just kidding!

Okie dokie guys! Last we heard of our intrepid hero Charlie, he was down and out with another seemingly mega abscess that was certainly going to be the death of him! 

He told his new barn manager in No Uncertain Terms that He was Dying, and that she needed to Start Digging The Hole now, bc it was going to take a Long Time, bc it had to be a Big Hole. 

charles, my precious unicorn <3 <3 <3

So naturally she called me advising to get a farrier out asap, to which I replied that mine would be out in a couple days, and she said, No, Get One Today. Which I did, and you all heard the sad song about how Charlie couldn't even get out of his stall to have the shoe pulled, and was Very Miserable.

I then spent the next few hours driving around town trying to secure protective booting for the tragic critter, and we left off hoping for the best but fearing yet another long slog of recovery. 

charlie's barn had an early halloween party! we had a ratatouille mouse / chef combo, a psychadelic hippy, some airwomen and their trusty plane, a scary jester, a cowgirl, little red riding hood, Woody, and a sparkly princess (who had to go back to his stall early, so represented just by his bridle LOL).
charlie only participated briefly bc he's kinda too much of a pill for parade and game type activities lol (tho he stuck around long enough to give a pony ride <3 <3). twas very fun tho. i esp appreciate my expression of cackling my face off (in the jeans) bc those two innocent looking chestnuts managed to stop mauling me for treats me just long enough for this photo

WELL. Charlie would like to set the record straight, haha. He would like to say, "Just Kidding, Guys! I'm Totally Fine! Please put me back out with my friends again!"

Bc... Literally the day after he had the shoe pulled, he was walking like a completely normal animal in his cloud boot. Whew! And by Day 3, he was back out in his paddock for normal turnout -- still in said boot.

reason #847 i'm grateful for charlie's move: this barn setup suits his physical limitations much better
(both pics are to the same scale)

This is another big win from moving barns too -- he could have never made it back to full turnout so quickly at the last place (red lines above), it was just so big and spread out. And the barnyard paddocks (yellow lines) were so heavily trafficked that they had a lot of deep mud -- making turnout, even in a boot, problematic.

The new barn (right side in the pic above) is organized so much more centrally (and so meticulously managed that the mud is kept to a minimum even after a week straight of rain!) that it's much easier for Charlie to stick to his normal turnout routine (blue lines) even when he's a bit compromised. 

animalintex poultice pad strips, sponge cotton guaze (for packing out the heel bulbs), vet wrap, duck tape, iodine.... the works!

This is, as you might imagine, a huge relief for me. And for Charlie. He likes his routines, as all horses do. I've still been out daily to check the wrap -- since I'm not keen on the idea of putting a bare hoof in the cloud boot in case it rubs -- esp the heel bulbs. Tho Jessica had a great idea of also using a tube sock for protection -- something I'll keep in mind!

the defect is pretty much all along the inside wall of the hoof

I've mostly used vet wrap or brown cling gauze with strategically placed strips of duck tape to reduce friction in sliding the boot on and off. Plus a lot of cotton padding around the heel bulbs. We used animalintex poultice pads the first couple days to promote drainage, but there really wasn't much so we quickly transitioned to a 'dry' wrap.

wrapped + booted! spy the sponge cotton pillow?

It still obvi gets kinda damp out in the field, which also isn't totally ideal... But the horse is so comfortable in the boot! He wore it for about a week straight with minimal issues, and has been observed trotting cantering and even galloping around (on the halloween party night bc... #pill). 

i was a little tentative about tightening up the velcro at first, but have since gone a bit farther now that he's wearing this boot in turnout

Tho he's since transitioned to getting a day or two turned out with a bare hoof, just to let everything dry out. Farrier is coming this week for our originally scheduled appt anyway, so I figured we'll just hold on for that and see if the abscess hoof is ready for a shoe too. And if we have to go back to wearing the cloud boot after being barefoot for a couple days, nbd.  

lol my boots look like this so charlie's can look like that, i guess!

