Setbacks

Vet visit today and it turns out that poor ol' Seamus is using so much of his nutritional intake on building weight that his hooves are suffering. His soles are very soft right now and in order to give them time to harden back up without having too much weight on them, we've had to put him up on rubber wedge pads for the time being. Fun stuff... I've got to unwrap the whole deal every other day to air out his soles and apply Keratex to them and then do it all up again *sigh* At least I have experience with wrapping these things up, Belle had a go on them a few years ago with a bad case of laminitis.

At least it turns out that Seamus is not laminitic, but this of course is not good, either. Hopefully it will turn out to be a temporary problem and as he continues to gain weight, his body will start shunting nutrients to his hooves again. So for now, Seamus is stall-bound for at least a month. Mary will put him in clean stall every morning for me and give him breakfast as usual and I will be in in the evenings to put him in a clean stall, clean the dirty stalls, feed him dinner, and check his feet. And for the millionth time, I wish I had my own place so I could be there any time of the day or night I needed to be...

We also had Seamus' teeth done, vaccinations, took a fecal sample, and drew some blood to check all his levels. Hopefully the clinic will give me some sort of break on the cost for all this, Dr. McVey said he would ask his boss and let me know something tomorrow so everyone cross fingers! At least Seamus was a perfect gentleman for all this work, often standing there in the barn aisle with the lead rope around his neck and no one holding on to him and the vet there with Seamus' foot up on his knee- what a good boy :)

Oh yes, and how could I forget a visit with Trainer Chuck... Chuck came by to take care of his yearlings when I was finishing cleaning stalls and asked how Seamus was doing and I told him what was going on. Chuck then asks what the vet bills are costing me and I told him that I wasn't sure yet, that I might get a break on it from the clinic. So he tells me that if I want, I can give him the horse back and he'll pay for the bills, that he knows someone else who wants the horse. I say "No thanks, I've got it covered" (thinking something more along the lines of "No stinkin' way in H*LL I'd give him back to you!"). He sorta started pressuring me, telling me he'd pay for it, just let him have the horse back and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore cause he knew someone who wanted him. I just kept telling him that I was okay the way it was and that Seamus would be just fine when it was all done and I wasn't worried about it. Finally he left, thank goodness! He didn't make me feel threatened or anything, he just really wanted Seamus back for some reason. I am guessing he got a cash offer on Seamus and is now regretting giving him to me and would like to take him back and make some money off him. Only thing it could be really, because he sure didn't give a sh*t enough to give Seamus any care before when he needed it. I refrained from showing my temper (you all who know me should be very proud of me!), but if he tries to get Seamus from me again, there will be words...

Seamus has an ouchie :(

Yesterday Seamus had a bit of heat in both of his front hooves when I went out for the day and since I couldn't find any particular reason, I suspected a touch of laminitis, maybe brought on by a change of hay. I switched to a local source the last time I bought hay when we had been getting it from a dealer who buys from Ohio. The new mixed grass hay I got from the local farmer undoubtedly had bluegrass in it which is a bad grass for having lots of sugar in it. I called the farmer today and he confirmed that it was a bluegrass/orchard/timothy mix. Is Seamus sensitive to starch? I don't know yet, but for the time being his hay is getting soaked to reduce sugars.

But of course, for more fun today, Seamus had blown an abcess on the foot which I thought he looked more sore on yesterday. The vet is coming tomorrow afternoon... I needed to get him in anyways to do yearly shots and Coggins on the mares and Seamus needs his teeth floated, so this was a good a time as any to make the call. So tonight Seamus is in with a foot pack, some bute, and a tote full of soaked hay!

Seamus Meets the Man-eating Plastic Bag

Another lovely day and Cindy came to visit. We took Seamus out for another lunge lesson and added a pole for him to step over. We also did it at the trot a few times and he did well, he picked up looking down to watch his feet after the first time he stepped on it.

After the lunge lesson, Seamus was getting rubbed all over with the carrot stick with absolutely no worries so we went for the bag-on-a-stick for the next bit of desensitization. Seamus took it with his usual aplomb... he gave it a look and then you could literally touch him anywhere with it! Shake it all over, bounce it on the ground, whatever- Seamus was awesome :)

Video courtesy of Cindy!

Learning the lungeline

This week is shaping up to be gorgeous, today it made it into the 60s! Warm enough that I could open up some windows at the house and spend some real quality time at the barn... I've been waiting for this so I could actually DO SOMETHING with Seamus to start building muscle and fitness and not just throwing food down his gullet LOL

My daughter and I took off for the barn after she got home from school, brought ponies in for some hay, and then I sent Sasha off to ride Belle the Babysitter while I groomed on Seamus a bit before I brought him out to work on lunging.

Now that I have a carrot stick with a string, I could work on desensitizing him to it so that is what we started with today. It went really well, just about 5 foot of side-stepping when I hit the string on the ground the first few times then Seamus stopped and didn't act scared of it again. Switched sides and he only flinched once. So then I started lightly laying it on him which didn't bother him one bit no matter where it went. Okay, stage one complete, ready to start moving on the line!

