Countdown To The Farrier

    We have been working daily on feet picking and Pebbles is doing very well. She willingly picks up her front feet now with no more mare face and she tolerates me using a stiff brush on the underside, picking, and tapping with my hoof pick. What she doesn't so is hold the foot up for very long yet...about 30 seconds. However if you don't fight with her and let her set it back down she will pick it right back up. I say "don't fight with her" but honestly I haven't really tried to force her into holding it much longer at this point so there have been no fights. I don't know what this will translate to in her interaction with Alex but we still have a week to go and I am determined to make hoof picking as mundane as possible in that time. This means I am randomly picking up her feet whenever I am at the barn. It might sound a little silly but I want to pick her feet up in as many different scenarios as possible. So we practice during the day, we practice after dark, we practice in her stall, and tomorrow we will move to the barn isle, where normal farrier work is done, and practice there. 

     One thing to note, Although Pebbles feet at over grown now they were very tidy when she arrived at quarantine so she must have had them trimmed at some point in the last 6 months. She may have been drugged, put in stocks to do it, or she may have just stood like a pro for whoever did it. I can speculate all day but if she was done without sedation then something happened to her between then and when I met her to get her on the defensive. Initially when I would try to touch her legs she would try to bite. Nothing extreme and it was easily corrected but she didn't act like a horse that was used to having her feet handled. She is pretty much a different horse now that she is with us and so what I am finding is that many things I expect to be an issue turn out to go much easier than anticipated. I am in hopes that getting her feet trimmed is one of those times! I guess we will see in a week. 

     For now I am going to share some photos I snapped of her front feet. Keep in mind that she was pulled from the auction almost 3 months ago. Her feet are overgrown but not torn up. She has what looks to be a pretty long term case of thrush indicated by the deep central sulcus. There is no odor to her feet and no black goo but her frog is contracted. I have made up some "Pete's Goo" to pack in the cracks. This treatment combined with more regular farrier care should get her on the right track.