... what am I saying ? This summer it seemed it *always* rained !
Rosie still has gel in her shoes but is generally looking a lot better. The farrier is due next week so we shall see whether the vet recommends having gel for another go round. For a change I was around when he came last time. Sadly not for a good reason - my mother (who normally does the lion's share of the horse care) broke her ankle.
It was interesting to see the farrier rasp away the "mushy" front part of the toe where she has seedy toe. The horribly wet summer means Duds also has a touch of seedy toe. The only one who has been ok is Fi - for whom a lack of hard ground is good news !
I have continued to keep Fi on Devil's Claw - although its now in Dodson & Horrell's "Mobilty" herb mix. It seems to be keeping her much happier in terms of soundness.
The only slight concern is that something odd seems to be happening with right canter. I managed to squeeze a lesson with a local BHSI at the beginning of the summer. In right canter it feels like Fi turns into a camel and her hind legs seem to go out of rhythm and then disunited. At that point she falls into trot. It is pretty impossible to sustain the canter so I just have to ask again. The instructor reckoned she was getting tense in her back. I've been trying to come up with sensible exercises and approaches to help that. But I've not really got it sorted yet.
Which is a shame as otherwise she is going really nicely and I was even thinking about (fingers crossed) trying to get her fit enough to try a dressage comp again. But with a wonky right canter... that's a bit pointless.
It's been a fairly tough few weeks. Previously when I have been working fulltime and commuting, I have opted for full livery. But that has been a long term situation and this is just while the ankle heals. So somehow we have come up with a short term solution that keeps as much as we can ticking over. Commuting takes 3-4 hours every day I could so easily use in better ways :(
