Sneak Peek, hooves, and other updates
| November 15, 2015 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Remember those questions that I had about older endurance horses and number of seasons competing in this link luv post? The same gentleman that crunched the data and gave us those graphs kindly mined the data I *think* I need to answer those questions. I’ve been in poccession of this data for approximately 4 weeks.
Fig is 4 weeks old.
You do the math and figure out why the data crunching and reporting haven’t happened….
Well. This week it’s goin’ happen. Yes siree, it’s on the todo list with other *very important things* like devouring library books at an astonishing rate (I think I’m going to get indigestion. Especially if I keep reading Libby Bray’s “The Diviners” right before bed at night), getting the ponies out, and working up to a whole (*gasp*) 30 min of running without stopping.
But since you, My Dear Reader, have stuck around despite a worrying lack of content here, I’ve decided to post a couple of random things.
Random thing 1
Remember the hoof project I did where I shared pics a rear foot of Farley’s over time?
I did something similar for her front hooves recently, only the pics aren’t quite as good. Still, I firmly believe that the more pictures you see of trims and the results of those trims, the easier it is to apply trimming concepts to your own horses, so here they are in case they help anyone! Three things of note in these pictures:
- Weather and climate makes a huge difference. We finally got some rain here and you can see the effect it has on the dry soles – huge chunks exfoliate and can be scraped away with a hoof pick. It’s common in this area to have a couple days of very wet, followed by weeks of dry.
- Sometimes I need to rebalance the hoof in the first couple of days post trim. You can see that I decided more needed to come off on the toe quarter and bar on one of the hooves.
- Three weeks really is the best time in the growth cycle to trim for my horses in this environment and climate.
Random thing 2
Remember that new/used Smuckers harness I bought? And then Farley was so naughty during the driving sessions I was using it I never got a picture? And then I had Fig? Ummm….so, decided to take a picture of it, *just* for you guys after yesterday’s session.
A rather fugly picture in the shade, in crappy getting-dark-soon-light, with a furry pony, at a fugly angle. But it’s the only one I have right now, so I’ll post it anyways.
There are slight differences in the harness from my old (now sold) one and I am THRILLED with it. Just done ground stuff in it and not hooked it up to the cart but hopefully that is on the agenda soon. Farley is having some break-throughs on ground driving on some of the more refined stuff beyond go, stop, turn, so that’s what I’ve been working on right now.
Random thing 3
Freaky looking pupils after one of my exams.
Wanna eye update?
MRI clean, MRV clean. A whole battery of tests for various infectious, inflammatory, and cancerous causes…all clean.
The working diagnosis is pregnancy induced drusden. When I initially went in it didn’t look like classical drusden, however last week for the first time the swelling on the optic nerve was down a bit and it did look more like drusden.
Drusden is a diagnosis of exclusion, so I’m being referred to one more specialist the end of this week to make sure we didn’t leave any other stones unturned.
Even though the swelling of the optic nerve is down, my vision hasn’t come back in that eye. I hope it does, but if it doesn’t I guess I can take comfort in the ophthomologists comment a couple weeks ago that he was surprised I hadn’t lost more acuity based on how much swelling there was. Be grateful for the small miracles? 
Good to see updates.
Beautiful harness, so glad you were able to get it. It looks much more suitable for your purposes.
I wanted to let you know that I was speaking to my endurance driving friend about common features of long-distance harness (on top of what we already discussed) and she feels that a sliding back harness is helpful. This means the shaft loops float over the saddle and can move from side to side, rather than being fixed to the saddle. My friend feels that this is less jarring for the horse’s back over uneven terrain, and is less rigid as the horse’s body flexes/moves. Wanted to let you know while I remembered 🙂
Great tip!!!! Thanks so much.