Now lunging could have gone one of two ways since Seamus is feeling better... I am so glad to report that it went the better of the two :) If you've been following this blog, you know I intro'd Seamus to a rope halter and trainers lead early on in the hopes that it would make it easier to really get into teaching him later. I don't know if it really worked that way, or if he really is this laid back *shrugs* No matter, really, but with a OTTB (esp one who raced a lot) you just don't know if you're going to get a well trained horse or something that is all go, all fast, and only to the left LOL

Anyways, Seamus walked to the left just fine again and we worked on going to the right until he was much better than the first time we attempted it. Then after a few minutes warm-up, I asked him for a trot going left by asking him to move forward with my body and backing it up with some light flicks of the stick to his hindquarters to give him the message. The first gentle flicks gave Seamus a bit of a start which was to be expected, but I pulled him up and asked him again and he got the idea. The trotting came in fits and starts so I got him around a couple of times and pulled him up for some pets and praise :) Then we turned it around and tried it to the right with not as good results. After a few times that I rearranged my position to ask him to go forward, he finally started to get it instead of trying to face me. Again, we did a couple of circuits of the fit and start trotting. After a breather, we went left again and he trotted out much nicer for several rounds, then did the same for the right hand turns. By jove, I think he's got it!!! Ok, so he's not a pro just yet, but this is one OTTB who learns quick! I didn't ask Seamus for too much work due to his lack of fitness right now, but as long as we have good weather and decent footing, we can start to build that up.

I think exercise is what he is lacking in really coming back from his ordeal. Food can only do so much... enough food will get you the weight, but not the muscle and fitness. Unfortunately, weather and footing is an issue at my barn as we don't have an indoor arena, or frankly any arena at all! The area I use to work in doubles as a turnout so it gets chewed up, luckily it dried up before it really warmed up enough for me to be ready to work so it is really pretty decent to train on, despite what it looks like.

Lunging photos courtesy of Sasha while hanging out on Belle:

And some standing side shots for his current condition:

His back is getting more filled in, that was my big worry but a nice load of alfalfa hay from a local farmer seems to be helping fill in the holes ;) And another note, since the weather is kinda nice this week, I am using the opportunity to get him staying outside at night again. The girls are going in their dry lot at night while it's nice so Seamus can have a paddock to himself so he can eat without their "help." Those mares are absolutely rotten about food since they are pretty restricted most of the year (both IR cases) so they hoover up their share in record time and chase poor Seamus off. Not a prob when he comes in at night to his all-you-can-eat hay buffet, but not okay if he stays outside at night. He needs to learn to be a horse and I need a break from doing stalls!

Alright, I'm off to putter around before bed. Hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can get some more exercise in for Seamus :)

Finally a new post!

Well the weather outside is frightful... but inside the barn it's still awfully cold LOL

We are lucky to have not had quite as bad of a winter as many places in the US. Central Kentucky got cold spells earlier than usual this winter as we had snow on Christmas which is a rarity, usually we don't see snow until January. We got some snow, then some ice, then a thaw and then it starts all over again. At least it melts in between and we don't have several feet of snow built up. Shoot, last Saturday it hit 50! It was muddy, but I pulled on the mudboots and worked Sugar a bit then changed out for riding boots and bumped around on her for awhile while hanging out with our buddy Cindy. Didn't work Seamus as the mud was too much for his not 100% self... I wish I had better footing, but the area I ride and work in doubles as a paddock so it's pretty tore up right now.

Anyways, Seamus is still such a sweetheart... I sometimes worry that he's not "coming back" from his starvation, but he honestly seems to be just fine. I guess I keep expecting that he's going to turn into one of those silly Thoroughbreds even though his whole feeding regimen has been based on getting weight back on slowly and carefully with a minimum of starch to keep that from happening. I think it is working as planned though. I worry a bit, cause that's what I do... but he's got a great attitude and doesn't seem depressed at all, he nickers at me when I drive up, he cleans up all of his feed and hay every night, drinks well, and he's perfectly capable of getting away from Sugar when she is being a witch LOL So I guess he is just fine :)

Tonight I planned on getting the run of photos for the week after I got a stall cleaned out and let him eat but then tonight got derailed by another TB at the barn colicing. Not one of mine, but a racehorse there on break. Luckily I was there to get the vet called and help out the owner as he's not a real experienced horse person. I think we caught Russ' bellyache early and the vet came out to banamine and oil him. When I left, Russ was comfy so hopefully that will be all he needs, but everyone please keep Russ in your thoughts!

I did get some photos of Seamus before I left, though, so you can check out his progress:

I am guesstimating that he's gained about 70lbs at this point. He's got some fat pads, his butt and thighs are filling in, and he's finally starting to get some padding over his spine and upper ribcage. I also wormed him earlier this week so if parasites are a problem, that is taken care of now. I just wanted to wait until I felt he was strong enough to get through it just in case he did have a bad worm load. He seems to be just fine, but I am glad I waited.

Once it warms up and dries up around here a little, I can get to working him on the lunge again and get those muscles built back up. Oh, I can't wait for spring!!!