I safely survived my second week of Florida! I showed Spankey in the Non-Thoroughbred Hunters, which is a 3-foot hunter division that allows Professionals, Amateurs (non-professional adults), and Junior riders to all compete. I entered the Non-Thoroughbred Hunters to gain experience in the show ring before we rode in the Children’s Hunters Division. We ended up getting a 5th place in the Non-Thoroughbred Hunter under saddle and I was happy with that! We keep getting better and better each time we go into the show ring.

Everyone in our barn came up with a name for the ‘project pony’: Skate. Unfortunately though, he foundered. Founder is inflammation of the laminae on the inside of the hoof that is extremely painful for a horse. It can affect all of the hooves at once, or one at a time, and this can appear suddenly. The causes can be from being over-worked or over-feeding the horse with strong, rich foods. Unfortunately we didn’t know Skate was sensitive to the grass down here and that is what we think caused him to founder.

I went into his stall in the morning to turn him out. After I put his halter and lead line on, I asked him to walk from his stall, but he couldn’t walk. I knew something was wrong. The girls and I immediately let Melissa know, and she promptly called for the vet. Luckily we caught it in time and were able to save him. We kept ice bags on his front two hooves for about three days and added ice as needed. We gave him medications to help treat the foundering. For a horse to recover from foundering it can take as little as two to three weeks, if you catch it on time. If it’s too late, some horses take a long period of time to recover or the horse has to be euthanized.

This is the end of my second week, and with my third week coming up, there are going to be some changes in the house we are renting. Another one of our riders comes down to Florida in a few days to stay with me, my trainer and my teammates… and I’m excited!

Till then,
Alissa

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Horse Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.