The Journey from Bare, to Shoe, to Bare Again

I'm all about hooves. It's something I'm passionate about. Which is why my 4H public presentation coming up in February will be about hooves-as it was last year, though that was an impromptu- and it's going to essentially be what this post ends up being. So here we go, my presentation.

When I purchased Daisy, coming on 4 years ago now, she was barefoot. I had her trimmed every 6-8 weeks, and she remained barefoot that entire first year I had her, all the way through a summer riding season, though I wasn't showing yet at that point. We road all over roads and gravel and she was pretty fine. There was one time where she went lame on a front, but it seemed to be from a deep cut in her frog. That was my first experience with treating my own ill horse, and though it was a barely noticeable lameness, it stressed me out. I ended up soaking her hoof in epsom salts twice a day for a week, and she turned out fine. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of her hooves during that first year, because I didn't know at that point that in the future I'd wish I'd taken those photos.


The following year (2008) started out barefoot. Early into the season, she went dead. lame. and I couldn't ride for at least a week.
This is what her poor hoof looked like.

 

You can imagine that, after seeing that, I no longer felt she could go barefoot. And I bought into my farrier's ideas. Now, I have nothing against traditional farriers. I just think they're mislead. And at that point, I didn't know any better, few people do, and so I agreed with everything he said. He said that because she had white feet, her hooves were very weak, because 'all white hooves are weak'. And he gave the whole "we've bred good hooves out of horses" spiel. 

And so on came the shoes on all fours, with barium. And pads and silicon on her fronts as well. 

I shudder looking at this picture. Can you imagine having steel on your foot? 

Gee, sounds comfortable.

So no, she was not lame with the shoes on. Of course, now I know she didn't feel much of anything, but that's fine as long as there's no pain right? Ummmm.....

Moving right along...

Christmas 2008 I received a copy of The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd by Joe Camp. And I was hooked.
The section that got me hooked went like this (copied from the Soul of a Horse website):
Have you ever crossed your legs for such a long time that your foot goes to sleep? It's because you have cut off the blood circulation to your foot. Essentially that's what's happening when a metal shoe is nailed onto a horses foot. The hoof no longer flexes. Which means a substantial loss of blood circulation in the hoof. Which mean the nerve endings go to sleep. And the ill health the hoof is suffering from lack of circulation is no longer felt by the horse. In other words, the "ouch" never reaches the brain.

That made a whole lot of sense to me. I kept reading. I learned about how it's not enough to simply go barefoot, but you have to have the proper trim. A traditional farrier trims a hoof flat as if they were going to apply a shoe. This puts pressure on parts of the hoof that aren't supposed to face that pressure; like (almost ironically) the sole.
It's all been completely and utterly eye-opening. I started Daisy with a local 'natural trimmer' July 2009. She took about 6 months to completely change over, but by 3 or 4 months she wasn't at all sore or visibly off anymore; I simply noticed that her conformation still improved even after the 4th month.  I wish I'd taken shots of her hooves pre-first trim, post, and monthly afterward, but I didn't. Now, it's been over a full year, and she is never. ever. lame. She prefers grass over stones most days, but if I truly ask, she'll walk on stones without being very careful about it, unless her hooves are soft due to particularly wet ground.


And so, I present, Daisy's current hoof. No wait! Go back and look at that poor bruised hoof. I'll wait.


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TA-DA! Is that not a gorgeous hoof? Nice wide heels too. Lots of flexing goin' on there.

When Daisy was trimmed with a traditional farrier or when she had shoes, our appointments were always two months apart. Now it's between 4 and 6 weeks, mostly 5 weeks. When we had the traditional farrier visiting to have shoes put on, Daisy always had to be held, with a chain lead rope. She hated. shoes. She would rear and hit her head on the barn ceiling, and rear and rear and rear up to avoid having them put on. I started truly dreading farrier visits.

Now? She likes my trimmer, no doubt about it. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he bothered to learn her name and actually socialize with a her a little before even gets to her feet at each appointment. He brings her carrots, and gives her moments to rest while he trims. In return, he doesn't even have to touch her leg and she picks up her hoof for him already.

Traditional farriers are also hesitant to take any toe off the hoof, and often times hooves won't have the proper hoof angles and look like blocks standing upright. Depending on the season, you can pick up one of Daisy's hooves and actually pull them around the heels and see them truly flex. Pretty cool.

