Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Damnit Chimi!

This past month has seriously been the month from hell.

Originally I had plans to go to the Heart of the Carolina 3 day but when Chimi came up lame exactly 30 days before we were supposed to trot up at the 3 day I decided to just do the Horse Trials that weekend instead. Then we had the eventful dismount at jump 1 at FENCE HT and I decided to scratch the HOTC Horse Trials because it seemed like Chimi and I needed to go back to the drawing board and get ourselves back on track before entering another show. Damn it Chimi.

Mom puts embarrassing hats on me that don't quite fit my long ears...

Since FENCE HT I've actually been enjoying just trail riding Chimi. We had 2 really nice rides with Sara and Trainer J and I had the PERFECT solo ride out on the trails by my house. Seriously. I came back from that ride with the biggest smile on my face because it was so pleasant and WONDERFUL. And the cherry on top was our pony club had scheduled a cross country schooling at FENCE with Trainer J and I was sooooo looking forward to conquering Jump 1 and playing around the rest of the course. But alas, Chimi had other plans. Damn it Chimi.

I didn't get to see my ponies in the daylight hours last Monday or Tuesday because I had to go to step daughter's makeup soccer games that had been rained out the week before. No worries, the ponies were quite happy to be out longer on the grassy front field.  Chimi was fine Monday and Tuesday morning but that evening I noticed he looked a bit sore walking in to the barn when he came in for dinner. I made note but had to finish getting everyone else fed to because it was already 9pm and we ALL wanted to eat dinner and be done with the day. From the dim lights of my barn I could tell there wasn't any blood or flapping skin so whatever was going on couldn't be that bad. I headed back up to the house to grab a flashlight but didn't feel the need to hurry.

After grabbing my flashlight from the house I headed back down to the barn to check Chimi's legs. They were nice and tight and just as normal as they always are. I looked down at his hoof and thats when I saw it. A giant crack had appeared on the inside of his left hind near the bulb of his heel. It went almost all the way up to his cornet band and was very sore when I pushed on it. Damn it Chimi.

WTF giant crack?!?!??!


There wasn't really anything I could do at that moment so just left him to eat in his pasture and texted my farrier the next morning. He made plans to come out as soon as I was off work and would trim off the hangnail. Once he got there and started trimming he looked at me and said "This goes a lot deeper than I thought. You might actually want to get a vet to look at it because I can't trim any further without cutting into the soft tissue. I'm not a vet so I don't do the blood and puss" Damn it Chimi.

Farrier trimmed the edge off. You can see the line goes in towards his frog and more up into his hoof.


Unfortunately it was to late to call the vet unless it was an emergency and this was not emergency status. I wrapped his foot and treated it like an abscess and planned to call the vet in the morning. The next day I called the vet, scheduled an appointment, and off we went to see what was up.

Chimi was still a bit sore on his foot but noticeably better so that was good news. Dr P. was pleased with how farrier had trimmed it so far, but he agreed that it went a lot deeper and wanted to clean it out to prevent it from abscessing and taking a lot longer to heal. Poor Chimi was NOT happy with this so they blocked his left hind and Dr. P got to cutting. Chimi was good until the vet hit the super soft tissue and he started bleeding but by that point Dr P felt like he had trimmed away enough of the hoof that had split. I asked him what he thought caused the crack and he had no real idea. Lots of possibilities, including an abscess that blew out and weakened the hoof enough to cause the crack or he just stepped on a rock at the right angle out in his pasture. Basically it was caused by Chimi being a horse. Damn it Chimi
After the vet cut down to the squishy part (oh and his abscess from the fall grew out and took a chunk out of his toe, foot looking a bit janky right now)


Overall it was a fairly simple visit to the vet. My orders were to keep it wrapped and clean and in 4-5 days he needed a bar shoe put on to stabilize the hoof so it could heal. Without a shoe every time he took a step his hoof would spread and cause the crack to get worse or prevent it from healing as quickly. Unfortunately my farrier had just left for Europe (farriers need vacations too, I guess...). Thankfully he was still in NY at that moment and was able to send me the names of 2 farriers that he recommended to put the shoes on Chimi. Woohoo. My horse who had been barefoot for 4.5 years had just gone from no shoes to 4 shoes in a month. Damn it Chimi.

rocking the gorilla tape and vetwrap look


So Friday morning I rewrapped Chimi's hoof, gave him a kiss on his nose, told him to be good, and off I went to volunteer at the Heart of the Carolina's 3 day Event and Horse Trials. I figured if Chimi couldn't go I could at least go and see what it was all about!!! There's a lot to write about it but overall I had the BEST time and OMG everyone needs to do a long format. More on this in a later post :)
The first jumps on course! Up close they are really pretty and say Southern 8's on them


