Anyone remember Sly Diamond Jim from Finger Lakes?

[scottk]

But back to the be![](inning. Before the horses even arrived I started looking for a farrier. My friend with horses said I have a farrier you should use. I always believe in going with a recommendation so I said great. Now mind you Ashton’s feet were so bad he was gimping around and I was feeling horrible about the situation. Ashston’s feet can be seen here,

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20140527_200736_zpsruphw4rl.jpg)

And here.

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20140527_200722_zpsjlfrjbiu.jpg)

I expressed my concerns to the farrier. He said they needed to be trimmed right away. He then broke 3 appointments over the next 10 days. The year before, we attended a horse show at a well known dressage barn in the area and there was a farrier there working. He seemed like a nice enough guy. I remembered that I had saved his business card. My wife dug it out and we called him. He was able to come out the next day. He trimmed Ashton and Jim and I asked for the name of a vet as I figured it would be good for the vet and farrier to have a working relationship. He gave me the name of a vet from Mt. Holly NJ which was a little far away but no problem. I called them and a very nice professional female associate vet from the practice came out. She was schooled at New Bolton and that seemed good to me.

She gave Jim and Ashton a wellness exam and gave them their shots. She told me that they had strong sounding hearts, lungs, and digestive sounds and that they should be fine. I had been feeding them the food the former owner was feeding them which was Tractor Supply pellets. She suggested a switch to Purina Equine Senior for the enhanced nutritional value and to help put the weight back on the horses. They are still on it to this day. I transitioned them over 1 weeks time. She also mentioned having their teeth floated at some future date. I thanked her and off she went. I thought this is great. Unfortunately this was not to last…

[scottk]

After the f![](rst trim the farrier thought that Ashton might be a little sore from having so much hoof removed. He suggested we pick up a pair of easy boots. We bought them from Rick’s saddle shop the next day. He wore them until his next trim in 5 weeks. At this time I was also taking the farrier over to trim Tempe at the other house as he was in dire need of foot care also and just wasn’t getting it before.

Things seemed to be going ok. I was doing a lot of reading online about horses. They were slowly gaining weight. They had a lot of green pasture to eat. I tried to throw them hay but they ate right around it and kept on eating the grass LOL. I asked the Vet if laminitis was a concern and she said that since they had some grass where they had came from they should be fine.

We were getting to know each other. They were becoming tamer by the week. I was still going over to care for Tempe, buying feed, picking his feet brushing him etc. It felt like I already had 3 horses in 2 separate locations.

Until…One day in early August. Ashton was limping. I called the farrier to take a look. He said that Ashton had an abscess on his left foot. He punctured the abscess so it would drain and had me purchase some kind of pad that you wet and it draws the puss out. My wife and I put the pad on, wrapped it with vet wrap and then placed his foot in a rubber boot. Horse owners for 2 months and are into this. Oh boy. I was nervous as we all know they are big animals but we had no choice. We had to help our buddy. All seemed fine. The next morning, Sunday, he seemed fine but that afternoon I look out and see Ashton lying completely on his side. I go over to him and he is sweating profusely. I think oh my god has is colic.

I call the Vet’s emergency number and the owner of the practice answers. I tell him Ashton is down and ask him to please come to the farm ASAP. When the Vet arrived about an hour later Ashton had just gotten back on his feet. He listened to the gut and said from what he heard he didn’t think it was colic. He then asked what was going on with the foot. I explained what the farrier had said and what we were doing and he wanted to see the foot. He cut the vet wrap off. He found a second abscess and nerve blocked his foot and prescribed bute. He suggested maybe we should take a couple of radio graphs. He returned the next day. What he found can be seen here. This is actually his second radio graph taken a month later.

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/d44033e2-33ce-41f1-8b84-fc136184a357_zpsgcrounso.jpg)

He looked at the radio graph and I asked him what I already knew in my heart. Ashton had laminitis. His coffin bone had rotated so far that he was dangerously close to penetrating the sole. This is what was causing the abscesses. What triggered this was in his last race he injured his right ankle. You can see the damage here.