I know I've shared this thermograph before, but it just gets to me so much. Check out this page to see it:

http://www.thesoulofahorse.com/barefoot.htm

This is Daisy's hoof a few weeks after a trim...if I had to guess, I'd say about 3-4 weeks into the trim; her bars don't look as long as they do when she gets them trimmed. I make appointments that are flexible; Whenever I see that Daisy's hoof needs it, or will need it in the next week, I simply make an appointment.

This year, I purchased EasyBoot gloves for Daisy's fronts. Though she doesn't truly need them, and I don't use them every ride, she does definitely appreciate them when I do use them, and she steps confidently.

I've received a fair share of ridicule for going barefoot in the past. But the last few months, there have been no comments. Because what is there to comment on? She has beautiful, strong hooves.

Just like God intended. 

Obviously, the good hooves haven't been bred out of the horses.

I Just Love Her...

Nothing much new to report but that Daisy is still steadily improving/healing. The swelling is basically gone; now she just rides like a pony with a one week break. I know, most ponies are fine after one week off... not Daisy. She behaves relatively well, but is just really energetic and active...we went on a small trail ride with Jean's two sons today, and Daisy was a bit ahead of both with her active walk...I have trouble keeping her at a LAZY walk! Haha. We rode in a big clearing where a bulldozer was running. It spooked her a little at first (just tried to spin (slowly) and back away, but with the other ponies going she went) but then she got pretty used to it. There's a log jump in the clearing; not big, but big enough to force her to truly jump, and we went over it a few times. She felt INCREDIBLE. It was like a mini-high that I felt like at the cross country schooling in October. When a jump is big enough to challenge her so she picks up her hooves for real and rounds over it, she feels sooo good. I knew in the midst of her silliness there was a reason I loved her! :) She's the bestest, despite her frequent shenanigans. ;) Of course, as soon as she got out, she took a nice roll and ruined the good grooming I have her...*sigh*. I filmed it...may put in on at some point ;)

And these fine young ladies should be our neighbors in a few weeks (*fingers crossed*)
Jordan to the left, Jayda to the right. Jean's sister, Jenny, is closing on a house (hopefully this week) that is on a street next to ours, for me about a 10-15 minute horse ride over. AND! They have an indoor!!!

Yeah. I'm psyched. :D

It's Our 3rd Anniversary...

I boosted the ground and sky behind us...and only kept us "natural"...just so you don't think it's really really green at our place :)

...and I rode my pony for the fist time since last Sunday today! She's 99% better...yey! The ride was wonderful; it felt so good to be on her again and I know she enjoyed it, too. Here's last year's post, I can say the same this year:
http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com/2009/04/two-years-of-joy-and-learning.html

So That Didn't Work So Well...

We were supposed to visit Germany yesterday. We took off from our airport around 11:45, arrived in Philly, and ended up flying home after a few hours. It's not such big news yet, so for those of you who don't know yet, check here:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/04/16/iceland.flights.volcano/index.html?hpt=T1
All flights to Europe from the US are canceled and the earliest flights out to make up for them are Tuesday...So needless to say we're not going to Germany. Which is a bummer...but it is spring break now, so I'll get to do a lot of riding!

Updating Daisy...Oliver and Jean (Oliver is Jean's son) cold hosed Daisy for me yesterday :) and gave her benedryl and banamine again and she seems to be doing much better....I'll go to see her around noon today.

Daisy Update

I visited Daisy today; I leave tomorrow. The swelling spread from her right upper leg to her left...so we basically ruled out muscle strain. We talked to the vet and have her on benedryl for a few days (mixed capsules with apple sauce :)) and banamine today and tomorrow...and cold hosing. Jean is undertaking it all for me. :D We think right now that it was an insect bite...or multiple bites. If it doesn't go down Daisy will see the vet in a few days. She got her spring shot today and will see the vet while I'm gone anyway for her rabies and coggins. :)

And tomorrow...I'm off. Au revoir!...whoops! I mean Auf Wiedersehen! :)

It's Not an Abscess....

