Seeing Double

It's that time of year again... spring blossoms, longer days, warmer weather... but for those of us who have pets with fur it's shedding season!  I honestly think Starbuck must lose about a pound of fur every time I brush her.  Also, her coat yellows in the sun but comes in pretty dark so in spring she always seems to have spots, especially where she rubs herself to scratch those itchy fly bites. Either spots or the mange, I haven't quite decided which. So yesterday I took advantage of an especially warm day to give her a bath and take some photos, then noticed something funny when I looked at the photos later, especially with this one.

To start with, cover just her head and neck. Then cover the rest of her and just look at the head and neck - she looks like a completely different horse! Of course, the "not quite dry yet" streak doesn't help things, but she really is several different colors right now. I'm looking forward to that sleek summer coat and hope that with the flysheet we'll be able to keep her all purty this summer.

In other news, she's been behaving quite well, we've had a couple of really nice classes this week. I think switching between the two bits and the hackamore is having the desired effect and keeping her guessing - she hasn't been pulling as much. I'm also trying to use the reins differently - less steady contact and more leg to get her to lighten up. I don't think she's quite ready to go back to always using the hackamore, but at least I'm no longer worried that we might have to use something even stronger.

I also noticed something kind of strange with her hooves - she was shod last Thursday and in admiring her lovely new shoes I see that she has a kind of crack coming up from her heel and running parallel to the coronet. According to a quick Google search, this type of hoof crack is typically caused by an old abscess growing out, which makes sense for the hind foot (the white one) but is surprising to me for the front foot. Maybe an abscess and not generic "back pain" could be the cause for her intermittent lameness several months ago - at any rate I've asked my farrier to weigh in and give me his opinion to see what the problem is.

Pedicure

We had another farrier visit today, this one's her fourth.  I think Starbuck has taken a disliking to my farrier and only barely tolerates his goings-on, which is frustrating to me since it's so completely undeserved.  Xisco is soothing, laid-back yet confident and competent and never gets angry or agressive.  He's just the kind of guy I'd want to do my hooves if I were a horse.  So the whole time I kind of just stand there attempting to spread "Relax, this is all OK, nothing bad is happening, stand still PLEASE" vibes to her when she gets too antsy or a fly starts bothering her but inwardly I'm really dying a little of shame with every jerk of her leg.

Don't get me wrong, she's mostly good and stood still long enough for him to trim the first three hooves in about 15 minutes.  But that last hind hoof... she was not at all happy and kept grabbing it away, in the end Xisco had to do a little desensitizing by rubbing her leg with a broomstick before she finally stood still long enough for him to finish.  At least he was able to finish, unlike the second time where he had to leave that last hind hoof untrimmed.  Not a disaster, but definitely not a blinding success for me as a trainer-owner.  At least he doesn't seem to hate me and told me again how healthy and pretty her hooves are (although I'm starting to wonder if this is like the "He's got a great personality" compliment).

Anyhow recently I've been trying to get some of the more seasoned kids around the stable to pick out her hooves so she gets used to folks other than me handling her feet.  And the days that she's less than enthusiastic about having her hooves picked up (and I have time), I give her a full pedicure complete with wirebrush cleaning, sponge bath and finally hoof ointment.  And hoping that someday, somehow, the penny will drop and she'll just be cool with it.

One of the things that I've been realizing more fully lately is just how strong Starbuck's personality really is.  She's really kind of a bitch and seriously bossy, which is funny considering how poorly I read her at first.  I was convinced that she was just a sweet yet spooky little greenie who had no aspirations to lead mare status.  Boy was I wrong!  I guess as long as they get to do whatever they want, anyone can seem like the nicest guy in the world.  Good thing I'm even more bossy and bitchy than she is.  Anyhow here are the rest of the photos:

Left front:

Left hind:

Right hind:

Right front:

Footsie

Yesterday the farrier came (an hour late), I longed Starbuck a little first and she was a little lame in the right front leg at the trot-- I'm guessing she's been acting up in her paddock and slipped in the mud but if it's not better by the weekend I'll call the vet.  The farrier said he couldn't see any problem and Marina said she was running around like a crazy person this morning, so I'm not too worried.  I've also checked her legs and shoulders for any hotspots or sensitivity and can't find anything... hoping it'll just go away.

Anyhow she behaved way worse than the last time (which was also the first time!) she had her hooves trimmed which I was really surprised and disappointed by, since I'd been really pleased lately with how well she gives me her hooves.  She snatched her hoof out of his hands and even reared once when he was doing her front hooves and kept kicking out when he tried to do her right rear hoof-- luckily my farrier is the most patient and chilled out guy on the planet (even for a Spaniard he's seriously laid back) so he just took his time, picking it up with a rope so she could struggle without hurting anyone and without being able to get her foot away and then trying again with his hand but she wasn't going for it.  

