I haven't updated in a long time and there is a reason for that. After months of on and off lameness, I finally had a trusted farrier tell me I needed to turn him out to pasture, have his feet done every 5 weeks and pump hoof supplements into him to regrow his shit feet. I did just that and sent Zim to live down south for 4.5 months with farrier work that I really trusted and the watchful eye of my fantastic mother.
Things were looking great, after about 2 months he was sound, no abcesses, and seemed to be holding shoes better than ever. I got my shit together, found a trainer I liked and started plotting to bring him back up to Seattle.
Last weekend, I spent the 12 hours to drive down, pick him up and haul him back to Seattle to live at his new barn. Here he is enjoying his new field:
The day I brought him up, I noticed a hint of lameness again in the left front. Most of the lameness I've seen prior with him has been in the hinds. I wrote it off as an abcess. The second day at his new barn, he pulled his right front shoe. While for many horses, this isn't typically a code-red alert. For Zim, a hoof with no shoe at this point in his rehab can set us back weeks. He was dead lame, walking on three legs and favoring the shoeless foot for the entire 24 hours it took me to get a farrier back out.
So fully shod again, I assume he is going to be sore for a few days (walking on his bare foot always leaves him sore), and decide to give him a few days to rest up.
Flash forward two days and I arrive, pull him out and see that he is dead lame. His eyes look pained, he is walking like both feet hurt, and tripping all over the place. No heat in the hoof, no heat in his legs, no strong pulse. But painfully lame. I felt guilty even walking him from pasture to the washrack.
I decide to address this like an abcess in both feet, soaking 20 minutes each foot, wrapped up in iodine/salt solution and stalled. We are on day 2 of this, with no real improvement showing.
I'm giving him until the end of the week when I will be calling a farrier/vet out to help me figure out what I am dealing with. I am beginning to wonder if it isn't some type of laminitis/inner hoof issue. I took Xrays when I bought him that showed nothing, but at this point, I can't rule anything out.
I'm discouraged. I was here with my last horse for the past 3 years, and I never would have guessed that Zim would struggle with soundness so much. I'm honestly not sure how much money I can afford to pour into this and my heart just really isn't in it anymore. About 50% of the time, I'm ready to quit, give up, be done with horses forever and focus on something that doesn't leave me in tears every night I leave the barn.
The other 50% of the time, I think about the 10-15 rides I have on this horse, and I get excited thinking about the potential he has. I'm not sure I have ever had a horse as nice as him. He COULD do the things I want...if he gets sound.
I don't know where I will be in a week if he isn't looking better. I don't know what other options I have other than to keep pouring money into him and hoping for the best, but that has to end somewhere.
This blog was supposed to be about training an OTTB and its really just become a log of an OTTB's soundness. Not such a great advertisement for the breed.
I'll be writing more soon. Zim is here in Seattle now and I can't mentally avoid the difficult decisions I have coming up much longer.