Jean picked up Daisy today. Once we got to her farm, I walked Daisy for Jean and Jean very quickly picked up on the problem.
It's definitely not in her hooves.
Daisy's hind leg is swollen, way above the hock, almost to her belly on the right. It seems like either she was stung, as there is a really obvious lump, or she strained a muscle in her hind end. As soon as Jean pointed it out, it was really obvious. I feel bad I didn't notice it before! However, it did require lifting her tail to actually see it, so it makes a little sense that I didn't notice it...seeing as I'm leading her and trying to look. :P
Anyone else ever heard of swelling there? It's really strange. We cold-hosed it (Daisy was very tolerable) and I'm giving her a few days off...I'll see her again on Wednesday and see how she is. I leave Thursday in any case.

The Horse Taught Me Another Lesson...

I have way too much fun with Picnik. Isn't that about the cheesiest picture ever? :P And I love Daisy's expression.

I have quite the story to tell.
I'll start with before my ride. I groomed and tacked up Daisy and as I was picking out her left hind, I picked it up and within a few seconds she very persistently pulled it out of my grasp. Generally she tries, but I just hang on. That wasn't at all possible this time, she grabbed it from me. I took it up again and finished my work but she wasn't too happy; she still tried, though kinder, to pull the hoof from me. I took her out and went trail riding (it was supposed to be my warm up). She wasn't lame or anything, and rode well. At one point however, I we were riding through the woods (off the regular trail) and I was leaning forward to avoid branches. She shot forward suddenly like something hit her back leg, and once we got on the regular trail, I looked at it from on top of her and she had it cocked like she was resting it (only the toe touching the ground). I got off, keeping her reins looped over her neck and told her to "whoa" to ground-tie, which is something she normally does fine, and as soon as I got back to her leg she started walking. "Oh, yeah, very funny Daisy, come here!...Daisy....Daisy?"
Yeah. You guessed it. The more I tried to stealthily sneak up on her to grab the rein, the more aware she was that she was loose and i was trying to catch her. The walk toward home became a trot, the trot the canter, and my stealthy walk became a tripping, sliding (Note to self: Need new paddock boots with grip) running-jog as I tried to keep up. It was sorta pointless to chase her because OBVIOUSLY I couldn't outrun her so I couldn't catch her. But was I just supposed to say "Adios, meet ya at home" and let her take off and just follow far behind at a walk? That'd be stupid too. So I jogged. Soon she cantered around a corner and I only saw a few flashes of red on her saddle pad as we neared a big hill that went down. I was worried about that hill. I was praying "LORD, PLEASE let her walk down the thing!". I know horses, like us, are self-preserving, but you know...I had my doubts. Who knows what that new taste of freedom would make her do?! Luckily, I turned the corner and found that just before the top she went to a walk and slowly picked her way down the steep hill. And then there's me, huffing and puffing (NO KIDDING. I could barely breathe, my throat was so dry and scratchy) and now praying "LORD, PLEASE, please, PLEASE let her stop at the bottom of the hill and graze!"...Yeah. That didn't happen. I thought for an instant it did because at the bottom Daisy lingered for a second. But then I heard the telltale "clop-clop" of her trotting over the bride we have over our stream and I knew I was done for. Then I hear my mom "Why is she loose?! Daisy!" and other random stuff. Poor mother, out walking the dog, and here comes Daisy, with me running behind her shouting pointless words like "Don't you DARE gallop on the sloppy mud, young lady! Nooo! DAISY!".
It was actually quite humorous. I knew it wasn't that dangerous so i allowed myself to laugh as I ran. I finally ran the last stretch (which, by the way, I am not a runner at all so this romp through the woods left me gasping and I could barely breathe) and found Daisy calmly waiting to get in the barn gate. Ha. Nice try.

I got a drink, which at first I couldn't swallow because I couldn't breathe :P and then I got back on and made her ride the trail again to teach her a lesson. Needless to say, I didn't end up doing any road riding after our "warm up". (Haha.)
I learned never to assume she'll ground-tie each and every time. :P

Through all this, Daisy was not lame. I can say that. Perhaps she was very very very slightly lame in a way that I didn't notice, but noticeably she wasn't lame, and I did pay attention just before she took off because I thought she hurt herself.

