Shoe Ripped Off

Last night Will ripped his front shoe off when Speed chased him from the hay. (ALL the  hay belongs to Speed, apparently). Anyway, he twisted away and the shoe/nail cut the sole of his foot, right through the laminae. When I arrived home last night, Ian had rescued Will from the evil clutches of Speed and tied him up with a hay net in the stables. But he could hardly walk and wouldn't let Ian remove the shoe. So in the car headlights (no power at the shed), with much teamwork and cursing, we finally removed the shoe and I cleaned his foot, poured about half a bottle of Betadine over it and poulticed and wrapped it up. Luckily, I am very practiced when it comes to bandaging and poulticing with Animalintex (don't know what I'd do without it and I always have some in the horses first aid kit) as I had a gelding years ago who regularly needed his feet wrapped due to abscesses.

The vet Tracey came today and is concerned the nail may have scratched the pedal bone so he is on antiboitics and has his foot poulticed all the time. But she also did something I'd not seen before....she soaked the Animalintex in a solution of Iodine first, then placed that on the foot, then wrapped it. What a great idea!  Keeps the antibacterial Iodine right there with the drawing properties of the poultice. Thanks Tracey! So Will is out of action probably for a month. Hopefully he will have a speedie recovery. He's lapping up all the attention!

Tight Saddle

At the show on the weekend, Ian was approached by a rider who asked if he thought her saddle (western show saddle) was too tight down on her horses shoulders. Her horse had been showing signs of discomfort and pain whenever that saddle was used on that horse. She was concerned that the saddle was hurting him. When I tried, I noticed that I wasn't able to slide my hand in under the front of the bar. On assessment from Ian it did seem to be extremely tight, and this can restrict the shoulder movement and cause pain. He could not slide his finders under the saddle at this point, and he noted that the saddle was slightly 'downhill' on the horses back.

This can be caused by a tree that is too wide at the base of the front of the bars. So it slides too far down over the wither.  This means the weight of the saddle and rider, is not shared or spread, over the broad surface of the bar as it is supposed too. All the weight is concentrated on a narrow strip, at the top of the bar with very little weight at the bottom of the bar.  (Like standing on your toes instead of your whole foot.) We were able to loan this rider a contour pad to run under the saddle, as Ian thought it would assist in filling up some of the space left by the too wide bars, and offer some cushioning at the top. With the contour pad on, the saddle sat quite level. Using the contour pad did seem to make the horse more comfortable.

Please note that if a saddle tree doesn't fit a particular horse, it does not make it a bad saddle or tree. It just means that the tree doesn't fit that horse's back at it's particular time of development. No one saddle tree will fit all horses.

Weekend Show

We attended the Gunalda 'A' show at Nambour this weekend and had a great day. Great turn out to a well run show. I had a friend, Zac, show Will and what a fantastic job he did winning and placing in Improver and Beginner trail, his first attempt at showing. Speed and I had a mixed day as we are still learning how to go one handed!  Managed a 3rd in Amateur Trail  and a couple of other placings so was happy with that. But I was most happy with getting a score in the Beginner Reining! Thanks to all who gave me advice on the day.