It's still not totally clear what caused the abscess, tho I'm starting to think more and more that it might have been the Hanton shoes. Not that anything was wrong with them, or the way they were set on him -- to be clear. But we had all that rain and his feet are growing like crazy and I wonder if maybe there was just a funny pressure point created somewhere. 

literally the first day after farrier pulled the shoe and opened the abscess. yes that's him standing almost full weight on the stricken hoof (in cloud boot). yay!

Bc the abscess seemed to have centered right where the tab was, but really wasn't nearly as expansive and deep as I thought it would be based on the size of the defect. There was also barely any drainage at all after two days of soaking and poultice pads. 

legit sent this clip to my vet bc this horse is such a rollercoaster lol....
we released him back to turnout a day later

Obvi I could be wrong, and don't want to scare anybody away from that style of shoe bc I've definitely seen them be successful for a few different horses. And obvi Charlie's other hoof seems totally fine. So maybe I'm way off base or it was just a fluke or whatever. 

as much as i love this view, he's wayyyy happier grazing his own self out in the field lol

Regardless, we already expected the glue-ons to be a temporary stop-gap solution to give Charlie time to regrow some hoof before swapping back to traditional shoes next cycle anyway. So unless his farrier has any other thoughts, that's what we'll do later this week.

unrelated: charlie has the fuzziest most giantest donkey ears <3 <3

So after all that frantic panic when Charlie went full blown DEFCON 1 last week... Well. Everything is more or less back to normal and I get to spare you months of angsty updates on recovery. You're welcome lol.

october surprise

Well. Lol. Not really a surprise at all. Charlie is down with another seemingly catastrophic minor malady. Another gigantic abscess that shouldn't be so dramatic, except obvi Charlie never does anything by halves... Sigh.

surprise surprise, the king of the dings is still.... all dinged up

There are all sorts of potential causes for this latest episode too... We went from drought conditions to basically near constant rainfall... Or maybe it was a slow-brew from bruising after he lost all those shoes last month? Maybe something about the glue-on shoes created pressure points? 

Or maybe I just suck at managing Charlie, or he's irreparably chronically damaged. Or maybe it's just one of those things that happens to horses. I dunno. I'll never know. 

sir is sore and doesn't care who knows

But it's another front hoof this time --- tho not the limb of gravel-induced apocalypse fame, the other one. Obvi it's not ideal to have a giant abscess in any hoof, but Charlie is already so structurally compromised that it's pretty concerning to have him so lame up front again.

the Hanton glue-on shoes come off by chipping away the glue and prying back the tabs

And I try to be a normal person, ya know? Like. I try not to get panicky and be like, "OMG we need to do something right now." Bc ya know. For Charlie, it's never "just an abscess," right? 

Still, tho, esp with the glue-on shoes, a best case scenario would not include pulling the shoe. 

it's another mega abscess.... note the defect at the toe too

C'est la vie, tho. The shoe needed to go so we could open it up to drain and relieve pressure. Honestly I half expected the thing to explode as soon as the shoe was off, but no the farrier still had to do a little digging. It's definitely another biggie tho. Would need x-rays to confirm if it's the whole sole, like last time, but I'm guessing it's not far off. 

soaking protocols are so much easier with an indoor wash room with running hot water!

So ya know. Many of you have been down this road with us before. We're starting again on soaking / wrapping / booting protocol. Tho, having (hopefully) learned some lessons from last time, we're a bit more prepared for the booting aspect.

sad boy still likes his view

My hope is that if I can find the right fit and style of boot for Charlie to protect the stricken hoof, he'll be more willing to carry more weight on that leg -- and thus take less of a toll on the rest of his body from extreme compensation. 

i picked up this zip boot after his last lost shoe fiasco

I already had a brand new EasyCare Zip Boot on standby, after he lost all those shoes last month. Except, for some reason this boot is wayyy less generously proportioned than the exact same size Charlie wore quite successfully previously. 