So fast forward a few hours after graining. I went outside with Daisy at her stall and grabbed a flake of hay to throw in the paddock for her. Normally she comes trotting up to get it. This time she only went within view of me and stood pawing the ground, refusing to move. After a little bit of coaxing, she walked forward, but after maybe ten steps, just before an uphill to get to the hay, she stopped and pawed again and then looked at me all miserable.
So I assumed colic. However, she finally got up to the hay and she ate it; normally she doesn't eat when she's colicy. So I took her out of the paddock to either walk her or check her leg, and I watched her walk. She clearly favored her right hind (OPPOSITE leg she pulled out of my hand while grooming); landed toe-first when she walked, rested it when she stopped, etc. And she walked with a low head carriage; sign of lamness in a hind.

I ran my hands all over the leg but I didn't feel any real HEAT heat (just warmth). There was one spot on her hock that seemed a little bit extra warm, and below her fetlock but I still wouldn't say the spots were hot. So I cold-hosed the leg in case in was her leg and then I put her back in the stall with hay. I looked stuff up on google and from her symptoms, I think it's an abscess. I called Jean and talked to her about it, then called my trimmer. He said it sounds like either an abscess or just a stone bruise and I should call him tomorrow and if it's still bad he'll come look at it. Tomorrow Daisy gets trailered to Jean's. I'm going on a trip on Thursday and Daisy's staying there. I already have two riders lined up to ride Daisy a couple times while I'm gone :) So I hope she stays sound/gets sound.

I'm not too worried. I was so relieved that it wasn't colic (her frequent colic behavior (in spring and summer) scares me. I hate it when she gets that way. This way, yes I know she's in pain, but it's not gonna kill her.

I've Been Jumping...

Sooo...I had my first jump lesson today, with Karin, the trainer I used in late winter this year... It was, to say the least, interesting.

First off, not sure if I TOTALLY have advertised this, but since July I've had Daisy trimmed with a natural trimmer. I'm LOVING the entire natural trimming process, and Daisy *seemed* and felt, like she was doing really well with it. This week Monday, the trimmer came again, and it turns out Daisy is foundering *very*, very slightly in all 4 feet. She has a small orange tinge on one part of the white-line of her hoof. The trimmer said that since she's on so little grass to begin with, she'd be fine, and just keep an eye on it and if it got worse to take her off grass altogether. He also noticed that she has very slight thrush in her right hooves; it's not advanced, but it's there. As he advised, I'm spraying Daisy's hooves daily now with a mixture of tea tree oil and organic apple cider vineger, which is supposed to help. Sounds like an odd mixture, but (this is a little silly) I have personal experience with organic apple cider vinegar killing off warts, so I think it will work.

Anyway, with all the things I've read about shoeing and farrier's trimming vs. natural trimming, I don't think I could EVER go back to shoeing, lets put that straight. Besides the fact that Daisy nearly killed the farrier multiple times (through excessive rearing during shoeing), shoeing is just wrong. Read up on it, there is a WEALTH of knowledge out there about natural trimming, and it's amazing.

Karin started out the lesson asking me to trot, and change directions at the trot, and asked me why I put galloping boots on Daisy's legs. I said I did because she tends to hit her legs together when I ride, and she responded "So to protect her, right?" and I said yes. Then she asked why I wear half-chaps, and the answer was for protection. So than she asked me why I could go around expecting my horse to work for me while she is in constant pain because she doesn't have shoes on. She wondered how I could possibly put my horse through so much pain when she obviously shouldn't be barefoot and favors her right side.
Those words stung. Bad. I'm a teenager, alright? Not to make excuses, but I'm still young and have experience, but not THAT much, and I try really hard to do the best I can for Daisy. I honestly believed (AND STILL DO) that shoes are WRONG. So Karin berated me for quite a while, which was horrible. Worse than anything, because she's older than me (duh). She has an amazing reputation as being a great riding instructor. She's had years of knowledge. Somehow, I knew that whatever I said, she'd counter, and I wouldn't be able to convince her. It's something that she just wouldn't understand, I know it. So I kept my mouth shut, in a kind of silent disagreement. I didn't agree with anything she said. In all honestly, I felt like crap. It stunk having to listen to her talk, and not figure out HOW to make her understand!
Finally, she seemed to realize I wasn't agreeing with what she said, and she said that in the end it was my choice what I did with my horse, but that I should know that Daisy was in pain and "off" to her right.
We started working for real, which was slightly awkward because I was now very aware of how Daisy's trot would die when we'd turn to change direction at the trot and change when on the right diagonal. She had me work on two-point, which I STINK at because I rarely do it at home as I ride western and rarely english, and just don't do two-point (standing in the stirrups, heels dropped down, leaning almost horizontal over the horse's back and shoulders). We trotted around, and she worked on improving my two-point.
Then she set up this course:
All the cavalettis were at full height. (lines start out magenta, than black, then (although it's hard to tell) maroon.) I would start out the course at a right lead canter, and after the first cavaletti, switch to left lead. I got lost the first two times, as I apparently have a terrible sense of direction...Daisy was, as usual, flat over the jumps in the beginning, but when she got into it and knocked a pole, she started picking up her feet more, and jumping better. At this point, however, Daisy has to go faster to jump better; eventually she was fast cantering, almost galloping, around the ring for the jumps, popping over each one...unfortunately, again no video, just my little diagram... :-/...
I felt pretty dumb jumping...I felt like Daisy was out of control galloping, and though she felt like she was jumping rounded and not flat, her speed was embaressing (I thought). Plus I felt like I was jumping badly. I saw a video of us jumping that Jean took on her phone, however, and we didn't look too bad! In fact...we looked GOOD! Creepy, huh?!

