Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I'm going to try to post this all at once. If it makes a 25' long thread of 
type (does that sometimes from remote posting) I'll go back and hit return 
every line. :-P 

First try:

Just back from Biltmore where I finished 35th out of about 40 finishers (64 
starters) and I?m as proud of my completion as any I?ve received in the past 15 
years. If Jaye Perry (super farrier) were here right now I?d hug him! Here?s 
the story.

After a couple of pulls this Spring I?d taken Kaboot in for digital x-rays. 
They showed that his toe was too long and creating wear on front of the short 
pastern bone. The vet suggested I pull his shoes, get the toe backed up, and 
give him 3 months off. My regular farrier had retired and I really hadn?t found 
a local one I was satisfied with or who would come right out so I pulled the 
shoes myself and trimmed the toe back but not as far as the white line or 
anything. 

All was well for 10 days, then one evening Kaboot heard me come out of the 
house and neighed from the barn (unusual since the others were all down in the 
field) and there was just something weird about it. He?s not a very vocal horse 
and it had a kind of urgent sound to it. I went to check on him and he appeared 
to be in full founder stance. Talk about heart failure!!!

I lead him out of the shed and he was rocked back on his hind quarters walking 
with his front legs as stiff as boards crossing them over in front. I was in 
tears. I put him in a stall with deep bedding and he stood up over his feet, 
but kept shifting his weight. There was no digital pulse and no heat in his 
feet. He was on half his normal grain ration since not working, good hay (his 
usual brand) and I have very little grass so I saw no reason for a normal 
founder. He?d not done anything to bring on road founder. It wasn?t bad enough 
for toxic founder. I was just stumped. I looked at his feet and the walls were 
sort of busted up above the soles so he was walking on his soles.  I didn?t 
think a vet would be any help and so I called Jaye Perry. Jaye is the most 
confident person I know so he instills confidence. When I told him what was 
happening he laughed and said, ?it?s been a wet summer, he?s sore footed. Just 
put some Venice turpentine in silicone and tape that on his feet to help with 
the soreness and get him down here this week
. (Jaye is 125 miles away). That was Monday. My horse who hates stalls was 
perfectly content to stand around in the stall till Thursday getting nothing 
but hay and looking pretty good, so I put easyboots on him and tried to lead 
him out. Same thing. Stiff legs, crossing over. I couldn?t stand it. I loaded 
him up and headed for the vet. At this point I thought I?d lost my horse of a 
lifetime.

The vet checked him over and was amazed how sore he was, but didn?t think it 
was founder either. He told me to put him on bute until I could get him to the 
farrier. Saturday morning we pulled in at Jayes. I?m still all trembly lipped 
and he took one look and laughed and said, ?I thought you were going to bring 
me something hard! I had out the glue ons and everything?. Jaye doesn?t ask me 
what I do or what I want. He just takes over and I like that. He knows our 
sport and he knows my horse. He went to work shaping the shoes and made the 
coolest ?thumps? (what my students call cool shoes) around. He had squared back 
the toe and took a grinder to grind them down at exactly the place where Kaboot 
breaks over (not necessarily the center) so that they were sort of already 
broken in. Then he added pads and some medicine underneath and sealed up the 
heel with silicone. I took my horse home and he trotted off downhill SOUND. I 
couldn?t believe it.  Jaye told me to give him a week or so and I could start 
riding easy, so I did.

Driving 5 hours every time you need shoes is a pretty big deal, but after the 
third shoeing it seemed totally worth it. My horse was going great and I felt 
like we might get to do some more endurance. My old ?best farrier in town? 
never once even watched my horse trot. When I took him down last Wednesday Jaye 
shod him, then took him out on the paved drive and had his wife, Mary walk him 
and trot him while he videod him. We looked at the video on super slow mo and 
it was amazing to see my horse who travels so different at a walk than he does 
at a trot (spreads out) loading perfectly level at every strike of the 
pavement. Jaye had put in some equi-pour (I think that was the brand) pour in 
stuff on the sole ?since he had that abuse 12 weeks ago? and said ?Now you?re 
just going to go up to Biltmore and get around right?? I thought, Hey, I?d LOVE 
to just get around!He'd been feeling absolutely wonderful for weeks and I 
couldn't wait to try him out in competition.

Kaboot had no idea we were there to ?just get around? He cantered at his vet in 
trot out and was totally full of himself, so Josie and I decided to start late 
the next morning and had for once a sane first round. It was so nice to just 
have an energetic, but relatively sane horse underneath me. We caught up with 
nice people and just cruised along. We came up on a group at one time that had 
just hit bees and one rider had lost her horse. She started hiking and we 
progressed on down the trail. Seemed like we?d been going for quite a while 
when the riders ahead of me saw him and managed to catch him. They were going 
to tie him up for her and that sort of scared me because I?ve known a horse who 
was lost a couple of days and it really messed him up (saddle digs & all) and 
since we weren?t in a hurry Josie and I decided to take him on back to her. She 
wasn?t as far back as I?d expected, maybe a mile, so it wasn?t a big deal but 
it knocked a little more of the ?race mentality? out of my horse by confusing 
him with backtracking. Now he wa
s pretty darned calm!  What an unusual experience!

I used to ?endurance ride?. Then for several years I ?endurance raced?, then we 
started hurrying for ?first junior? today we were back out there to ?endurance 
ride? and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven?t laughed so much on the trail in I 
don?t know when. We were riding along with Jim Holland, Cindy Young, Flynn? 
(the one with the dirty dreams Jim?) and Alice Farren (sp?) Everybody was 
laughing and having such a good time that when at one point we started getting 
ahead of them Josie finally spoke up (she?s very quiet on the trail) and said, 
?Mom, let?s stay with them. They?re fun!? So we dropped back behind. They were 
going a better pace for us than Kaboot's idea of "Picking it up" anyway. 

At the finish line we were about 4th from last. Lots of horses had been pulled 
for lameness and we weren?t. My horse trotted out energetically and happy. I 
trotted him out Sunday morning and he could have vetted in again. I was 
ecstatic!!!!

I don?t know if what Jaye?s doing can undo what years of too much toe has done, 
but I do know he sure feels good to me right now! I think of my friend who was 
going to have to give up marathons until she got equithotics in her shoes to 
even out her loading and is doing great again and I can only hope. This makes 9 
years of competition for Kaboot. I fell in love with him all over again out 
there. I've never been on any horse at any time that was so motivated to always 
go forward. When he gets around one horses he just looks for the next one.I got 
to counting and between Josie?s mount & mine we had about 35 years of age, 5000 
miles of competition and 21 years of competition. Not bad for 2 sound horses at 
the end of a ride where 25 out of 64 didn?t complete. Sorry for you guys who 
had bad luck...it's Mountain High Valley Low. I've had enough low lately. Thank 
goodness for mountains! Thank you Jaye. Happy, happy, HAPPY!!! 


Angie & Kaboot (happy feet)


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