Like, even just looking at it out of the box, it looked pretty wonky. Like it'd be super tight over the front of the hoof, with almost no room for the heel bulbs. 

it's the same size we used the last time, but for some reason fits way worse. pretty disappointed in the wasted dollars, not gonna lie

I tried to make it work tho -- and even added little relief cuts to make it less snug... bc ya know. I wanted Charlie in a boot immediately, wasted money be damned... But idk, I still didn't feel great about the fit. 

fortunately i could scare up another cloud boot in a larger size

Fortunately the local Dover actually had Cloud boots in stock. Which... Idk why I didn't call sooner to ask, I'd just showed up to replenish my Animalintex poultice pads, and there were the boots right there on the shelf lol. The largest size most retailers seem to carry is size 4. I'd previously picked up some size 3 boots that were not at all a fit for Charlie, but that have worked for Doozy, so, eh, I figured maybe the 4s will do?

fingers crossed the extra protection helps charlie heal with less collateral trauma :(

They aren't perfect tho. Really it's the space around the heel bulbs that concerns me. But maybe they'll loosen up after "breaking in"? We'll see. Regardless, the extra sole cushioning seems to definitely make a difference for Charlie, and he was much more willing to stand square up front in the boots. 

So ya know. That's what's up in Charlesland -- more of the same, per usual. I'll presumably have more updates, bc that's how I am lol, but hopefully this proves to be more run-of-the-mill than previous iterations! And at least there's Doozy to provide welcome distractions <3

re: flower pots, or something

Happy Friday!! This past week was spent mostly dealing with the fallout from both ponies losing shoes. Nothing crazy or anything.... But a new twist in adjusting to managing horses at different locations. 

the legend himself <3 <3 
also... wow, my barn manager's phone takes wayyyy nicer photos than mine. hm.

Charlie continues in his infinite and unending quest to be just unsound enough to not get ridden (while still maintaining his carefree lifestyle of maximum turnout with his friends). He threw us through a loop when after throwing both front shoes (on different days), he was suddenly very very lame on his RH.

slowly splitting stuff up between farms. threw this kit together for charlie: vet wrap, cling wrap, elastikon, animalintex poultice pads, plastic hoof soaking bags, epsom salts, duct tape, flushing syringes, gloves, various types of gauze and cotton pads, left over metro from the last abscess, and a pill crusher

Luckily (??) it's just another abscess. This horse, I swear. His history is spotty enough that just managing him through a basic ailment can still drive me crazy, torturing myself about what choices to make. Turn him out / Keep him in? Wrap or no? 

farrier tried to dig it out a little, but couldn't get it to drain

And bc Charlie's timing is always so perfect, these choices were complicated by the impending rainfall expected from Tropical Storm Debby. 

guys. indoor wash stall + hot water = game changer for painless foot soaking!
(also yes i'm aware this is a suboptimal bucket lol, you work with what ya got!)

Finally, after much back and forth with his care team, we decided to continue turnout, tho added in soaking + a wrap after the farrier widened the defect trying to drain it. This meant some back and forth driving to Doozy's farm (a pleasant 25min cruise across the countryside) to organize supplies, something I've been willfully neglecting, not gonna lie. But we got it done.

post-soak. y'all have seen me wrap a hoof so many times, i didn't take pictures. refer to this post if you're curious how i do it. in this case, i added a poultice pad to facilitate drainage.
also --- guys, charlie has been barefoot behind for ~3 months and is doing way better than expected!

It helps that the barn family at Charlie's place is legit wonderful. The folks there are great, everybody loves all the horses, and I get updates constantly. The farm is also laid out in such a way that "turnout" isn't such a complicated thing as at the last place. 

next day wrap, with bonus drainage. just normal charlie things!

Like, sure, the last place had lovely paddocks around the barnyard. But horses were normally alone in them, there was no grass (and possibly not much hay thrown), and it was definitely *not normal* to the horses, who would have preferred to be with their friends out in the fields -- which were themselves quite far away. 

walking in thru the rain-induced foliage explosion for breakfast -- SOUND + wrap intact!

At this point in Charlie's physical condition, it's so nice to have such well managed grassy lots close in to the barn. It's a lot easier for him to stick to his normal routine even if his condition is a little compromised, like by the abscess. 

anyways. kittens.

