Saturday, August 4, 2012

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Can I get a Lease?

Midway through April I knew that Tommy would not be rideable this year.  This was shaping up to be our last year staying at the farm, and I really wanted to be able to ride around all the fields and trails one last time.

I knew that I didn't want to spend the money to board three horses beginning this December, so purchasing a third was out of the question.  That left me with leasing.  I sat down and wrote up a list of criteria I was looking for in a horse, and those issues that would disqualify him/her from being considered.  Once I had everything hammered down I wrote up the following ad:

What I'm looking for:

Off site lease - at my farm.  I'm ONLY interested in an off site lease. I'm sure your place is great. So is mine, and that's where I'd like to ride :) Seasonal lease through end of October or am willing to look at a shorter term lease.

Experienced trail horse that's been there and done that.

Road and traffic safe.

Fully trained - w/t/c or gait on cue

Must ride safely alone. I very rarely have a chance to ride with others.

An older horse is no problem.

Loads and Hauls easily enough that one person can handle it.

I'm looking for a horse that's the same whether I'm able to ride once a week or twice a month, my work schedule can get the better of me occasionally.

The horse needs to be capable of carrying an adult rider - 5'8 and 200lbs.

What I don't want:
A horse that will be great with more work/training/riding.
A horse that requires an experienced rider and/or consistent riding.
A horse who is hot, flighty, spooky, or otherwise a pita. If his barn name is Loco, I probably don't want to ride him!
No rearing, bucking, biting, or kicking.
No age or soundness issues that requires pricey supplements (unless you're going to provide them), rehabilitation, or have riding restrictions placed on the horse.

Me:

I'm an experienced adult rider. I currently own two horses, one is 31 and retired and the other is on long term rehabilitation for an injury. I'd really love to be able to ride this spring/summer/fall, so I'm looking for a lease. I am a capable rider, but I am content to cruise along and enjoy the scenery, and have no desire to race madly about.

Your horse will have his own 2 acre grass pasture with a run in shed.

I am willing to pay a reasonable price for the lease depending on what you will provide; or we can work out a free lease situation where I would cover the daily care of the horse as well as routine farrier work.


I thought it was pretty well done if I do say so myself.  Maybe not the friendliest ad out there, but I was hoping that horse owners would read it fully to see if their horse would be a good fit before responding.  I surely didn't want to waste anyone's time; including my own.

I posted this on Craigslist, Dream Horse, Equine.com, and other sites I hoped would attract some interested parties.  I had some interest all right!  Boy.  There are a lot of horse owners out there with ill mannered, young, untrained, and slightly dangerous horses that would love to pass them along so that I could trail ride the horse for them.  I did also meet some lovely horse owners, and it was a pleasure to meet their "herds".  I looked at quite a few, the majority of which I didn't even get on.  Some because they were clearly not as described, and some because I knew my tack just would not fit them.  As much as the tack ho in me protested, I just could not justify buying a saddle to fit a lease horse.

I finally had success on the Dayton Horse Owners group on Facebook.  I was linked up with a lovely horse owner with a couple of extra horses.  I went out to look at Pretty Boy and Echo, then Renee was kind enough to haul Echo to a local trail so that I could get first hand experience on how she reacted to real life obstacles.

We had a lovely time and we set up a date and time for me to come and sign the lease papers and take her home.


Monday, July 23, 2012

April Showers bring May flowers, and what do May flowers bring? Infection.

The entire month of May was an ongoing round of infection in Tommy's hoof.   Normally I can get in front of it with an aggressive treatment plan, but this time it was just about impossible.  We went through round after round of CleanTrax, partial/straight bleach soaks, and packing with antibiotics.  Nothing was working though.  Every day I'd take the wrap off and we'd still have smelly drainage.  We tried leaving the wrap off to see if that would dry it up this time, but that didn't work either.

Finally we started a new antibiotic called Tucoprim, and that cleared it up.  Temporarily.

The only piece of good news is that I can tell a difference with the Pergoglyde.  It doesn't do anything for his hoof or ringbone, but he is not sweating excessively and covered with salt crystals the way he was in last summer's heat.  It's a good thing too, because this summer has been a killer!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Beach Trail Ride Bachelorette Party

The best bachelorette party I've ever been to!



The horses were provided by Two Bit Stable at Cape San Blas.  They were all very nice horses, and took us on a lovely ride along the beach.  It was overcast and threatening to storm, but we were all happy.  My horse liked to meander a bit slower...



