Getting to Know You...

Deuce has really bonded with the herd, but it is taking some time for us to make a team. When I go out to retrieve him from the field, he sees me coming and might even raise his head and take a few steps towards me with interest (the treats I have in my pocket are usually a pretty good incentive) but that is about it. He willingly puts his head into his halter and will reluctantly leave the herd to go back up to the barn for grooming and saddling. In the barn, he stand quietly but I can tell he is just waiting for the chance to get back out with the herd. When on the trail, he has moments of giving me his full attention, but he predominantly merely goes through the motions of responding to my aids. We have quite a bit of work to do to have his full attention.

A Hole in the foot

Deuce came up from the pasture severely favoring his right front foot. Of course I immediately gave him the look over scoping out signs of swelling, scrapes, rocks, anything that would give an obvious sign of pain and discomfort but to no avail. So a nice salt water soak for good measure (remembering that 80%+ unsoundness issues are in the hoof itself) and then out he went again. I figured it was better for him to move around at this point than to stand around in the barn and get stiff.

The next day he came up out of the field even a bit worse than the day before. I took a closer look at his hoof and brought along the hoof testers too. No soft spots but I did discover a hole in his toe and after some more digging, it connected to a hole in the hoof wall. Well, that makes sense, an abscess that worked its way trough and got close to his laminae in the hoof. Of course he would be sore! It would be like cutting your fingernail too short and then walking around on it. Ouch!!! I dug out the hole and cleaned it up with hydrogen peroxide and packed it with ictahmol and wrapped it up. 4-5 days of cleaning wrapping and packing and hanging out in the barn and he was doing much better. He was a good patient but most definitely ready to be out with the herd again.

Horses of a different color

Summer has arrived and in theory so are the warmer temperatures and hairy critters are starting to shed out! Well... actually the temperatures don't really have much to do with coat shedding, it is more a light cycle that triggers the body's hair dropping process. And it is just as well that it is light and not temperatures that trigger the shedding for the hairy critters in the northwest. Summer's warm temperatures are slow to get here in southwestern Washington and the poor critters would remain woolly well into July if they were waiting for warmer weather to drop their coats.

The days are in fact getting longer and Deuce and Flash are both moving into their summer coats and not only are they shorter, their colors are changing too!

Deuce is getting more white in his chest, shoulders and around his face. He has dark spots on his rump along with his splashed white markings. His mane and tail seem to be remaining black along with his stockings. He does have one white sock on his left hind and a white hoof.