At first she was really nervous and freaked out, but then I could tell it was more of an attitude thing, like what I was talking about the other day.  Anyhow after a while he moved on to the left rear foot which she let him trim with no trouble at all, then moved back to the right one but there was just no way.  In the end after lots of repetition he was able to lift the hoof with his hand several times but nothing else and we agreed to leave it until Friday, when he's coming back to shoe another horse at my stable.  So she's still got one raggedy hoof, but at least she hasn't had a traumatic experience with the farrier.  I'm really stepping up my leadership and trying not to let her get away with stuff but I think in this case we did the right thing.

He says by the way that her hooves are super healthy and textbook shaped which I'm really thrilled about, especially because when I got her they were so overgrown I was worried there might be permanent problems.  Speaking of which, I found an old photo where you can see how ducky they were in August before I started working with her and they started self-exfoliating.  And then the photos from the last hoof-trimming session, tomorrow I'm going to try to remember to take some of those pretty round soles :-) 

Before:

After:

Barefoot Beauty

Lately Starbuck has been getting much cooler about me lifting her hooves, so I finally decided she was ready for the farrier to give her her first hoof trim.  So I called a farrier, Xisco, who I've seen working before with other horses at the barn; I chose him because he's really calm and takes his time in order to make it a completely stress-free experience for the horse, because the hooves he works on are nicely formed and healthy and also because he doesn't mind explaining what and why he's doing.  But even so I was worried about Starbuck behaving herself, so I got to the barn early and did some roundpen work with her before Xisco arrived.

As it turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about-- Xisco was really patient and let Starbuck get used to the idea of him doing wierd stuff to her hooves, and Starbuck just went along with it apart from lots of curiosity and a little bit of resistance at first.  The farrier said her hooves were healthy and correctly formed except for that she's a little toed out.  He took some extra height off the outside quarters to compensate but recommended that I shoe her.  At first I had planned on not shoeing her until I started taking her on long trail rides and using boots for at least the first year, but I guess I'll do some more research...

The best part was that since Starbuck stayed calm and unstressed the whole time (at the end of the session she had her head down and lower lip totally relaxed while Xisco rasped her hind hooves!), I know that every time she gets a trim she'll be even calmer!  What a good, brave girl!!!  At any rate I wanted to immortalize the moment; so here are the photos:

Footloose!

One of the things Starbuck and I really have to work on is her giving me her feet.  I say "giving me her feet" because I can actually pick up her feet by force and hold them for a while, but since horses who are “hoof shy” really tend to get to me I want her to give her feet calmly to me when I ask her to instead of having to shift her weight over with my shoulder and pick them up without knowing if she’ll stay still every time I want to clean her hooves.

Before I started working with her they told me that she had never even had her hooves trimmed because she was so reluctant to pick up her feet the day the farrier came, which if you think about it is completely normal if she’s never been taught to do it.  But the result of not getting normal hoof trims and staying in her paddock for months at a time (which is pretty spacious but not big enough to run around much) is that her hooves have grown to be too long in the front and kind of flattened out at the bottom (her hind hooves are OK, not great but not terrible either).

Now that I’m working with her, a lot of the excess hoof growth she had in the front has broken off which means that they’re less painful for her (I can see the difference in the way she stands—compare the first picture where her legs are beneath her body with the second picture where she’s got a more typical “horsey” stance).  But they’re still far from ideal; I want them trimmed by a farrier (I won’t be shoeing her until I start riding her a fair amount) and I also want to be able to clean them and put ointment on them so they’ll be stronger.

Here she's standing with her legs underneath her, which is a sign of leg or hoof pain.

After the hooves broke off some you can see that she has a more normal stance.

After as always scouring the internet for the methods I like most, I put together a training plan with some bit-by-bit measurable goals, since I think that so far I’ve been moving too fast (the other day she got frustrated and made a move like she was going to bite me) and what I really need to do first is not annoy her into lifting her foot (up until now I was trying the “tap on her leg until she lifts her foot herself” technique) but gain the trust which will allow her to do so willingly and calmly.  So here’s my plan; the idea is that if at any point she rebels I’ll just start again at the previous step:

Step 1: Pet her hooves and shift weight for both front shoulders.  Repeat until she shifts her weight every time I lean slightly on her shoulder.

Step 2: Pet her hooves, shift weight, lift right front hoof for 1 second.  Repeat until I can lift the hoof easily.

Step 3: Pet her hooves, shift weight, lift left front hoof for 1 second.  Repeat until I can lift the hoof easily.

Step 4: Lift both front hooves and maintain for 3 seconds.  Repeat, increasing time period slightly when she’s comfortable with the previous one but trying never to let her take her foot away from me, until I can maintain both front hooves for 30 seconds.

Step 5-8: Repeat with back hooves.

After this I hope that it'll be easy to clean out her hooves with the pick and the hose and put ointment on them, I'll be sure to keep this updated with our progress.  Wish me luck!