He seems to be on the mend anyway, so we'll probably keep him wrapped and keep an eye on him for the next few days just to be sure. 

these critters have begging down to an art form

In the meantime, over in the Land of Dooz, things have been a bit quiet too. For all my big talk about riding every day, well... bc of the lost shoe and resulting soreness, we only logged two rides last week. Recall that Ride 1 of the week was playing with puddles in the soggy ring, resulting in said pulled shoe (d'oh...!). 

this critter tho <3 <3 <3 those donkey ears omg.
she's patiently waiting for her foliage to explode too, lol, pls thx & hurry up

That was Saturday, and she got the shoe reset early Monday morning. But was predictably a little sore on the foot when I returned that evening for an easy flat school. At first I got a little nervous bc we were slated to ride with Dom again this week... But then that got rescheduled anyway, so, eh, Doozy got another day off just to be sure.

lil Debby, bringing that drama to our skies!

Which meant that saddling up for our first ride after three days off, and only 1 ride in the last five days was possibly a questionable affair haha -- especially since we were planning to hack out. With a tropical storm literally brewing across the skyline. No big deal, right? 

crazy how green everything got after even just a little bit of rain

Right. Bc omg guys, the more ya ride the horse, the more rideable she gets. The training holds. So despite a somewhat spotty week, the last month of consistent routine schooling did what it's supposed to do, and the mare was relaxed, confident and pleasant for our little hack!

doozy's tail almost looks full from this angle!

My friend texted me a meme the other day about a professor in a pottery class dividing his students into two groups. The first group would be graded solely on the quantity of pots they created over the semester -- to be measured by literally weighing the pile. Group 2 would be graded on just the quality of a single pot they chose as their representation. 

who can tell me what type of shrub this is?? these flowers are so gorgeous!

But by the end of the semester, the best quality pots were ultimately those created by Group 1, who had been focused on churning out pot after pot. Bc it turns out, when you do something often enough, you get better at it. Group 2, meanwhile, got a bit bogged down in the philosophical quest for perfection, stymied by their reluctance to be only "good enough."

obvi when presented with gigantic floral orbs, one must stop for photos!
also lol i slowed the speed of this gif down but doozy is still just such a busy horse haha

To my friend, this was a wonderful and empowering analogy for horsemanship and riding. To become 'great,' you have to first be 'good.' And to get 'good,' you maybe have to start with... something less than that. Let's say, 'neutral' or 'ok' or 'can more or less do the thing.'

Dante and Doozy make good trail buddies <3

Obvi I loved the pot**tery class analogy too, bc it matches well with my approach to horse training. I might not be the most skilled rider, or most technically proficient. And let's be real, some of my habits can actually be considered significant shortcomings... But consistent routine boring mundane practice goes a long way in closing those gaps. 

(**I also lol'd bc somebody recently misheard the mare's name and thought I called her "Doobie," which... obvi I joked that maybe THAT'S what she needs lol. So ya know. Maybe more pot is what we all need around here? jk jk haha, sorta!)

nbd, just stopping to smell the roses pot flowers <3

So ya know. Have a great weekend. Go ride your horse haha... Unless they're like Charlie, I guess LOL(sob), in which case, ya know. Hope you get to enjoy some quality time with them all the same ;) 

ww: horse people love the grossest stuff

After going through the cycle of.... a few really lame days, a few really fine days, then more lame days... Doozy came out of her stall looking fine again this week!

mmmm stinky putrid drainage!

And I happened to spy.... some sort of drip marks on her hoof. Upon further inspection, it stank. Yesssss!!! 

peroxide rinse after a hot compress

Obvi the yo-yo-ing soundness was pretty characteristic of classic abscess symptoms... But ya know, ya just never really know, right? Esp given that it's her bum leg and it wouldn't be too hard to imagine something worse related to the cellultis.

Can't argue with actual drainage tho! And oof, no wonder it was so painful, had to work all the way up and out the coronet band! She seemed to really appreciate the hot compress, tho, and is generally much more comfortable now.

freshly bathed and feelin fine!