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/Ashton%20Killiam%2010-20-14_1_zps0d2lvnbh.jpg)

His owner figured if he just left him out in the field it would heal. Well the pressure from transferring his weight to the left side caused the left foot to founder. I figured the only good thing is that it was a mechanical founder as opposed to one caused by a metabolic issue.

Now is where i start to lose my mind…
I ask the fine doctor what we should do. You know what he told me? He told me to put Ashton down. He literally told me that Ashton was a free horse. It would cost considerable sums to keep him alive and he could probably only give him 6 to 8 more months before it became too painful for him. He said there are plenty of good horses available and that I shouldn’t let myself become too emotionally attached.

Emotionally attached?

This is the horse that put my wife at ease around horses with his mild disposition. Our first horse.

Emotionally attached?

This is the horses that when I saw him for the first time he was standing in that god forsaken muddy field with feet that looked like ping pong paddles.
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20140516_182739_zpsywyr8p7e.jpg)

Grossly underweight, standing in a run in that was never even completed and left with the other 2 to suffer through last winter.

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20140516_182420_zps01ycapus.jpg)

The horse that when I saw for the first time i said to myself that the ONLY reason he still stands is his will to live.

The horse I looked in the eye and told “don’t worry buddy, I got this, your going to be fine now”

Yes, after all of that I am going to put him down over a couple of bucks.

I was not going to be the last and final disappointment in this poor creatures life.

When I regained my composure I told him that yes Ashton was free. And based on that I had a couple of bucks to invest in him. Euthanize him without trying. Absolutely out of the question. At this time in the back of my mind I knew it was probably time for a new Vet but I was going to give him a shot at helping our horse.

He told me he would call the farrier into his office, go over the radio graphs and recommend a treatment. I said fine, please get this going and I called the farrier myself to confirm.

The farrier was able to come out later. He decided along with the Vet to put him in front shoes, with the foundered foot having the shoe installed backwards. What did I know and without time to research on my own I said fine. He looked at the foot and said there wasn’t enough hoof to nail to. He would need to glue the shoe on. OK. He trims the hoof, gets the shoe set, wraps it with the plastic and just as it is about set…
Ashton rears up and tosses the shoe. So we start over. Remove what was left of the epoxy. Clean it off of the shoe and try again. Waiting…holding his foot up…wham, he rears again and kicks that shoe off. That was the last of the epoxy that he had so I paid him for his time but got nothing accomplished. We made plans to meet the next day and have the Vet sedate Ashton so we could get the shoe on.

You see, the real problem was, he couldn’t stand on the bad ankle for too long. That is what he needed to do and couldn’t stand the pain. The first vet never figured that out all the way until the day I fired him. It wasn’t till some time later on that the we figured that out.

But more on that later…

[Dare1]

Scottk I want to hear the rest of the story.

[jvanrens]

Can hardly see through the tears to type. You did a beautiful thing for these three. Karma will repay you.

[ThisTooShallPass]

Bravo Scott, bravo!

[Calamber]

I am waiting for the next installment, please continue. And, by the way, Tempe looks like he wants to go back to the track and win back your “investment”.

[jade2058]

Its called horse theraphy. Its majic and it always makes the human feel great. Yes horses take a lot of time and resources. But oh my … it’s so woth it. Joy … majesty. You and your wife are heroes saving these three guys!

[Griffyn]

Well ScottK, you’re a horseman now! Cant wait to read the rest of the installments.

[scottk]

[QUOTE=jvanrens;8010062]
Can hardly see through the tears to type. You did a beautiful thing for these three. Karma will repay you. :D[/QUOTE]

Karma repays me every time I get to sit on the fence and watch them playing together. And no need for tears. This is actually a good story.

[scottk]

[QUOTE=Griffyn;8011051]
Well ScottK, you’re a horseman now! Cant wait to read the rest of the installments.[/QUOTE]
Wow. The best compliment I could be paid. Just trying to do right by our guys. Thank you.

