A wee bit of a scare...

I say a "wee bit of a scare" but if you saw me, you would have seen a girl in M.E.L.T.D.O.W.N. mode.  

The weather being warm, left the pastures soft and wet wet wet, then it turned cold so all the lumpy ground is frozen rock solid and uneven in a lot of spots.

That, in combination of trimming Laz about a week ago, I *think* left him a little vulnerable in the tender hoof department.

When I arrived at the barn, I saw all three horses standing together, resting.

I called Laz over, which he usually promptly walks over licking his lips (knowing his BP is waiting for him) only this time he short strided and hobbled over walking like he was walking on broken glass.  

WHAT the F!?

I felt for an increase in his digital pulse (none), I felt for heat (none) but then, as he stood by me now eating his BP, he started shifting his weight back and forth from left hind to right hind, over and over again. Favoring his gilded leg o' strength, his Left Hind that usually never hurts him.

Images of sweet Barbaro came sweeping into mind

I about passed out.

WHAT is going on here?!

Is he having another laminitic attack??? 

Why? 

NOTHING has changed and we've been doing SO WELL for so long!

Is it just sore feet from hard ground? 

Why the shifting?
I saw the cliff of worry and felt myself launching over the steepest side.

THANK god I have an amazing trimmer and my supportive family who not only knows Laz like I do, talks me down from the cliff.

I placed his Equine slipper with a thick pad on his Left Hind which is usually his good foot, but was the one, he kept favoring. I listened to him, resisting my temptation to boot the typical sore foot, and booted that, said my million prayers to Horse Buddha and just waited until today.

(**he ate/drank, acted the same so no big behavioral changes other than noted)

***

He was better today

EXHALE

Still walked gingerly, oh yea, but no more weight shifting from left hind to right hind.

Whew. Whew. Whew.

Per my trimmer; I soaked his Left Hind in Epsom and warm water for about 35 minutes.

I then put his Easy boots with pads on his hinds.
He walked much more comfortably.

So, I have a theory. 

It could be 100000% wrong, but it could be a little right. 

I don't know but being barefoot, er Laz being barefoot has me thinking of bare hooves all the time. 

So, chime in my hoof nerds!!!

Am I seeing bruising at his heels and areas that we removed the overlaying bars?

I think it's best viewed on his club foot; his right front but he has new bruises on all four.

Now, Laz shows extreme pleasure when his bars are removed during trimming.
I'm all for the removable of bars, especially since he's on a grass, dirt lot that can't remove them  by himself.  I wonder if timing of a trim, with the ground being soft, and then rock hard made those newly trimmed areas a bit vulnerable?

Thoughts? Input?

OR is red bruising like this a sign of something different??

It's been a LONG road of barefoot transitioning, but I know since June we've been on a great great regrowth path. I just hate seeing him walk in ouchy steps.
I know some of you think "PUT SHOES ON!!" but for us, it won't help him out in the long run.

FRONT LEFT

 FRONT LEFT

 FRONT LEFT

LEFT HIND

 LEFT HIND

 CLUB FOOT; RIGHT FRONT

 CLUB FOOT; RIGHT FRONT

This is where the red is seen the clearest...so strange and bothersome

 RIGHT HIND

 RIGHT HIND

Eesh, can a Gelding catch a break here?

"Mmnonnmmm hay yumms, gym shoez feel gud"

On a great note, I don't think (pray pray pray) he's having another laminitic attack

and he was 1000% an angel when putting on those UN-Easy Boots.

Bless him! 

Head banger's ball

I'm still clueless at how Laz hurt himself, although thanks to a possible 'maybe' by  Jenj I am now wondering if he did indeed walk under a low branch and whacked himself.

Or got kicked?
Or 10,00000000 other possibilities. ;)

The last couple of days, I've checked on him and treated the area

 THIS was huge. 

He allowed me to touch it, lightly, but allowed. He still is telling me it hurts and is sensitive around the star and oddly, around his left ear he seems to pull away.
I can touch his ear, in and all around, with no adverse reactions. It's when I approach his star from the left ear that he jerks away.

