Founder Chronicles: Another little miracle
June 05, 2009
Founder Chronicles 1: Killer lameness strikes
Founder Chronicles 2: We fight back
Founder Chronicles 3: Encouragement, more remedies
Founder Chronicles 4: Battle of the bulge
Founder Chronicles 5: A diagnosis, more solutions
Founder Chronicles 6: Hot days, higher pulse
By late summer, Bonnie would still "eggshell" walk the first five to 10 steps out of her sand stall on to the pea gravel and packed dirt of the barn floor. As Bonnie warmed up, her movement would improve and by the time she hit the deeply plowed footing of Pooh Lane, Bonnie looked much better, leaping on the end of the lead line, and taking trotting steps of her own. Bonnie and those of us taking care of her were thoroughly sick of the stall captivity and hand-walking routine. We wanted her to go back in daily turnout with her horse friends where she belonged, but every time we tried putting Bonnie on harder ground, she limped terribly and drooped, the picture of depression. I had read about a number of exotic shoeing solutions, some that even used dental glue as a sole support on top of a pad, but I had seen bad things happen to hoof soles that did not get enough air. I wanted something durable, affordable and healthy. (I have since learned that there are safe adhesives on the market. If I had to go through this again, I might try the EponaShoe. Our farrier, Tom Presgrove, suggested putting shoes backwards on Bonnie’s front feet, so that the “toe” of the shoe would actually support her heel and to a certain extent, Bonnie’s sole. I couldn’t believe it when, five minutes after the backwards shoes went on, Bonnie was able to jog on hard ground!
Next: Rejoining the world