I can't believe it...

The farrier cannot come to until Wednesday next week.

I'm quite annoyed.

Please Wednesday... get your butt here fast.

And so it continues

'Sigh'

Well the abscess saga is still not over.

Nope.

It keeps going on and on.

D, the farrier, arrived nice and early to shoe my horse. I was hoping to get Jack' s hooves clean and dried before he arrived but when I got to pony club I discovered that my halter and leadrope had disapeard from my boot. I searched my whole car and then the pony club but I couldn't find them anywhere. I found someone elses halter and leadrope but the halter was far too small so I ended up catching Jack with just the leadrope. A friend who lives close by saved me by bringing me a halter. But unfortnately Jack's hooves were muddy and wet when D arrived.

I already had the two front shoes from Jack's previous owner so all he needed was two new back shoes. D did the first front hoof fine and then moved onto the back hoof which had been causing all the problems. He soon found that the abscess was not completely healed and had in fact spread towards Jack's toe. So he dug out the rest of the abscess.

This is a picture of Jack's hoof.

The white arrow indicates the hole that the vet dug out when she first discovered the abscess. The yellow arrow on his heel shows where the abscess popped out a few days after the vet made the first hole.
And the red arrow and outline show where the abscess travelled downward towards Jack's toe. This is also the part the farrier dug out.

When D pushed the sole down near the abscess little bubbles of pus seeped out from under the sole. D's opinion was that we should leave the abscess to 'dry' out over the next couple of days and then on Thursday if it looks to be dried out sufficently he will put a pad on his hoof and then shoe over that. Once the shoe is on he'll be fine to ride.

He then moved onto the other hooves. The other back hoof was fine but the front hoof was a shocker. One side was flared out and the other was chipped and broken. He filed it but when he went to fit the shoe on (the one I had been given) it was completely the wrong fit. He showed it to me and we both couldn't believe that who ever had shod him previously had forced that onto his hoof. It was far too small for him. He got a new shoe from his truck and fitted it correctly. It turns out that 3 of Jack's hooves are size 4 and the other one is a size 3 (the first front one).

So currently Jack has three shoes on and is barefoot with his bad hoof. Hopefully it will dry out by Thursday because I really, really want to start riding again.

6 Things About Me

I've been tagged by SolitaireMare at A Good Horse with the "Six things about me" tag. I've already done this twice but what the heck... I can always do another one.

Here are the rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Hmm, let me think

1. I'm a self-confessed book worm. I love books and would read one a day if I had the chance (and if that silly thing called life didn't get in the way). If I'm in the middle of a really good book I will read whenever and where ever I get the chance i.e. traffic lights when I'm driving, when I'm watching TV etc. And when I was at school I would often get kicked out of class for reading a novel instead of working (of course I would only do that in the more boring classes). It's probably not suprising that my mum is a Librarian.

2. Cadbury Mint Chip Chocolate and Cadbury Mini Eggs (Easter) are my all time favourites. They both happen to be hard to find.

3. I've got a red birthmark hidden under my hair at the back of my neck.

4. I want to write a novel one day, a good one.

5. I'm a optimist.

6. I am addicted to the energy drink called V. I'm trying to break the addiction at the moment but it is proving difficult.

Since everyone in the blogging community has already done one of these, I leave my tag open to anyone who wants to do it! If you do decide to do it, leave me a comment so I know and can read it.

Whats in store for me?

I spoke earlier on this blog about my plans for next year. I had pretty much decided on going to a place called Kyrewood Equestrian Centre to do a horse management course. Beckz from I will Jump Sweet Jumps soon talked me out of it. Basically it sounds like more of a money making scheme then anything else. So I was stuck with what to do next year.

I knew I didn't want to be working full time. I'm utterly sick of being stuck in jobs that bore me. I wanted to study. But what? Because I left school half way through year 13 (the last year of school in New Zealand) I didn't have the qualifications to do any of the diplomas I would be interested in. So I looked into Foundation Studies Courses. These courses basically bridge you into University if you don't have the qualifications to get you there in the first place. They have Foundation Studies Courses at most Universities and I checked them out but none of them seemed to be the right fit for me. So I prayed. I'm a christian and I believe God can help if you ask Him. So insted of stressing over it anymore (which is what I've been doing for the last year or so) I gave it up to Him. And the next day I discovered that Massey University has a Certificate in Foundation Studies. I researched it and was really excited. Massey University has campuses in different parts of the country. Theres one here in Auckland, two in Palmerston North and one in Wellington. I wanted to go to Palmerston North since I have friends who live there and they also have an awesome Equine facility at the University. And so I applied. My plan is to graduate from this course and then apply for the Diploma in Vet Nursing. I feel really, really good about this plan. I'm finally at peace with what my future is.

