Making Progress
The Bay Wonder Mare(tm) strikes again! It has been well over a month since I’ve written and a lot has happened. I baby-sat my neighbor’s horses for a month and that took up a lot of time so my posting time was greatly reduced.
Let’s see… during September I started riding Isis again after we got her front shoes to stay on with some glue and nails this time. The shoes definitely helped her front feet. She moved with more confidence. She did very well lunging and under saddle. Four days into her new workout routine, she came up with a huge swelling on her abdomen. (No, “huge” is not an exaggeration: five inches wide by eight inches long by two inches thick).
The Bay Wonder Mare(tm) has developed fly-bite sensitivity. Those little gnats that bite the underside of a horse’s belly and cause sores have apparently become more than just an irritation to Isis. She is hypersensitive to them and swells up and has flaky skin and all kinds of wonderful things.
Ah the joys of a “special needs” mare.
Hydrocortisone cream and Gnat Away (by Gold Nugget) resolved the swelling and kept the flies away. After about a week, I began working her again. She did very well with free lunging and riding. And then she got a stone bruise on her back right foot. I was off of her for another week while she recovered.
Last week on Monday, the farrier came back out and we swapped out her front shoes and put back shoes on her too. She is stylin’ in her green and yellow front shoes and black and grey back shoes. The chiropractor came out on Wednesday evening and Isis had another adjustment. After a few days to let her muscles and skeleton settle, and we were back in the lunging ring for the first time in three weeks.
For the first time, she moved with confidence, freedom, and without dragging her back feet. She felt so good. It was so nice to see her bolting around the ring, tail over her back, snorting — and having a blast. No ouchy movement. Only a little dragging when she was very tired on her back left foot where she had the stone bruise. Nothing that can’t be worked out.
Maybe, just maybe, we have her feet taken care of. Maybe I can actually ride this weekend!