Towards the end, Daisy started to refuse the oxer (two cavalettis side-by-side) and after MUCH smacking with the crop to no avail, Karin got out the lunge whip. That was kinda freaky, because I KNEW she'd hit Daisy, but I wasn't sure how Daisy would react...Daisy shot forward when the whip hit her legs, but she wasn't hard to balance on, and we went over the oxer. Karin had to smack her with the whip 2 more times as she tried to refuse, before we ended with her going over without needing the whip.

Karin still tried to drill the shoe deal into my head again as we finished up...I just sat silent again.

She did give me some pretty cool info on Daisy's past owners, however...Apparently, Daisy used to be really bad at shows because she'd whinny and scream to the mare she was stabled with over the ring fence (I'm assuming her mother)...Ironic, considering other horses mean NOTHING, zip, zero, zilch to Daisy now; they can't motivate her, they don't comfort her, she doesn't feed off them, NOTHING. :P

Sooo, in all, it was worth the money, cool lesson...besides the terrible shoe-talk part. I need to honestly look into Old Mac's G2's...I'm NOT shoeing! NO WAY. Just need to get down and get those boots!

On Monday, I'm riding Daisy in a cross-country jump schooling with Oliver and Phoenix and Karin...Yeah...I'm crazy....we'll see how it goes. I'll try REALLY hard to get some video! :)

Anything and Everything...Beware, ***Long*** Post

Sooo, I haven't posted in ages. If that isn't apparent, I don't know what is. I mostly haven't posted because SO much has happened, and I have so many pictures I didn't know where to start. So I solved the problem; I'm not posting pictures. Maybe in another post I'll post pictures with captions, but here I'm just writing.
Please grab some popcorn and refreshments, or you may not make it through this post. It's a long one.

Last I wrote, I was on the verge of going to a Memorial day parade with my 4H club, the Yautzy Road Yahoos. We went. We rocked. The end.

No really, that's not the end. oooook, here I go.

We all arrived at the parking lot of a bank right near where the parade would start. Jean recently got a 9 horse trailer, and one of our club member's has a dad that kinda half-owns it and pulls it for us. It's awesome. We had 4 horses on the trailer: Jean's ponies Scout, Mouse, and Bella, and my Daisy. We also brought Jean's trailer with our club member's horse, Mari. Or maybe Bella was on that trailer...idk, anyway, it doesn't matter. Our OTHER (There are a lot of members) members brought two horses: Liza and Molly. In total, there were 7 of us riding. Some of the horses were a little excited as we tacked up; the band was rehearsing and lining up right next to us. We spent awhile tacking up. I braided a ribbon in Daisy's tail and a flower in her forelock (My new profile picture). She looked great. Finally, we headed out. We have some pretty amusing pictures of us riding through the bank tellers. We were at pretty much the end of the parade because the parade marshall didn't want firetrucks to drive in horse manure. (BIG deal, right? FIRETRUCKS. Can fight fires, go to accident scenes, drive through woods in brush fires, but can't handle horse manure. I don't get it...) Jean's husband is into old cars (Nice old cars :-P) so he drove behind us, which was kinda nice, there were maybe one or two other people behind him, so he made sure he gave us room behind the horses that those people might not have given us. Daisy was pretty good...she was excited. I don't think she was necessarily afraid; she was "looky" but more interested then nervous. She did want to walk fast, though. Daisy is not a horse that enjoys meandering around, especially around other horses. She'd much rather run; race them. Sooo she had a little trouble walking slow, but it was ok. Sometimes she really got annoyed, and ended up walking sideways down the street....soo we look like idiots, but at least she wasn't rearing, bucking, etc, right? Right. Finally, a 4H mom and then my mom held Daisy for a bit so she'd slow down, and she really seemed better after that little "attitude adjustment". Jean had grown up in the area where the parade took place and rode in it as a teen, back when a lot of people rode. Unfortunately, there hadn't been any horses in the parade in years. Fortunately we came along :). I was surprised how quiet it was; not many people clapped or cheered. I wonder if it was because they were bored and didn't want to or actually knew not to scare the horses...who knows?