 So strange isn't it?

No HUGE gaping wound, but you can see the scrape to the right of his moonstar and where the blood trickled down towards his left eye.

A wound like this, I wouldn't even think twice about HOWEVER, it was HIS reaction to it that told me it HURT. 

There is no swelling, everything looks symmetrical and no new sensitive parts.

So, hopefully in a few days, it'll  be a none issue.

He allows me to halter him, he just is sensitive about touching around star/treating it.

 I typically use my favorite salve by Zephyrs Garden, which amazingly stays soft even in bitter cold weather and heals wounds super fast.  However, being Laz wouldn't allow me to touch it, I needed something spray-able to treat quick, AND safe for around his eyes in case it dripped.

So, I went to my feed store and bought the $$$ holy water. I figured it was less expensive that a vet visit and I don't really think my vet could do anything different than what I'm doing (hopefully I'm right with this thought)

With feeding some of his 'grain' I was able to spray the dickens out of his forehead for the last two days. I think it's helping.

And in fun award news, Laz and I got this;

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award----Thank you to Allison and Shy!!!!  If you haven't been reading about Shy, do it; so often I found myself laughing at how adorable and mischievous she is. 

Guess what, she's a dollface Haffie who knows how to DRIVE..fun! I'm thinking skijoring is in their future! 

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

My 5 blogs that I would TOTALLY recommend for both awesome horse owners/do-er's and for their adorable horses:

1.  http://milesonmiles.blogspot.com/

2.  http://dressagewannabes.blogspot.com/

3.  http://enzo-janine.blogspot.com/

4.  http://quartersforme.blogspot.com/

5.  http://honeysucklefaire.blogspot.com/  

Horsei

Dear Laz

What is cutting your sweet, beautiful face?
You have had 3 cuts all around the same section of your face approximately 4 inches from your star.

Today, when I visited you, and groomed you, you were dramatically head shy.

You are NEVER head/ear/anything shy.

My stomach instantly sank.

I lifted your fuzzy fragglerock bangs and found dried blood on your normally white star.

 Ohhhh Babykins, I cooed...

When I tried to wipe away the dried blood with a wet cloth to clean and treat, you told me "PLEASE...PLEASE do not touch." and lifted your normally pressing nose into my jacket, way up in the air out of any 7 ft reach.

Ugh, my stoic boy who let's me touch and treat anything...how bad does it hurt?

How did you do this?

Where you rough housing with your friends? 

Did you bang it on something?
Were you kicked?

Do I call the vet (it's after 6 pm)

What would they do anyway? No open wound, nothing to stitch...sedate?? For what?

Ok, breathe...

You don't want me touching it yet. 

Ok.

You ate your BP just fine and are nibbling your hay

Good signs.

You are warm.

I will come back tomorrow to try and treat it again and figure out how this happens as I don't see anything sticking out, anything with tufts of fur on it..and I've been looking.

BO's too can't figure it out and haven't seen anything that Laz is doing to cause harm.

Both are kind people and one is a small animal Vet so there is no foul play (just wanted to rule that out as a culprit)

If only, I had my "Horsei" prototype, I could view online the last 24 hours to try and see what caused this.

What is the "Horsei?"

To view and vote for my invention, click HERE

I can't tell you how many times I wished for this product to be real

Patent pending...

For reals.

Winter Workouts Part 2

This past Sunday it was low 20's and just beautifully sunny!

I had actually blanketed Laz the night before. The temps had dropped to around 13 degrees with high winds so I figured he would appreciate his winter blanket. 

In all actuality, he would have been fine without it. 

I'm S.L.O.W.L.Y trying to be 100% natural vs my knee jerk reaction of knitting Laz a head to toe pajama set with matching hoof mittens.

At any rate; I decided to work him out a bit. His energy level was up so he seemed game.

The cut on his back still showed some signs of 'ouch' so still no riding.

I brought Laz out to one of the Spring pastures where the grass was left long so it's nice and cushy for footing. Not icy or slick.

