I’ve been out of touch for a while, life sometimes does that to us, and horses tend to have their moments too.
Today was one of those days, and I wanted to share it with you.
2015 was a bit of a turbulent year, some things went the way we’d hoped, and others totally didn’t.
Like what I found today when I went out to ride.
We have Standardbred horses here and participate in the full cycle. The mares that have shown enough capability to race well become broodmares who are matched as well as possible to a good stallion. The foals are raised and trained at home.
Those who show enough speed and aptitude go on to become race horses, and those who don’t are re-trained to become riding or pleasure harness horses and found homes that we hope will be forever homes.
So during last year there were several who needed to be started under saddle and so I’ve been working on them to start them carefully, making sure all the basics are in place to have riding horses who are good with everything that they are asked to do.
The down side of working on several at once, while also working and maintaining a property is that you get stretched in all directions and don’t get very far with anything.
So for 2016 I decided that my training work would be more focused and there would only be one riding horse being educated at a time so that we could get some really good solid work under his belt and give him a great start with a good home.
It’s been going pretty well so far, with my commitment to at least 2 riding sessions per week holding good until today when I come out to ride and find that he has run a large splinter of wood down into his hoof from the coronet band. At first view I thought it was just a piece of hoof that was peeled and standing up, but on touching it realised that it was embedded into the foot.
There was an extra horse introduced to the paddock today and can only think that he was hooning around and jumped over something, not quite clearing it, that had a splinter that hooked into the foot.
It was seriously painful and he wasn’t walking on the foot. After assessing whether it needed a vet to do further investigation (late on Sunday afternoon is not the best time), I decided that it looked a clean enough entry to take the splinter out to relieve the pain.
The first thing to do was to extract the splinter which was done with a pair of pliers as it was seriously stuck. In my haste to relive the pain I totally forgot to get pictures before it was pulled out. Fortunately I think that it’s come out in one piece, approximately 1cm into the foot. The wood was hardwood so not inclined to fracture, though if it had, then it wouldn’t have penetrated anywhere near as far.
Once it came out the hole bled quite well, which is always a good sign that there’s nothing blocking it, and it also acts as a cleaner for the inside of the hole.
Over the next few days I’ll bring you more pictures of the hoof wound and show how it’s been treated, and what I use to help it mend quickly.
So glad that I’ve got immediate access to the bandage store at http://myhorsesupplies.com.au for gauze covered cotton wool, and the great new product that’s in called Light Rip. It means that the bandage to keep it clean will stay in place around the hoof, without having to use Elastoplast around the whole hoof capsule that becomes sticky and painful to get off while changing the bandage regularly.
