Actually it should be no foot, no horse, no money! My poor horse is lame again! Ever since I had Emma and he had a bit of a holiday I haven't been able to get him fully fit. Last summer he was diagnosed with arthritis in his right pastern joint and his left coffin joint in his front feet.
He had loads of treatment and I think we're managing that okay but then this winter he has had problems with his back and sacroiliac joint. I've taken him to the osteopath 3 times which seems to have fixed that but now his feet are falling apart. He has quite brittle feet and in the summer they always seem to dry out and literally fall apart. He has been going really lame after being shod and it's been getting worse each time, he's shod about every 5 weeks. He has special shoes because of the arthritis so I thought maybe these were hurting him. I got the farrier to try some others but this time he pulled away and broke 2 lead ropes when the farrier was tightening up the nails. This is so unlike him and I felt really sorry for him. It must of been hurting as the nails were going into his feet. Poor thing! He's on Bute at the moment ( that's like horsey Nurofen) but I've spoken to the farrier and this week we're going to try taking those shoes off and glueing on lightweight aluminium ones. In the meantime I've been researching the latest in feed supplements and hoof treatments. The Horse and Hound archives are actually very helpful.
Anyway all this is costing me a fortune but Balu is so sweet I'm afraid he has to have the best treatment I can get for him. I mean just look at that face!
By the way, Annie was 10th in the Welsh Masters today!
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