Downward spiral...

Have you ever noticed that things always seem to go wrong when you plan to go out of town? We, like many red-blooded Americans, had plans to be out of town this past Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday. This of course meant that Rose had to hurt herself Wednesday evening. Now, to be fair to Rose she didn't hurt herself. She did suffer a somewhat concerning injury all the same. On Tuesday she got trimmed. Her feet have been looking a better and the soles have gotten a tad harder. However, they are still paper thin. On Wednesday night MM came out to ride Rose and she must have stepped on a rock on the way to the arena because all of a sudden she was massively gimpy and had a tiny crack with blood oozing from it. There was no puss or otherwise anything to indicate it was an abscess. MM was kind enough to text me a picture before cleaning it with betadine and putting her back in her paddock.

Small bloody crack.

This of course prompted text messaging to my farrier JS, and a 10:30pm visit for me to the barn to assess the damage and bandage her up before I left town early the next morning.

All wrapped up. Fingers crossed the duct tape can hold for a few days.

JS called me bright and early Thursday morning and we discussed the situation. I have finally decided after speaking with him about it, my trainer CR and numerous other people, that given all that is going on with her feet and my limited ability to change her environment for the time being, front shoes have become necessary. We gave it a good old college try to make bare feet work (see my post about going barefoot from 2010), but I will not watch my girl gimp around in pain any longer because I would prefer for her to be bare. At the very least, I can feel good about that fact that she was bare until she was six, allowing her feet to fully develop. And that they have, they are huge! My lovely Cavallo boots no longer fit and there is only one larger size. I need to measure her to see if their size 6 will fit. Anyone want to purchase a like new pair of size 5 Cavallo sport boots?

Because JS rocks, he offered to go out that day, on the Fourth of July, and put shoes on Rose for me. I told him that I appreciated his offer, but I would really like to be there the first time she gets shoes. So a plan was hatched to shoe her this coming Monday (tomorrow). Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly...

***
Oh, and that bandage? It stayed put until this morning (Sunday). I'm pretty proud of that wrap job! As soon as we got back to town this afternoon I went out to check on her. She was still very sore, but equally so, on both fronts and there was no swelling and no more blood. So I think I've avoided her getting an infection and potential abscess from the crack. Fingers crossed!

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•