ShadinaLonesea

Update

I'm not sure if I'm relieved or not, but here go the latest developments...

Since out a$$hole farrier failed to come, we went around in search of others, and found a new one. Or rather, a very old one who shod the mare of a relative of ours for he whole 30 years the mare lived.. and that mare died some 20 years ago, so you see how old he is!

Anyway, he came, and came on time, so that grants him extra points!
He eyed the mare for a long time, asked to see her walking and trotting (no other farrier did that, ever!!!) and tapped all her hooves to figure out where the problem was.

He needed some help lifting the horses feet (also, she was in a pretty nasty mood), but determined that the previous farrier had cut the hooves too vertical (cut a lot from the toe, rather than from the heel), making the hooves too short for her bulky size, and leaving her with a sore right hind toe, which is exactly the one that reacted to the tapping, and the first to show any signs of lameness 3 weeks ago! So yay for him, so far!
He then pulled out one shoe at a time, shaved, rasped and cleaned each hoof a bit, probing the nail holes to search of infection or hot nails... Before shoeing again he bathed each foot in salty hot water (his "cure all" ), and told us to do that every day, for 4 days.
It took him over 3 hours to do the whole thing, it cost TWICE as an ordinary shoeing, and my dad had to pick him up at his home cuz he was afraid of getting lost if he drove by himself, but I'm hoping it'll pay off.

The mare walked away from the morning-long shoeing pretty much the same, and we rode her later in the evening. It didn't seem like a major improvement, but she was happier, and even trotted a tiny bit upon request, which she hadn't done in nearly a week.
The farrier also said that now that her feet are comfortable, she should recover quickly, but the strange limping might continue if some muscles deep inside the rump got cramped and won't come back to normal. Told us to get the vet to see her (vet will come next week for de-worming, anyway), and in the mean time, force her to move around to work out those muscles, and convince her that the pain's source has gone and she can now move normally.

Now... I'm still worried about her (I'm probably being silly...), but I liked the way the farrier looked at her and bothered to search everywhere for the source of the problem, unlike all others who just wanted to get the job done ASAP without paying any attention.
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I'm rather pissed right now, so I'll just rant a little bit. I swear it won't hurt.

The farrier was supposed to have come before the weekend, but he called saying he had a few "complications" at an equestrian center and won't be able to come until next week. Over the phone we described the problem to him once again and he said he hadn't done anything wrong to the horse (?!) and that her feet were in a really lousy shape, so the mare was probably still struggling to deal with it. Told us to keep riding her, so she'd be forced to learn how to use her new feet.

Okay... If you called your local hospital with a killer throat ache, your doctor happened to be on vacation, and they tell you "it's probably just your tonsils, take a 3-day antibiotic and you'll be fine", would you take that for an answer??? No. You'd most likely yell at them to go get you an appointment to a freakin' doctor so he could AT LEAST look at your goddamn throat before making a diagnosis, right?!?!?
But it's a horse. Just a horse. So you say "mkay, thnks, bai" to that asshole and hang off...

I freaked out, my sister yelled back, my parents are pissed and think I'm crazy because I'm always overreacting.
_{They're probably right. With all that's happened, some nights can't sleep, with all the horrible scenes that my head makes up. The "horse whisperer" was on TV this afternoon, and I couldn't watch because of all the accidents involving horses. I'm that messed up...}

Anyway, we did ride her a little, yesterday. It was interesting - despite the awkward movement of her hinds, she was actually fiery, wanting to go faster than we thought was safe for her. She'd put her ears back around corners, but other than that she moved freely and willingly. Okay, it was probably because she hadn't been ridden for 2 days in a row, or because my sister rode bareback and bridle-less, which the mare seems to enjoy... It might not have been a real improvement, but I'm now more inclined to believe it's really not a "lameness" in the strict sense, but a consequence of whatever the farrier did to her feet. She moves weird because her feet have been corrected after god-know-how-many years of carelessness which makes her overuse muscles she probably didn't know she had, which causes her discomfort and pain (the kind of pain you get inside the legs after riding for the first time in 3 months, maybe?). So why is this "habituation" process taking so long, and doesn't seem to be getting much better? That's what I'd like to know.


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That's right, I'm asking all fellow deviants who so kindly watch me to help us with our horse's lameness!


WATCH VIDEO illustrating her lameness.

Background:
10yo mare named Andorinha, lusitano cross, unknown ancestry and background. Had a healthy foal on the 10th May 2011, and normal riding was resumed shortly after, despite having had her shoes removed.

The problem:
After about a month riding without shoes, was shod by a new farrier who supposedly aimed to correct her crippled hind feet. A week later, this awkward upward movement of the inside hind leg began... Crankiness and unwillingness to work ensued and nearly 1 month after said shoeing, she's nearly unrideable - though she grazes happily, eats her grain like there's no tomorrow, walks normally and is an otherwise perfectly healthy 1,63m horse.

Thoughts so far:
The first suspect is, obviously, the farrier. But because the problem took a while to be noted, and the mare doesn't complain about her hooves, fetlocks or hocks, it'd be weird if the problem had been caused by the shoeing alone...

Action being taken:
Right now, we're just waiting for the farrier to come by. We called him after having a particularly hard time riding her yesterday, and he said he'd try and come before the weekend - which leaves us with 2 or 3 days of no riding classes (we had quite some "students" in the last 2 weeks, it's been fun!) and a very cranky mare. If he's unable to figure out what's wrong, we're calling the vet as well and hope they'll be able to work it out and fix the poor thing. Until then all we can do is wait, and call the students canceling their lessons.

So please, if you have ANY input on this, feel free to comment here or on the video's page.





Also, in case you're interested... original video , before all this.






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I'd like to apologise to all my watchers for my sudden disappearance.

Being missing for almost 2 months, a lot has happened, both good and bad things...
I've made it in the Scientific Illustration Course I've applied to, but that's sucking the life out of me.
In the meanwhile, I still have a horse and a half (mare & 7months colt) to take care of, and they sure are a handful. Plus, the shoeing-related lameness of the mare turned out to be something more - POSSIBLY a kind of flatweed intoxication stringhalt, of which no veterinary has ever heard! The poor thing has lost all the muscle on her hinds and still has very bad spasms, even though she's been away from the evil weeds for over two weeks. We're worried there might be another cause for her condition, but so far we only have this hypothesis to test. I'm just scared she might loose even more muscle and one day won't be able to get back to her feet in the morning.
The colt isn't helping either. He's developed clubfoot on both front legs, and even though it's not serious yet, we can't afford to fix him right now - we desperately need to sell him right away...

Anyway, now I've got a couple of weeks with not much to do, so I'll get busy thanking all my new watchers, replying to all the comments and commenting on all those wonderful deviations piling up on my inbox.
I'm also considering holding a HARPG art contest soon, it should be fun.


Cheers!
Shad





















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