Hectic and Horsey Hooves!

Still nothing super exciting, I've been working everyday this week and am just beat! Luckily next week is less hectic and will hopefully *super crossing fingers* that I can get at the very least one little ride in. Not getting my hopes up though.

Lately I've been Instagraming a lot of photos of Ava because that is basically all I have time for and yesterday I got a beautiful one of her mane waving in the wind.

Her hooves also look amazing, well, at least compared to when we were at The Ranch. She got an abscess and Thrush while we were there but over here at Sunset Ranch her feet look a million times better. We're both super happy!

Hardy hoof!

Breezy mane <3

Field walkin'

Field grazin'

All Ready for Winter

Got Ava's feet all nicely trimmed the other. I can tell she feels better. The farrier said that her feet look really good and was also surprised how well they held up from all the riding that we do. I was really happy, I didn't think her feet looked the best but it made me glad for him to think so.

Also I started noticing some puffiness around Ava's ankle's. I've noticed her having it before but always thought it was her fur making it puff up. They are actually wind puffs/wind galls. I asked my BO and he confirmed it. He said I shouldn't need to worry about it. I may need to eventually put boots on her if they get worse. They don't seem to bother her and don't look too bad but actually now that I think of it she has been getting worse about being caught. Maybe work is causing her some pain? Maybe icing it should help or even some Sore-No-More. I don't know.

Windpuffs from EquiSearch
Windpuffs from SmartPak

Lastly, miss girl is completely ready for Winter. She's been dewormed, vaccinated, and trimmed. Ava is ready to go, finally! The only other thing is that I'm not sure if I should blanket her or not... Hmm, something to think about.

Hoof Update and Weak Stifles?

I trimmed Ava's feet yesterday with my new hoof nippers. It made my job so much easier even with Ava being a pain in the butt. I think they have definitely improved especially on the heels. Her feet were really dry so I couldn't get all the bars off but hopefully all this rain will soften them up. I don't know if you remember but I posted the very first pictures of her feet before I started doing anything to them and her heels very slung under, it did not make me happy. But it looks like her heels are coming back and her balance it getting better.

Also I am having the vet come out on Thursday to check out Ava's stifles. I won't go too much into details until after I get a diagnosis but so far it is looking like she has weak stifles or a possible locking stifle. I put some pictures below of her cantering. On her left she seems much more calm but on her right it seems tight and rigid (especially when I ride..) She has also been falling on her hind end more often than before. I uploaded some of these pictures to a horse forum and the responses said that the stifles do look weak, so, I'll see what the vet says.

Before and After: Dec 2011 - Mar 2012

First of all, I know that I have only been posting about Ava's feet for a while but there has been a lot of Spring weather here and I can't work with her very much until it gets a little better. I also just recently got sick with a cold or whatever so I have to deal with that too. Being sick is so annoying when you want to be out at the barn without having to sneeze every two minutes...

I wanted to show some before and after pictures of Ava's feet. I just trimmed them a couple days ago and noticed they looked quite a bit better than when we started. So, here we go!

Ava's front feet as of December 2011- I had not done anything with her feet when this was taken, the farrier did this... Almost NO heels!

Here are Ava's front feet as of a few days ago- March 2012. Heels are coming back and her axis is becoming straighter!

Now for her hind feet. This is what they looked like as of December 2011, they actually didn't look as bad as the front.

Here are her hind feet as of a few days ago, March 2012.

Of course there is still room for more improvement but I think they are looking pretty good and heading in the right direction. I heard someone say once, "if they can still walk by the time you're done trimming you most likely did a pretty good job." Haha, always makes me laugh!

Learning to Trim

As you may know I started trimming Ava's feet all on my own. My farrier was becoming unreliable and just too tricky to deal with. So, I decided to start doing it on my own. Already knowing quite a bit about hooves and whatnot from 4H it wasn't a complete novice thing for me, I had some idea of what to do. After watching tons of videos, reading articles, asking for peoples advice I finally got all the tools, rasp, hoof knife etc. That was my favorite part. Once I had everything ready to go I haltered up Ava and set to it. I really enjoyed it and still do. Anyways, back to the actual post. Doing all of the research was not hard, there is quite a bit on the internet if you know where to look. If anyone is interested in learning to trim or even just to learn more about horse feet there are some links below you can check out, if I have forgotten any I'll make sure to add them later.

PDF on Beginning Hoof Anatomy- this is great!
[click this]

Sarah Bell Barefoot Trimming

Video Playlist of Hoof Stuff 

Care of Your Horse's Feet