Mud, malady's and management

Buddy has reached his third week at home and the time has flown. I'm still not as effecient as I was prior to Buddy going away and its taking me ages to get all my jobs done which my husband feels is a little trick so I can spend more time at the yard but it's not true, I'm just inefficient!

 

As per the post title there have been three themes running through the last couple of weeks, I will start with the first - Mud. Urgh I have never known anything like it and we are finally starting to dry out so I've got no idea how we managed to keep the fields open for most of the winter. However, with mud comes mud fever... Buddy had managed to avoid it despite being known as 'Muddy Buddy' but last week he came in with a fat hock. I obviously had heart failure wondering what he'd done but he had a small cut on his hock and I think this is where it snuck in. So, to be different, Buddy had mud fever on the top of his leg but nothing on the bottom. Seriously! So after lashings of sudeocrem, keeping it dry and out of the mud we finally got rid of it and so he went out again at the weekend.
 

Muddy Buddy (on a very good day)

 Unfortunately Mud Fever wasn't our only malady - but luckily it wasn't Buddy making the most out of his insurance this time! My MiL's horse Rolo had a bout of colic which ended up in a few late nights and a dash to horsepital in the middle of the night. As I am the only one with transport it was down to me to drop him off and pick him up. He perked up after a night at the vets but came down again with it on Friday. We're waiting for some blood work to come back but its currently showing an infection in the liver/small intestine and the vet also suspects ulcers... I will update you when I hear more but some good vibes for him would be good.

 

Buddy says "Get well soon Rolo"

I'm also feeling that I'm into my barefoot routine now.. As he is going out now I'm managing to stick with Nic's recommended 2 on 1 off that Buddy had at Rockley. As I work it is virtually impossible to fit in any hacking during the week so all my road work has to be done at the weekend. I try and do a longer hack of about 4/5 miles followed by a 2/3 mile hack which he seems to be coping fine with. However I can't wait for the summer to come so that I can spread my hacking out thoughout the week. Even though its a bit boring, I'm sticking to having similar bits on the route so I can compare how he feels on the surfaces. This week I felt a massive difference and he only struggled on the stoniest bits so hopefully he'll soon be rock crunching.
 

Week 1 to 12 at Rockley
Photos courtesy of Nic Barker

I've also finally managed to do my compare and contrast pictures AND I've taken some updated ones. The contrast still astounds me when you think his feet have done all this in such a short time frame. I've noticed that there are fewer horses arriving at Rockley in such a state, some of them are already barefoot and just need a bit of a tweak to keep them right, but it just shows to me that I must remain super vigilent and ensure his feet stay on the right path. So I will be taking pictures at 3/4 week intervals just in case.




Wk 12 vs wk 15 (LF)

If you look at his week 12 pics you can see that he has grown a few more cm's of hoof and so I'm hoping he will have a full hoof in about 10-12 weeks.



Wk 12 vs Wk 15 Sole (LF)

The sole shots are a bit deceiving as they are from a different angle to Nic's (I'll aim to get better!) but the biggest change in this shot is that the collateral grooves are getting wider and deeper. I'm not sure if you can tell from the phot but his sole is definately becoming more concave which would explain why he is feeling better on the stonier bits.

 

 We still have a fair old way to go but we are heading in the right direction still (I hope!).