My enrolment for the course is still being processed but I'm sure I will be accepted. I've also applied for my accomodation in the Baptist Youth Hostel and for grazing for Jack at the Massey University Equestrian Centre. I'll find out about all these really soon but it looks like we'll be ready to go in late February. Now I have to figure out how to get Jack down there.

The Abscess saga continues

It has been a hard week but we're finally on the road to complete recovery. This past week has seen me working in the city which meant I couldn't make it up to Jack until about 7.30pm. This in turn meant I wasn't home until 9.00ish and since I am unable to handle late nights I would collapse straight into bed. I would be up at 6.30am the next morning to start it all over again.

His right hoof is by far the worst of the two. On Monday and Tuesday he tolerated putting weight on it but on Wednesday he was obviously in a lot of pain and refused to let his right hoof touch the ground. This meant I couldn't treat the abscess in his left hoof and so I had to leave it alone for a few days. He was walking with a strange clicking motion in his ankle which seemed to be caused because he was trying desperatly to keep the weight off his heel (where the abscess was). I decided to pen Jack for the night and my friend Simone offered one of her horses as a room mate for him so he wouldn't have herd seperation issues. The next day he was much better on that leg.

I’ve been having problems with the bandage staying on his hoof. Since I’ve never done this before so it’s been a bit of a ‘practice makes perfect’ situation. First I used bandages by themselves and they came off very quickly since the sharp edges of his hoof cut through them. Next I tried using tape on top of his bandages, just around the edges of the hoof but since it was electrical tape it didn’t stick for long. My next plan of action was to get a boot to place over his bandage but the type of boot I wanted was unavailable in his size. So we used another type of boot but it was much too big and he hated it. That was a no-go. Next I used the classic fix-it-all commonly known as duct tape. Although his bandage still comes off, I’m pretty sure it lasts a lot longer then the bandage by itself.

Yesterday I noticed that a strange opening appeared on his heel, straight above where the abscess was positioned. I had a quick panic attack, thinking that something else was wrong with his leg. I then realized that the vet must have not dug the complete abscess out which would have caused his extreme lameness on the Wednesday night. So now that the abscess has burst we are almost in the clear. I just need to keep the holes clean and hopefully we’ll be ready to ride next week. I’ll get him shod next week and we’ll be ready to get fit and get started on our eventing career. Please God, let our teething problems be over.

Simple Arithmetic

What happens when you add the fact that rain has pouring down for the last two days, plus the fact your horse's cover has no stomach straps, plus the fact your horse likes to roll in the mud continuously and plus the very limited time you have to ride, tack and un tack?

The Answer?

This...




Un-surprisingly I didn't end up riding that morning because my friend who was competing at her first show was running late and her horse was almost as bad as Jack. So I started on his bath for her.

Two's company

You can imagine my shock when I arrived to re-bandage Jack's hoof yesterday only to see that the vet had treated the opposite leg to the one that's been giving us the problems. I couldn't believe it. All this hassle with that dam leg and then the bandage is on the wrong hoof. I went to catch him and he decided to be a prick and try to get away. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for me, he could only hobble away and I easily caught up to him. It was quite a sad sight to see him limping like that. He was defiantly favouring the hoof that I thought was the bad hoof. I rang my dad to get an explanation and he assured me that he had given the vet my note about what had happened to that leg. He had even trotted him out for her. Obviously she saw something wrong with his left leg and not his right. I called the Vet Clinic but she had already left for the day and they said she would give me a call today.

She rang me about 10.00am this morning and came down to check his right leg. Yep, there was an abscess there too. It was in the same place as the abscess on the other hoof but this one was a bit bigger. She also said that it was more than likely that the previous owners had left the shoes on longer then they should have been and as a result the shoes had pressed down into the corns and left a bruise which then developed into an abscess. I couldn't believe it. All this trouble because his previous owners couldn't be stuffed to get his shoes re-set or even just taken off.

Anyway, he now has two beautifully bandaged hooves wrapped in a very fashionable yellow vet wrap.

The pus should drain within the next few days and he should be alright to be shod next Friday. My bank account is looking very, very empty. The things we do for the animals we love huh?