At the end of the parade we rode back through a graveyard and back down the street. The worst part was then. We were going back to the trailer, fairly close, across the street from a gas station. Two guys were on motorcycles (Daisy's only fear, aside from cars that splash water on her on the road after it rains) and they revved their bikes just as we were going to ride by. I can tell you one thing, Daisy was already busy looking at a flag when that happened, and you better believe she was not a happy camper. She half-reared, half tried to bolt, but I was like "Oh, man" and one of the 4H mom's heard it and grabbed Daisy....the guys kept making noise, and she was signaling for them to stop. After a few steps they did, but it was enough, damage done. Daisy was like "Where are the noisy beasts that are trying to eat me?!?!!!!!" lol. But we survived. We got to the trailer and all as well.

Lesson learned; next time we do a parade (*cough*-this Saturday) I'm round penning her a ton first. Let off some of that steam! :-P I'm glad we went; our club was pretty popular. We had 'walkers' who threw candy to the crowd, and held a banner with our name. Pretttttty cool. If you'd like to see pictures right away, check my mom's post here.
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Next event was a pleasure show the following Sunday. I rode alllll day long; English in the morning, Western in the afternoon.
It was another club event (you finding a pattern here?)


Daisy is not an English horse. You know what? She's not a western pleasure horse, either. She had been doing very well getting her right-lead canter, but it still wasn't automatic. I really had to work to get it; not hard, but I couldn't go trot to canter, walk to canter. For me, it's side pass, stand, canter. You can't do that in a show ring. We ended up not placing all morning in English; she never got her right lead on the first try (not always on second try, either). One time we technically got 7th place, but they don't ribbon to 7th :-P. She looked pretty good, though, I'll say that. But not at a canter. We finally placed half-way through the morning in hunter hack. They set up 2 cross rails that you had to go through. We schooled over them twice before the actual class. The first time, Daisy went over the first one, but then swerved the next one. I blame it on my not being totally focused and giving her leg. She wasn't afraid; she was lazy and hadn't expected it, so she wanted to take a look. We tried again and she was fine. When the class started, she was fine. A few horses refused (repeatedly), some wayyyyyy over jumped (Daisy kinda did), others swerved away from the jump, some didn't enter. In the end, I think we got 6th place, which isn't THAT good, but at least we placed. I was happy. :)


The best part of the day is always Trail class. We rock at trail class because we only do trail riding at home :-P. This trail class was kinda boring, and a little disappointing. It had rained the day before, so there were puddles in the ring that all day we just avoided. Now, they took the biggest puddle and Incorporated it into the class. They set up jump standards at the side so you couldn't go around, and you had to walk through. It was a big, deep puddle; covered Daisy's hooves. She plunged right in.


The next part was a mailbox on a barrel. We are used to mailboxes on posts, so Daisy was kind of confused, but she got over it fast and we got out the paper, flashed it to the judge, and moved on.

