some Bute, just in case their little tootsies are experiencing any beginning signs of inflammation, and I've hosed their feet a few times for the same reason. They are acting perfectly normal, now, and are looking for dinner. I'll watch them over the next few days just to be sure.

 D'ya think if I water him, he'll grow bigger?

The impatient patient tries out a new way 

to wear his halter...

just for something to do!
I believe he is saying,
"I'd rather be eating grass!"

So, like a mom who is stuck with the kids all day, it would be fun to 'get out' and chat with some other folks. The horses aren't the best conversationalists!

So, Patrice has invited all of us to Chats on the Farmhouse Porch at her blog, Everyday Rurality. She asks:

1. What was the last big gathering you attended? (wedding, funeral, party, etc)
I went to see "The Hunger Games" on Saturday with 6 other friends from a book club. That group wasn't very large... but the theater was almost full - does that count? Other than that, I would have to say a Christmas party that I went to for the volunteers from the therapeutic riding program.

2. Do you switch over your seasonal wardrobe, wear the same things year round, have a huge closet to put it all in, or throw everything out and buy new each season (Patrice only put that in to see if people are paying attention!)
Most of the clothes I own are in the closet (yes, my closet is large... but not huge!) Colorado weather is so changeable that I often will wear some summer clothes - at least short sleeve shirts - year round. And, during the summer, we might have chilly weather and need sweaters or jackets. The thing that I find secretly amusing, and somewhat demeaning, is that when the season changes it takes me a while to remember what I have and what goes with what.

3. What sweetener do you use most often?
I drink diet cokes sweetened with Aspartane. I used to use no-calorie sweeteners with my coffee, but my dentist felt that was contributing to tooth decay problems - so I do use raw sugar in my coffee.

4. Slippers, socks, or barefoot?
Absolutely NO slippers. I don't like 'hot' feet and cold ankles! In the winter... socks. When it is warm....barefoot.

5. Patrice wants to know what questions we'd like her to ask the group....
- What is your favorite meal .... and if possible, include a recipe or a link to the recipe!
- What makes the perfect day?

You can join the chat, too. You can respond to my answers or the questions in the comment area, or you can link your blog and answers to Patrice's blog by clicking on the image below.

Farrier Visit

Farrier: a specialist in equine hoof care. Wikipedia n. One who shoes horses.
Word Origin: 1562, from M.Fr. (Middle French) ferrier "blacksmith," from L. (Latin) ferrarius "of iron," also "blacksmith," from ferrum "iron," possibly of Sem. (Semitic) origin, via Etruscan. In M.L. (Medieval Latin), ferrus also meant "a horseshoe." Dictionary.com

Our "specialist in equine hoof care" visited the boys recently. When it comes to my horses' feet I have total trust and confidence in this man. After all he walks on water! He marched right across the slick frozen puddle in front of the barn without falling. Doesn't that count?!

On his first visit, days after I bought (or was it rescued?) the team this past summer, he sat in his truck and shook his head in disbelief as viewed the condition of Pippin's feet... from a distance of 20 feet! He made some comment about the mess his feet were in as I led Pippin up to him. He won Pippin's heart in a nanosecond by proffering cookies as he studied his feet, in silence, from all angles. Although, since he had a pocket full of cookies it wasn't always easy for him to view the feet from all angles as Pippin kept turning to nuzzle the pocket for more goodies! After a period of silent reflection, he pronounced with his characteristic drawl, "Waaalllll, there's not much ah can do raht now but let them feet grow out a bit." He went on to say that, as I had already surmised, Pippin had foundered "bad, real bad" some time in the spring.

The shoes he sported were a bit curious having a bar welded to the heels of the shoe, which was cut from a piece of another shoe. We guessed that this was a jerry-rigged effort to make horsey orthopedic shoes, maybe to take pressure off the front of the hoof. Perhaps the installer (I hesitate to call him or her a farrier) fashioned the shoe, which had quarter clips as well, to try to limit hoof expansion and thus protect the hoof from further disintegration. It was evident from the rough, broken edges of the feet that Pippin had only recently been shod, with nails that found little purchase on the ragged walls of his hooves. His shoes were only hanging on by a wing and a prayer. In less than 2 weeks our wonderful farrier was back to replace a thrown shoe and anchor it with epoxy enriched hoof walls.

It has been six months. The epoxied area has grown out and the man is pleased! He pulled Pippin's hind shoes in August and his front in December. Pippin's feet look so much better, with only some ugly cracks on the front as a reminder of the painful ordeal he faced last year. The abscessed area is just now becoming visible on the sole of his foot near his toes, a small oval area of darker material adjacent to the white line. I'll have to be careful about the terrain that I ride on and watch the wear as this weakened area begins to grow out. It could be that we will have to go back to front shoes for a period of time at some point in the next few months to support the thinner hoof wall until the damaged area completely grows out.

And what about Doc's feet? They are as far on the balance of hoof condition on the good side as Pippin's feet are on the bad! Hooray! One out of two ain't bad!

Pippin's Pondering

Well, hello there! My name is Pippin and I am a 7 year-old Haflinger gelding (whatever that means)! Today I am pondering about my feet. I have four of them. Have you ever wondered about how those of us with 4 feet manage to move around and not step on ourselves with our back feet? Or, better yet, how do we know when to pick up our feet when stepping over a pole or stepping into the trailer? It's not like we can see that clearly what is back there.
My feet are a mess, and I don't mean on account of all of the mud generated by our melting snow! Last year at this time I was a working horse and did a lot of work pulling wagons to collect sap from maple trees for syrup. I was worked really hard that winter on frozen ground. In addition to all of my hard, foot-pounding work, I must confess that I may have overindulged on occasion. I love eating - just about anything! One morning I awoke in great pain. My feet were hot. They felt like they were going to burst apart any minute. It was hard to stand and even harder to walk. My owner at that time didn't call the vet. He believed in doctoring things himself, so he used some sort of gooey poultice. It was supposed to make the heat and the pressure go away. I'm not convinced that it helped, but when my feet abscessed and the infection blew holes in the top of my front hooves that finally relieved the pressure. It took a long time but finally the pain subsided. I was sold to my current owner in the summer. (She tells some folks that she rescued me.) My new owner wasn't told that I had suffered laminitis or founder, but she guessed as much. By then I was sound and she was willing to take a chance on me. It's also a little embarrassing to relate that she tells her friends that I was just too darn cute to pass up!
I love my new home. I have to admit that I have a great life - no pulling the sap wagon for me! I do get to trot around in a pretty harness pulling a small cart. Once in a while she rides me. I think that is really strange, having her legs tickling my sides. Sometimes I forget myself and give a little hop!