He was holding up the rest of the line.




The beach was pretty, and the horses had no problems walking alongside the waves.




We did have a party crasher - this sucker was HUGE.


We made it to the end in time to get a few pictures, and then headed back to the cars just in time to avoid the first rain drops.



But not before we gave treats to the ponies!


Friday, June 15, 2012

April Evacuation

In Blog Time it's now April.  In other good news I may have figured out why my mother is not longer subscribed to read my blog....it's BORING!  Well, not to me, but possibly to every other person on the planet.  So, in an effort to win Mom back I am posting some fun pictures of our annual April Evacuation to Florida.  Hey Mamaw....here's some grandkid pictures!!











Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Mystery of the Buckling Hoof

Just to catch you up (since I'm behind) - after the March 19th farrier appointment when Tom's last shoe was removed he had been ouchy walking out to the pasture.  I attributed it to a combination of being freshly barefoot for the first time in months and walking across the gravel barnyard to get to the pasture.

It turns out I was W - R - O - N - G

Within 24 hours there was a ridge developing on the outside of his hoof; and I don't mean a delicate little wavy line.  Over the next few days it grew larger and continued further around the side of his hoof towards the front.  It also began on the inside of the hoof so that it was working from both sides forward, although that side did not start developing until the third day.  He was also very obviously unsound.  He didn't even want to go up for grass, instead preferring to stay in the small, flat area at the base of the hill.

Mark was out of town on a working vacation, so I called Dr. A's office to see what their opinion was.  At the very least I wanted to get some Bute to make him a little more comfortable.  When I explained what Tom was doing and what I was seeing they suggested I come in for new x-rays to make sure there wasn't rotation in the hoof.  That was scary to think about, but we made an appointment for the following Monday.

Here are some pictures of the hoof on March 26th, the day of the vet appointment.  They are cell phone pictures, so aren't the best quality, and the only thing that you can really see is that there is a ridge developing.  I wish I'd thought to put my finger underneath the edge of the ridge so that you could see how far out it had developed, making the hoof look (to me) like it was buckling to the outside from the pressure.  But I didn't.  So instead you get these crappy third rate photos that make it look like I'm blowing things wayyyy out of proportion.





I admit that I was a wee bit nervous taking Tommy in for his appointment.  At that time exactly one week had passed (Monday 19th - Monday 26th) and there had been dramatic changes in the hoof, as well as in Tommy's overall soundness.  He was still very lame if he was off the Bute, and didn't have much of an appetite.

The good news is that the x-rays showed no navicular changes or rotation within the hoof, the canker site was still clear; and it turns out that I really was blowing things out of proportion and there was nothing wrong with the hoof developing a ridge.  Now Tommy would disagree with that since he's the one that's lame on it, but Murphy's Law reared up and bit me in the ass and Tommy walked into the office pretty well sound.  So I did appear to be THAT paranoid horse owner, the kind that makes mountains out of molehills.  We all know one.  Apparently I am one - ;)

The bad news is that Dr. A used the x-rays to measure and Tommy only has .33" between the bone in the hoof and the ground outside.  That's less than the sole on my flip-flops, and we all know how easily we can feel each and every rock in flip-flops.  The rest of the bad news is that even though the canker is still gone, the hole in the hoof is still open to soft tissue.  There is just no real healing going on to close it up, and that's been with a year of Glanzen GL which is the most power-packed hoof supplement I could find.  

Unfortunately we had to have a talk about euthanasia for Tommy.  We seem to be running out of options and nothing's really working out.  We're not to that point just yet, but it seems to be looming on the horizon.  

So we headed back home with some Pergoglyde, and hopeful hearts that it will jump start his immune system or whatever it is that's out of whack, and that hole in his hoof will heal up.   

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Do you know how difficult it is

to upload on a hotspot in a 3G area?  With trees?  Practically a forest.  And maybe some aliens blocking the signal....

Here's today's uploaded photo

Oh wait.  There isn't one....

Sunday, May 6, 2012

March 19th's Farrier Appointment

Look who came to visit us....it's Mark and his big trailer of farrier goodness!


Do you know what I love most about this picture?  That it's MARCH and nice enough we could be in shirt sleeves.  Thank you Mother Nature!


Tom's last shoe finally came off on March 19th.  We'd been maintaining a one shoe off, one shoe on dynamic in order to accommodate a single EasyBoot RX.  Since my last one was finally overcome by the rigors of staying on a 2,000lb draft horse (see our previous post for the video!), Tom was going barefoot.  I'd ordered a pair of the regular Easy Boots in the largest size they made so that his hoof would still be protected from the great outdoors.