All winter long, when I was sick (which was more often than usual this year) I would do ground work with Daisy instead of riding. I worked a lot on side passing over poles, because last year at the county fair we did bad in a trail class because we couldn't do that. I worked hard with her on the ground, and finally moved to doing it on her back. She's good at it. She's awesome if you start standing just over the end of the pole and side pass over the pole. She's not so great at going down AND back at the same time. And that's what we had to do. Figures. However, we were better this time around then we were last summer, so that was good. The pole we used was a small tree (not a true "pole") so of course Daisy wasn't as good. Of course. I got her over going left pretty well, but then she put up a fit about going right. That was frustrating because I knew I had a limited amount of times I could try before the judge would ask us to move on. I tried about 3 times, and I knew the judge would ask us to stop any minute. I figured at that point, I had to ignore placing and just get my stubborn little mare to do it. I turned to the judge (half-way across the arena) and called (very unprofessionally :-P) "Can I please try again?" and the judge nodded sympathetically and held up one finger. There we had it: one more try. I got her to do it. Pretty messily...we ended up stumbling a bit and really only going well in the middle of the pole, but we did it. It was better than other people, because the majority couldn't do it at all. After that, we hopped over a cross rail and we were done. Pretty boring trail class compared to others...but we got 4th place. We always do well in trail. Always (knock-on-wood).


The rest of the day wasn't that great. Daisy got more and more tired as the day wore on. We stunk (as always) in Western Pleasure and Equitation...and western horsemanship...we didn't place in any of it due to Daisy's right-lead dilemma. We still had fun, though...at least, I did. The end of the day, we had command class. That is truly, besides Trail Class, the most exciting part of the day. It is, in essence, Simon-Says on horseback. Except without Simon. Whoever doesn't do what the caller calls out within 3 seconds is disqualified. In the past at this particular show, Daisy and I tied for 1st place. At the county fair we got 1st, too. I'm not sure how we did so well back then, because Daisy was even more terrible at her leads back then...I guess those wins were miracles. But in any case, I was excited for Command. Daisy wasn't; she was very tired. I was soon to realize just how tired she really was. But we forged on.

There were a lot of entrants, as usual. I don't remember how many, but probably about 20. We went on and on; Daisy's responds fast. Especially when she gets into command class; she knows what to do. Miracle of all miracles, she ACTUALLY got her leads right. At the end, it was down to 3 of us in the ring (I thought at the time it was 2, but apparently I didn't see the other person). They called for counter canter. Guess which direction we were going? Right. Guess what Daisy FINALLY did. Of all times.

That's right. She did a right lead. And not the left that the judge was looking for. I noticed it right away. When they said counter canter, I got confused (I'm not the brightest person, if you haven't noticed). I was so sure they'd ask for a canter, that I'd been preparing to ask Daisy for a right-lead canter. When they said left, I knew I wouldn't have to try hard for left. But I kinda squeezed her and turned her and sidpassed her and somewhere in that jumble of commands she did a right lead. It's a shame that I don't know just what I did; It could've come in handy.


In the big picture, I was happy that Daisy did her right lead. That's what I'd wanted all day; she just picked a nasty time to do it. That's alright, though. One of the other people did the lead wrong, too (well, technically right...you know what I mean? :-P I'm probably confusing you) so we were disqualified at the same time. I thought that'd put us in a tie for 2nd, but somehow they picked and put me in 3rd...soo I'm just going to say I got 2nd. It sure felt like 2nd. I left the ring and another person congratulated me, saw the yellow ribbon, and said "What? I thought you got 2nd!". I just said I thought so, too...so please just agree with me and say I got 2nd. :)


I trailered and exhausted Daisy home and put her up for bed.
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It took Daisy a week to get over that show. I'd ended up riding her for 7 hours. 7 HOURS. Now, I wasn't really "riding" her so much as sitting on her back that long, but it really drained her. I thought she was having a week-long colic afterward. She was lying down ALL the time. Not just a lot. All the time; she went so far as to GRAZE lying down. I still rode her, but she wasn't as peppy, and she pawed the ground a lot, and was constantly sleeping. She finally got better the following Saturday (the day I had decided to call the vet if she wasn't better; luckily she was). I've learned that I have to pick one division to ride in next time, either English or Western, or part of both. Daisy can't handle it all, poor girl!
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We haven't done much since the show; we just hung out at home. Daisy hasn't (Knock-on-wood again) gotten lame yet this spring, without shoes but with Smarthoof, a great hoof supplement. I'm praying and hoping that she'll stay strong so I don't have to shoe her.

Maybe I'll post pictures tomorrow or the day after. Until then, thanks for reading this long post. You must be a dedicated reader. Thank you, I appreciate it. :)



If you didn't make it this far and just skipped stuff, that's fine, I forgive you. :)

Back to Riding!

