Tommy's fourth new farrier...

Tommy has a new farrier again.  Mark came out on August 19th to pull Tommy’s shoes.  We were a little bit early in the cycle, at the 5 week point, but we were appreciative to be squeezed in.

I’d ridden Tommy on Wednesday, August 10th and he’d been lame for almost an entire week afterwards.  When Mark came out he’d been sound(ish) for three days.  You could still see that he was sore when he was going up the hill in the field and when he turned.

The abscess hole has not fully filled it as I’d hoped after his last appointment, and the new hoof growth was still soft and seedy.  That changed our shoeing plans a bit and the pads and steel shoes were reset.  I was looking forward to trying the rubber shoes on him and seeing if that made a difference in his comfort level.

Here is Tommy’s bad hoof.  The purple is the thrush medicine I’m always applying under the pads.  It’s working too, this is the first time in ages that we’ve not had thrush.

Here are Tommy’s before hooves:

And here are his after hooves:

He was very uncomfortable when Mark was working on his front hooves and was quite naughty about jerking his hooves away.  Even after all my work with him on holding his hooves up and forward, when he’s done there is no stopping him from slamming them back down.  Mark was very nice about it and did not get frustrated with him at all; or at least he did not verbalize his frustration!  We were all very aware that his legs were bothering him.  When Mark would put his left front down Tommy would tip his right front and left hind forward so that only the toe was touching the ground, or lift his right front entirely from the ground.  

After his appointment Tommy was very lame for four days.  The next time I’ll start him on the Bute the night before and carry it through a day or two afterwards.  That’s what I did for his July appointment, but with a new farrier I thought it was important for him to be able to see what he was working with.  Poor Tom!

The good news is that Mark seems to have no problems continuing to work on Tom; and he didn’t even bat an eye at my photo journaling.  It’s  exciting to think I may have found his permanent farrier, but I don’t want to jinx myself!

Thanks Mark!