Getting over the heartbreak

After we lost the foal, things just weren't the same around the barn. Personally, if I hadn't had horses to care about over there, I wouldn't have set foot near it for the rest of my life (at least that's how it felt at the time). Every time I went over, first of all I would casually look for the foal (like I always did when getting to the barn) and then I'd be taken by great sadness remembering that I wouldn't see him in the pasture. During the summer, you are most likely to find us in the barn than in our own house. We often sat in the barn to just chat and keep the horses company, love on them and spoil them.

After the foal passed, we were completely in mourning. We couldn't talk without making someone cry. My boyfriend took it especially hard. We felt like we had failed the little foal. I was so attached to him... I just couldn't bare the thought, still have a bit of a problem with it today.

I lost the first foal that was ever born under my care because of the neglect that Pearl had to endure while she was in foal. I don't regret taking her in at all, I just feel that it was a little too late for the foal. Pearl recovered quickly from her loss, I gave her a month to put on the rest of the weight before I would saddle her.

I don't think I've had a great summer. Between June and the end of July, I had sprained my ankle falling from Dandy... my first fall off of my first horse, which greatly shook my confidence. We had lost the foal, which only spun me into a mini depression... in my eyes, we'd tryed too hard to fail in the end. And right after that, Dandy abcessed in her left front.
I had ridden her the day before and had noticed a slight limp from that leg (a REALLY slight limp), I returned to the barn and the leg was warm to the touch. I figured I would give her some time off and things should resolve... it was muddy around the pasture and she had probably pulled something. I found her the next day lying on the ground, I thought she was just resting but when she got to her feet, she was limping quite hard, nearly not even using the leg. I brought her in and looked closer, there was puss oozing from the coronet band. I panicked! I thought she had foundered... I didn't really know why she would founder, she was used to eating grass, had been on it since May and we were in July... Since we had lots of rain, I thought this might have made the sugar levels in the grass higher but that is not the case (after reading about it)... maybe the constant rain had caused parts of the pasture to become so muddy that it caused founder by the suction exherted on the hoof, but I found no such mud in the pasture. I decided to do a little more research. I found that abcesses can be dormant in the hoof for years, they burst when the hoof wall becomes weak and can be very painful...

There's my answer! Dandy's lack of hoofcare probably caused her to have abcesses in her feet for a long time before I even got her. They burst out because the wall and coronet were weakened by the excessive rain. This was a big abcess, it drained for about 1.5 weeks with regular hosings, cleaning out, wrapping and doctoring. I wrapped her leg with poultice when I felt heat. The abcesses not only came out at the coronet but there was also a hole a quarter-inch in diameter just above the coronet. I kept cleaning it out to prevent infection... it has nearly completely healed now, 5 months later, there is only a bit of hair lef to grow. The crease at the coronet band is now grown 3/4 of the way down the hoof... I am suspicious that I will have to deal with other bouts of abcesses in the future... I suspect there are some in her right front, we'll just have to wait and see. There is no way to prevent abcesses except regular and appropriate hoof care, if they are already there, you will not know until they burst (or right before). Dandy had no heat coming from her hooves, it seems like this just happened in a matter of days, which is not the case. I am still keeping a good eye on her right foot.

She took her treatment in stride the whole time... the only part she didn't like was the cleaning out of the wound but she was still a trooper. She wasn't too fussy on being inside either, everything she could reach was sent to the ground. After being sure she hadn't foundered, I let her out again to exercise with her friends. At that point, she had only been inside for 3 days. Exercise is important to help drain the abcess, but it's important to turn them out in a clean pasture, no mud or dirt that could get on the wound, if there is, then you should wrap it, make sure to unwrap twice a day to clean and refresh the bandages. Usually, letting air to the wound is a good idea, it helps the healing process.

So, between the rain (which prevented us from cutting and baling our hay) and the horses... I couldn't really enjoy my summer... we did go on good trail rides and I had a lot of fun... but I don't know if it's enough to forget all of our misfortunes.