So, on Monday we called the farrier and left two messages, one from my mom, one from me, asking (again) if he could come out and shoe Daisy. He called back, and he said he'd come the next day! He came, and checked out her hooves and said her front hoof was still very tender, but he'd shoe her anyway. SO, I had him make Daisy shoes for all four feed, and pads for her front. She has the pads so that she can walk on stones and such without getting bruised again. She also got borium on, which is a type of metal that's kind of rough on the shoe, so she doesn't slip when she walks. First he had to take a little while to 'customize', I guess, Daisy's shoes, and then we went into the barn to put them on, because it was raining. Daisy did just fine on her back hoofs-he aligned the shoes and nailed them in and then filed off the nails when they came out the sides (second picture). Of course, she couldn't let herself get the reputation of being a perfect horse, so she decided it would be acceptable to rear, oh, say, 3 times when he got to the front feet. It was scary-she almost touched the ceiling at one point, and the farrier would have to jump out of the way. The farrier took the halter and chain lead at one point, adjusted the chain, and gave Daisy a hard tug and a little speech about safety....it didn't work for long. She reared another two times, and that's when he suggested hay. Of course, Daisy being a sucker for food, stood very nice and still on the last shoe and chomped away...the little brat! She also had silicone sprayed under the pad on the front feet so that she has more cushioning...the pictures are labeled. The pic of her hoof that's not labeled is her back hoof. Well, after money spent, and shoes, pads, borium, and silicone, I can ride again! I took Daisy for a quick ride today because I actually went and rode Bubba after school today (I took the bus to my 4H leader's house) and it was great! Daisy's hooves sound nice on pavement ;-).

The last pictures are just some I took of Daisy tonight and the sky. Doesn't Daisy look great!? Don't ask what's up with the lead rope-I kind of just threw it on, it's actually just a rope...She's so slick and shiny.

Anyway, thanks for all the thoughts and helpful tips throughout Daisy's little hoof 'ordeal'! My school ends next Wednesday...finals this week and next, and then I might post more often! (or less often ;-)) Bye!

9:17 PM

Dentist Visit and New Paddock

Daisy's dentist came yesterday to float Daisy's teeth, and I must say, I think he's a real horse whisperer. He's very calm and quite with Daisy, and "Ms. I always have my ears back if you're in even a 10 foot radius of me" had her ears foreword the WHOLE TIME! She was even leaning into the rasp! When horses get their teeth 'floated' the dentist uses something that looks like this.
They run it up and down over the horses teeth to file them down, so they don't get over grown and cause eating problems. Daisy did really well!
Thanks for all your comments on Daisy getting shod (put shoes on)! I have called the vet and hopefully she will get them on soon...I can't ride 'till then!
We always thought that we couldn't let Daisy graze on our sewer field because we thought that she might a) crush the pipes or b) eat chemicals from underground. WELL, our power went out on Saturday, and a man came to fix it who actually laid the base for our barn, and he said that as long as the field isn't swimming in chemical-y water, (which it definitely isn't) it's fine! SO, I put up a temporary fence on it, and now Daisy has lots of lush grass to eat! That's the first pic.

Have a nice end of the week! I'm planning another post for in a few days, too, so...

9:12 PM

Hot Weather & Bruises

So, the farrier came today. Daisy was getting better and better at walking all week, but when the farrier shod her she ended up being bruised *again*. Last year she was bruised on three of her legs, but today she was bruised even worse then last year on her right front (where she was laming) and her left hind. She also had some 'holes' in her hoof sole on both ends. The farrier said to keep soaking in Epsom salts like I am and to put Iodine on her hind leg. Then we'll take it from there, which probably means I have to put shoes and pads on her...*sigh*...just what we didn't want. But you've gotta do what you gotta do...the second picture is taken by a friend of mine, the rest are by me...Today it's 90 degrees out (WOW) and so I bought Daisy a fan, which she is totally loving...I'm having a barn sleepover tonight! IN THE HEAT! lol...it'll be around 70...well, that's it...thanks for all your kind words and insight!...This may sound silly, but how do you put iodine on a horse? Do I soak Daisy's hoof in it, or do I just put it on?

4:35 PM

Poor Baby Girl