After having a great weekend, Monday rolled around and Chimi got his new shoes. New farrier came out and ended up putting a bar shoe AND pour in pads. New farrier looked at the hoof and thought that it looked like he had an abscess that had blown out and caused the crack to then form so that's my new story on why this happened. It's not like I had just transitioned Chimi to barefoot, he's been fine for 4.5 years!!!! And hell probably longer for his back feet b/c when I got him he only had front shoes. So who the hell knows. It's horses.
New kicks


The good news is my horse is sound. The bad news is I can't ride him for at least a month so his hoof can grow back. It'll a lot longer than a month for the crack to completely grow out but the vet and farrier thought that enough hoof SHOULD of grown out that in about a month I could start riding. Obviously I won't know until a month has passed if enough hoof has grown to support riding, but Chimi does grow hoof fairly quickly so I'm hoping.



our crowning glory from the 1 show we went to this spring


So this is pretty much the story of how my spring season came to an end. Damn it Chimi.

In the grand scheme of things it's nothing long term and serious so we should be back at it eventually. Hopefully. After all it's horses we're dealing with here!



12 comments:

  1. oh. my. jesus. that crack looks awful :( so good you caught it quickly and could get all hands on deck to get it treated! poor Chimi. also, dammit Chimi :(

    did the vet or farrier say anything about treating for any sort of fungal or bacterial nonsense? sarah from three chestnuts has an abscess prone horse and she swears by white lightning soaks. idk if that's an appropriate treatment in this type of situation tho? ugh what a mess...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. no, they hadn't said anything like that... I'm suppose to treat this one like an abscess and keep animallintex (sp?) on it to help prevent it from really abscessing (again?) as it heals. So maybe the white lightning soaks might be appropriate? Is it for prevention or treating? But yeah...I think Chimi has been secretly reading your blog and is trying to be like Charlie!!!! Though with hoof issues instead of splint ones :) (damnit horses!! HA)

      Delete
    2. If I understand correctly, white lightning is all about killing dead any nasty stuff that wants to get inside the hoof. It’s a chemical solution that you put in a hoof (iv?) bag and seal up bc it produces gas that penetrates any openings. But yea that’s probably a q for the vet and/or farrier. Ugh. Chimi. Don’t be like Charlie. He’s not that cool, I promise! Big bays *need not* unite!!!

      Delete
    3. Interesting! Will definitely ask and see if it’s needed? Though if this was caused by an abscess he never took a lame step while it was brewing! Just blew out in a unfortunate location that took the whole side of the hoof with it :/ And agree- big bay horses do NOT need to unite on the injury front!!!

      Delete
  2. Damn. It. Chimi. He really can't cut you a break, can he? I was groaning the whole way through reading this :( Fingers (and other limbs) are crossed tightly that you can start riding in a month. You need to come do Windridge this summer. NEED TO.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes to Windridge this summer!!! Though my summer schedule is reeeeeeaaally tricky with work and I think Windridge is on a tricky weekend for me. But I’m for sure going to try my damndest to be there!!!!

      Delete
  3. Oh no!! Chimi needs to stop this nonsense and go back to being a riding horse. I think I’m going to try to volunteer next year at the long format. Everything I read about it sounds wonderful and I highly doubt I’ll be competing there any time soon. I don’t think they do sticks on the ground level ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously Chimi!!! And omg yes volunteer next year!!!! Make sure you signup for the vet box because you can see steeplechase and the start/end of roads and tracks. Plus that’s where it really feels like you’re at a 3 day!!! That and with you’re endurance knowledge you’ll probably be more helpful than the average person 😁

      Delete
  4. ugh when i saw the title i was like OH SHIT. (AND I was just thinking about you yesterday when I was giggling about Sara and her testnotatestyoucanstudyfor :)

    Remus has a crack that kind of started like this (NOT as bad but still) and we think an abcess too but he was never lame on it. Since then I made a deal with him, stay sound and i will keep front shoes on him (He has only fronts). I also saw a horse do an injury like this (not my horse) From stepping on a large boulder or something wrong. DAMN IT CHIMI. (PS that first line of fences at that event looks so inviting and lovely). I am sorry you have a unannounced month off but hope it heals well and you are back at it soon enough. the shoes will DEF help it heal and at least we arent going into winter where the ground will be so wet and frozen....One thing he may always have a crack there (Sorry but just wanted to say) so he may have to have shoes for a while. :(

    I would LOVE to see a long format sometime. I can't wait to read about it all....

    Damn it Chimi (because it can't be said enough:))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I’m fine with leaving the shoes on if he needs them but it’s like the BOOM you need expensive shoes now that is making me cry. For a short bit :) the good news is he should be fine in regular shoes after his hoof heals well enough. He’s quite happy and very much sound right now bc he has himself a good gallop in the front field yesterday!!!! Probably not the best for his crack but it didn’t look any worse for wear afterwards :)

      For sure go watch a long format!!!!! I think there’s one in KY in the fall so after you get settled in TN??? Could be fun!

      Delete
  5. Time to rename the blog Dammit Chimi. :/ That's so frustrating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously!!!! After this past year it’s really about to come to that 😂

      Delete