So, I'm feeling relieved. We got the glorious stinky putrid proof that, yep, was just an abscess. Obvi still kinda stinks to not be able to get as much saddle time as I'd like.... But, eh, it's #horses. Here's hoping it finishes draining and grows out without complication! 

supercharging charles

I didn't really write much about it, but Charlie has gotten a shit ton of extra therapies over the last 8 weeks, mostly in conjunction with the most acute phases of pain.

exhibit a: one TB in need of some TLC

Specifically, we have a Magna Wave practitioner on-farm multiple days a week, especially in the early hours. And she's been uber flexible about fitting Charlie into her schedule. 

Her method is to start with a full body treatment, then follow up on subsequent days with targeted micro treatments. To this end, she has this neat little platform that the horse can stand on, with the magna wave tubes built inside for targeted hoof treatments. 

exhibit b: barn manager michael

I didn't write about it bc.... Well, I didn't take many pictures. It really is that simple lol. But I snapped plenty from Charlie's chiro / acupuncture session yesterday --- for the explicit purpose of recounting all his various therapies throughout the abscess saga. So... You're welcome? 

he's very helpful

Anyway. I'm not necessarily like, a diehard PEMF believer, or anything. But.... Charlie enjoys being pampered, and he was in so much pain... 

Plus, I trust that practitioner's judgement and it can be reassuring to have somebody objective step in to evaluate and assess the animal every few days, right in the thick of things. 

also useful to have cute ponies around, too

It just gives me more confidence to have more folks to talk to... Talk about his level of pain, talk about how we're doing the wraps... All the things. And ya know, make sure Charlie felt cared for and attended to. Plus, theoretically, the magna wave maybe also produced at least a little bit of relief, even if just on the short term. 

All told, I think he got maybe 2 full body comprehensive PEMF treatments, then a handful more targeted to specifically his foot.  

"derp" -- charles, feeling feelings

He also saw his chiro / acupuncturist a few weeks ago too -- in what was supposed to be his big grand post-introduction-to-equioxx return to higher performance. I scheduled that appointment thinking we'd be priming the Charlie pump to get back into high gear. But instead, she was just one more appointment in triaging his latest ding-tastrophe. 

he likes to yawn directly into my face. hard to catch on camera

That's how it goes, tho, ya know? But! We managed to get the chiro / acupuncturist back out again yesterday -- the day after Charlie got his shoe back on. So, kinda back onto the original plan again anyway, just after a slight delay lol.

apparently they come in different sizes!

It was good to see her, too. We all already know Charlie's in kinda pitiful shape at the moment... Stall rest is hard on his high-mileage body. Plus, he's got a fair amount of compensation-related baggage that's still resolving (tho every day on turnout improves things). 

mmmmm stabby jabbies!

Luckily his chiro, who has known him since he first came off the track, feels generally pretty zen about his condition. He's honestly clearly a happy (albeit slightly feisty) horse right now. There are no obvious signs of gastric complaints, even tho he's definitely lost weight. And while his hind end shows signs of unusual wear from compensation, she feels confident that regular under saddle work will be enough to resolve that.

somebody know where i can order a fresh new topline, asap?

I don't know how much the regular PEMF appointments during stall rest impacted his condition... But, eh, I'm inclined to think it was just one more protective measure in helping keep the ship afloat, so to speak. And maybe is part of why the horse is looking so fresh basically immediately upon coming sound. 

the wild animal himself lol.... doing walk-canter transitions on hills as if 
he's reading the internet comments LOL

Whatever the case, it's just such a relief to see Charlie looking good and happy again. Honestly have never seen him in as much pain as he was with this abscess.... which.... is kinda wild when you think about it. It was intense there for a minute. 

But we're moving on to the next phase: rehab and rebuilding. AND. Omg, I've already got my first lesson scheduled. Sure sure, haven't even trotted or cantered the horse yet, or even ridden him in a ring lol.... But it's coming. And I'm super excited!