[Jenje!]

Where's the thread icon showing the hand gesture for "so so"?

I went out and lunged Fred briefly tonight, took my little brother (or rather he took me -- and my dog -- on his new four wheeler) with me and got some pictures of him and his feet. Now the camera's not wanting to connect to either of my computers, so I thought I'd give you all a text update until I get it figured out...

His little forelock is covered in burrs! He was very cranky because we woke him up... but other than that I think he's enjoying being a wild child.

Of course right now he is on a sand lot, hasn't gotten to hit the pasture yet because my grandfather wanted to wait until my farrier came out to turn them out. I think he's worried that he'll get hurt somehow and I'll be upset at him. Trying to convince him that my horses really are a part of "the herd" and if they manage to get hurt, they get hurt and we'll deal with that... no fault assigned, stop worrying! My grandpa is one of those old fashioned cowboys... no stalls on the place, we don't keep horses up or feed them other than hay and maybe some calf manna in the winter... so this is out of character for him.

Good news first! His hocks are holding up just fine and I've yet to see him come up lame or off behind beyond the typical "I've been standing around doing nothing and stuffing my fat face for two weeks" crab-walking. I'd have to call Terri (and will soon) to find out WHEN he was injected and I still want to ask her about what all he's had done, but I'm thinking it's been six months since they said he was injected and he's doing great. He's holding his weight okay for being on a sandlot with hay, but will be looking even better once he's out on pasture. Can't wait!

Bad news... he's still lame on the right foreleg. It still looks like sole soreness to me but it's been two weeks, and I would have thought the soreness would have gone away considerably by now. I did find a pocket in that hoof that looks like he blew an abscess but it could be old, because he's not sore to the pick on it... I haven't spent that much time with him due to the two job/moving/sick dog thing, so I don't know what's odd for his hooves and not and I don't have a lot of experiences with abscess anyway.

It's not a severe lameness, varies depending on terrain (sometimes you can't see it, sometimes you barely can, sometimes it's really obvious)... and oddly enough the direction he's going! Opposite of what I would have thought (when the "sore" leg is on the inside, he's not lame... outside he is, clockwise/counterclockwise). My mom had me thinking it was a BAD lameness, but I think she's just not used to seeing an "upright" breed like a NSH move... he's going to be weird until we figure this thing out and get him back into work and evenly muscled. Well, he's weird anyway... he's Fred!

But the farrier will be out tomorrow and I have high hopes that we'll be able to do something with his feet to make him more comfortable in general. I'm a big believer in starting with the feet and working up. The next step if this doesn't make a difference or if it isn't abscess related will be x-rays, probably. I think I'm going to leave his hocks alone until he shows me that something is up back there. Remember, I wasn't around when he was lame behind so I have no idea what that was about... he'll show me if it comes up again and we'll tackle that.

Pictures and such coming when I can get the camera beaten into submission!

[Showrider]

Cool can't wait to see pics!

SR.