The hoof had grown out enough since this began (again!) in September that the hole appeared to be growing out well.  After the trim it was not as deep as it had been.


Afterwards, as we headed back to the field, Tom was only a bit ouchy.  Since we had to traverse the gravel of the barn yard that was easily explained away as nothing serious.

I bet I know what you're thinking...."Famous last words"

And you'd be right.








Monday, March 26, 2012

The Destruction of an Easyboot RX.

We've been enjoying some fabulous weather, and the boys have been outside nonstop.  The temps were in the 70s for almost 2 weeks, the grass has come on strong, and the Tommy is feeling his oats!



Sunday, March 4, 2012

March Update

I can't believe I've missed over a month of updates!  I'd like to say that we've had new and exciting experiences, but basically it went like this:

1.  Farrier pulled shoe and found serious thrush

2.  Cleantrax, cleantrax, cleantrax

3.  Tommy went to vet to see if canker was cleared up.

4.  Vet found infection in multiple areas of the hoof and opened them up.

5.  Cleantrax, cleantrax, straight bleach soak and more antibiotics for the canker area

6.  Switched to collodial silver to treat areas.  Went through a bottle, then went back to the thrushbuster.
Infection seems to be cleared up, move to every other day thrush treatments.

7.  My super sniffer thinks it smells infection.  Farrier comes back out, cuts a little back, and looks like it's clear.  We move to twice a week thrush treatments.

8.  I take off the wrap one day to find gray ooze.  Booo thrush.

9.  Back to the thrush medication.

10.  Weapon's farrier comes out for his trim and is nice enough to cut back the frog a bit more so I can get to it.  That was a week and a half ago, and we still have the gray ooze.  Its time to start some clean trax again.

In addition, the boys left the door open to the scales and Annie (the red one)



 got inside and got ahold of one of the EasyBoot RX's.


Until that point I had a pair, and I rotated because the material gets damp from the heat of his hoof and was holding moisture in.  So now we're down to one boot, and that one is ripping.  I'm hoping to get a few more weeks out of it, but we'll have to see.

I want to see what EasyBoot's new Back country - how great would it be if it came in draft horse sizes??

In the meantime, I have one adorable, loving, goofy, and fun loving red heeler to rehome....any takers??

Monday, January 16, 2012

Like Us on Facebook!

Tommy's on Facebook!

Tommy Blue Foot

Somehow I'm not able to figure out how to add the Follow Us on Facebook button to this blog.  I know it can be done.  I've seen it on other people's websites, I just can't seem to do it.  I'm going to blame it on Monday, and try again on a Friday.  In the meantime you can just click the link above.


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Time for the Reveal!

Last Saturday was shoe removal day.  I was nail biting nervous to see what it looked like underneath.  I'm always biting my nails though so maybe that doesn't signify anything special.

Mark arrived and we got to work.  By "we" I mean Mark.  I just held the horse and offered helpful commentary like "I think he's going to move," and "Oops, did the dog just lick you?"  What can I say, Mark's lucky to have an owner like me looking out for him.  I'm sure some farm dogs are mean, right?  I mean, what's a little slobber between friends??  Annie's sure they are friends.  She's a little goofy though.



The shoe came off easily enough, and it appeared that the canker had not grown back.  The bad news is  the thrush came back strong.  Guess the copper silicone and my Thrush Buster didn't do it's job.  Or here's a scary thought...maybe it DID work and it's still this yucky.


Lucky for us it was one of the last nice days we had before our winter weather hit so we went right into a Clean Trax soak.



The hardest part is finding a bag big enough to go around and his hoof and strong enough to hold up to him standing on it that long.



I love Clean Trax.  It makes the hooves look so nice and clean and pretty when it's done.  One day I will do a Clean Trax soak on all four hooves and take before and after pictures so you can see just how nice it looks.  I think I need to wait till the $10 Congress sale first though!


I changed thrush medications.  I'd been squeezing some Thrush Buster under the silicone, but clearly it wasn't working very well, so I switched to Well Horse.  This product you apply with a toothbrush.  I squirted a bit in the hole and then scrubbed it all around.


Then I went a little crazy and applied it just about everywhere.


Then I put on our handy EasyBoot RX, and everyone went out for a little turnout in the beautiful sunshine.  Look - Weapon and I aren't even wearing our coats!