So Reily (and Boo and Scotty) got his little tootsies done on the 11th, but after having stood out in the cold with our farrier for 2+ hours holding the horses it was just too miserable to suit up and ride so the boys got off lucky. Sunday was worse... even colder and wind like a tornado so they lucked out again. Monday I worked late and Tuesday was wet. Wednesday finally rolled around and I was so excited to get home in time to jump on for a few minutes. I went to get him out of the feild and as I put his halter on and started to turn him towards the gate I saw him take an odd step... something I'd seen him do that morning but written off because there was some gravel under his hoof then and I thought he just caught one sharp edge.
With knitted brows I took him out of the feild and trotted him in hand on the grass, nothing. Ok, maybe I was seeing things. We walked across the driveway and I didn't see any more off steps but I could see, and hear, that his stride was just the very tiniest bit shorter. Hmm, now what? I tried pulling him in tight circles in both directions, nothing. Well, I figured the only way to find out if I was crazy or I'd actually seen something was to get on and try him under tack. So we tacked up and walked in the yard just fine, ok so lets try the trot... still normal. Moment of truth, we started down the driveway and everything seemed fine walking straigh across, but once we got a little ways down on the shoulder we had a 10 yard stretch of all gravel to go across. Sure enough, that's when I got my answer, he was off. Granted it wasn't bad, it was just there, ever so slightly, but it was there. So right around we turned and back home we went with a big :'( face for me. Bless his heart he was trying to do everything I asked but he was trying so hard I couldn't even figure out where it was coming from. No heat, no hot nails, nothing. So I called my farrier and after explaining everything, he figured that he must have cut his soles just a little too close. So we went through a bute regimen for 5 days to give him some time for his soles to harden up. Lucky, lucky Boo, he got to take up all the slack and carry me around for both of them!
Reily has great feet but I guess we're still figuring out what his feet need, it was only his second time after all. But we got a little lucky between rain and snow (did winter finally come... and go again already? Calling for 67 DEGREES TOMORROW!!) the ground stayed soft for him and when I finally got to ride him yesterday he was 99% sound. We went for a hack down off the road and had just a couple off steps (none on the gravel, but a couple on the pavement) in that whole time. Tonight we hacked up the mountain (he'll have those buns of steel in no time!) and did two easy laps around the loop. We w/t/c and even jumped some tiny logs, all sound. I even trotted him on the gravel driveway on the way back home and he felt smooth. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be absolutely 100%... I'll let you know!
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