We started with BIG circles of walking...

 

Allowing him to warm up and stretch out

 And moved into a nice little trot
Lots of snorts, head lowering and neck stretching...

 He gave some great fluid moments of very sound looking trots!

HOORAH!

 Using his back..

 Mixed it up with walk, slow trot... 

extending his trot a bit..

Then, he started to get really fired up.

Not in a "I'm having FUN way" but more of a frantic mixed with pushy OTTB way

 He got a little rude and unruly

Started to blow up and yank away at the lunge line, buck and gallop around.
PS I HATE my lunge line..I want a heavier rope one. This one is so flimsy, craptastic and just blows in the wind.

"LEEEMMMMEEEE GOOOOOOOO"

 

Bucking around

Then trying to evade my 'reverse' request which promptly got him yanked back down to a WHOA and we started over.

Mental check; HI, put your brain back in your head.

 and right back to a CALM trot

 Which when he went to canter a bit by choice instead of the harder gait of a trot...I wondered "maybe he's trying to tell me, ENOUGH trotting"  

With rehabbing, it's so important to listen to your horse.
Laz is pretty smart and has a great work ethic, so I think I may have missed his ask of "OK, enough." It may have been enough mentally, it may have been enough physically. He is NOT a lazy boy, so if he seems like it's enough, it's because he's already given me 110%

It was just a vibe I got.

 So, we switched to walking on the lunge for 10 minutes of good behavior, and then back to hand walking and my sweet boy returned.

Due to the fact, that even after 35 minutes of walking, Laz was still a tiny bit damp, I sheeted him. The temps were to drop back in the teens with some high winds so I wanted to shield him a bit.  I yanked the sheet off the next morning and he still remains...NUDE!
Weather currently is low 20's...I may opt to blanket him Thursday when weather will drop down to 10 with winds. 

We had a trim Monday evening with our awesome farrier and all hoof things are looking great!

Winter Workouts part 1

Despite not riding (I'll get to that in a minute) Laz and I have been VERY busy.

I don't know how, but I've been making it to the barn 6-7 days a week.

It's GLORIOUS!

Some days, when I'm on the road for work, my day ends with an appointment just 15 minutes away from the barn, so off I go!

Sunset pulling into barn, just peaceful

The deer that hide along the far end of the pasture.

I have been enjoying this mild winter SO much!

Sunny and blue skies in January? WHAT?
Yes, please!

Who needs an indoor??? Not us

Unfortunately, Laz has a bit or a cut on his back. It's not a bad cut by any means, but it IS directly where one's bottom would sit when riding. 

So...being he was showing me he was tender around it, I figured it was also bruised a bit.
Ok, no problem. 

Ground work only for a good few days as it heals

My Pops giving Laz (who is too busy stuffing his face to pose) some love

One this day, it was so warm out, I didn't worry that naked Laz was getting rained on. It was almost 40 degrees with no wind. 

 Shiny boy all dressed for winter with no winter weather...yet.

 Another day, we did some of our Parelli games and 'touch it's'

Laz LOVES touch it.

"I touch dis"

"I touch dat"

"Halo?!! Anyones???"

Good boys get to munch on grass nibs after our mental work

***

On this day, the weather was low 30's, high 20's with little wind.

Laz still sans blanket and TOASTY warm

We worked on some games with him loose, or at Liberty

 We had some nice moments of him listening and relaxed...

But more moments of him ambling around and ignoring me, lol!

It's ok. It's honest and tells me we have a long way to go and we are not at that level.

I think it's fun to let go of expectations and see what your horse knows and doesn't.

"I donseee u"

 But a good boy comes back, AND we are working on our very own "War Horse" whistle

Move over Joey.....

Laz's coat has really turned into something great.

Thick, shiny with great oils

It almost seems waterproof at times

 Eating his BP mix and remaining naked

When I worry he'll be chilled, I stuff the hay bag which carries him over to dinner time.

No shortage of food here

 And Mason has been enjoying hitting the barn more often...zzzzzzz