I think riding Sonny the other week was too much too soon.
He wasn’t lame for a few days then gradually got worse over a few days. He’s
reluctant to walk much now & really doesn’t want to walk on the road or even
the driveway.
There isn’t any extra heat in his RF but it is certainly a
lot sorer than the LF. So I wait now to see if it’s an abscess. So far it doesn’t
seem to be one. Actually it would be better in some ways if it was an abscess!
At least it would come out somewhere then heal up. If it’s not an abscess it
must mean something worse, ie internal problems or bruised sole.
Today I have realised one reason why this may have happened.
I ran out of the ProvideIt supplement some time back & while I saved for the next lot I
fed Sonny the last 5 weeks worth of Dr Kohnke’s Cell Provide. At the time of
running out of the ProvideIt Supreme all
the horse’s feet had stopped growing as per usual in winter. However
within a week or so of putting Sonny back on the DK’s, his feet began growing
again. They grew quite fast (which may or may not be a good thing). It was at
that time that I began walking him on the road & the ridges began growing
along the sides of his front feet in response to the hard ground. I was able to
trim his feet weekly & be back walking on the road within a day or so of the trim. In previous years I have noted that his feet grew fast when getting DK's. I have no idea why the DK's might cause Sonny's feet to grow faster than the ProvideIt. Maybe, like humans, all horses are different & some things work better for some horses.
When the new bag of ProvideIt arrived I put Sonny back onto
that & I now realize his feet must have stopped growing within a week or so. However
I had already trimmed him again at the end of that week & wondered why there was less to trim &
not the heel growth I was expecting. I walked him a few days on the road &
rode him that one time after the trim. Upon checking his front feet each day
since the last trim I see there hasn’t been any growth at all & in fact his
feet are wearing away again.
I will have to put his boots back on to do any ‘work play’
as he is getting too sore to walk. This afternoon he was reluctant to move
much. His front feet are hot underneath. Now that the ground is very dry &
hard his soles are wearing away faster than they can grow. The same thing
happened last winter & I ended up with nothing to trim to correct problems.
Trouble is, his Easyboot Trails that I purchased earlier
this year are now too big because his feet have changed shape. So I can’t put
his boots on full time like earlier in the year when I had him around the house
yard. They are ok for just a quick walk or a bit of work play. But by the end
of that at least one boot will have rotated 45degrees or more even with extra packing.
The dry weather is becoming a double edged sword. We need
the dry for healing purposes but it makes the ground very hard & abrasive.
A bit of rain each week would keep the paddocks a bit softer to help him until
his feet begin growing again naturally.
So I’m in a bit of a quandary. If I put him back on the DK’s
to get his feet growing I can get back on track again within a few weeks. Or I
can do nothing with him until his feet naturally begin to grow again later in the
year. However until then he will have to just hang around in the paddock on
soft ground because I don’t have the right sized boots for him anymore & I
have to hope his soles don’t wear away too much.
Decisions, decisions!! lol
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