[scottk]

Thank you for your interest. Okay where did I leave off?

The next day the female vet from before arrived for the sedation. I was happy to see her as I was not too happy with the owner of the practice. My farrier showed up and we went to work. At this point my barn was still not done and my stalls were not complete. We started to work on Ashton in the barn isle. I had Jim isolated on the other side of a fence, about 30’ from where we were working on Ashton. Now up until this point Jim and Ashton had not been separated by more than 10’. Jim started to carry on and run back and forth over a 100’ span. It got so bad that I was scared he would injure himself. I have a 3 rail fence and he was kicking up so much dirt where he was turning around that he actually had dirt higher than the top of the bottom rail. . Eventually he wore himself out and calmed down but I never saw him act like that. It was a real eye opener.

The vet sedated Ashton and the farrier went to work. The farrier started to do the shoeing and I was holding the lead rope. He put a standard shoe on the right side and put a shoe on backwards on the foundered foot. He then was preparing to fill the the inside of the shoe on the foundered foot with a rubber compound to help support the frog. At this point I felt Ashton starting to come out of the sedation. I told the vet that things could get a little exciting if we did not do something. She took out a twitch, the kind that uses a short wooden pole and a chain and placed it around his upper lip. This kept him calm enough for the farrier to finish.

When done the vet told me to keep Ashton confined to a small paddock. She and the farrier left. I had Ashton in a 30’ by 100’ paddock with Jim on the other side of the fence. They were both carrying on so bad trying to get to each other that I just opened the fence and let him go. They tore off across the field. It was good to see Ashton feeling better. Not exactly what the doctor ordered but he was extremely happy.

So it was back to our normal routine. Things were going well. Ashton was moving fine. If he played too hard he would limp for a bit but not too bad. He had been put on a once a day anti inflammatory and it seemed to be going well. I started to research laminitis online and the various treatment protocols. What a huge amount of information to take in.

In a month it was time for Ashton to be seen again. By now I had done some major reading on the subject and had several questions ready for the Vet regarding his ongoing treatment. One of the big questions was why are we using a backward shoe when the industry standard seems to be leaning towards a heart bar shoe which gives frog support and helps keep the coffin bone in place.

Well the appointment was set and guess what? The owner of the practice was coming out this time. Well, I did decide that I was going to give him another chance so here we go.

When the Vet and farrier arrived I greeted them and told the Vet I wanted to discuss some things before we started. I said how I had been reading about the great success people had been having using a heart bar shoe. He wouldn’t even discuss it. He did tell me though that I read too much online and to stop reading and listen to him. This guy oozes arrogance from every pore. If I listened to him the first time all I would have is a dead horse. But, he is here. The farrier is here. I need new radio graphs taken and I need my horse sedated so we can move on with the shoeing. So with a BIG smile I say lets get started. The Vet sedates Ashton. I tell him that maybe he should have a twitch ready as Ashton started to come out of the sedation early last time. I am told that I worry too much and that he has everything under control. I then thought Oh boy, this could get interesting. Well the farrier gets to doing his thing but Ashton just doesn’t seem as relaxed as before but the Vet says he is doing fine. The farrier has the shoe glued on and the plastic wrap on and I can feel Ashton coming back to life. I ask the Vet to PLEASE put a twitch on him. I was told it was not needed. Well, we have already been down this road before. He rears up and kicks the shoe off. He reared pretty high and in the barn isle it was kind of scary. I am kind of numb at this point so it didn’t really spook me too bad. However, the Vet. The one who assured me that we didn’t need the twitch. The one that told me that I worry too much. He ran out of the barn like a little girl hollering that my horse has severe behavioral issues. As sad as it was, it was kind of funny to watch. The farrier then suggested instead of gluing the shoe on he could fiberglass it on going around the sides of the hoof. That way, Ashton would not have to hold his foot up as long. So finally, out came the twitch. We were able to get him shod. Everybody packed up and left. I had some serious thinking to do.

Well, as I am sure you can understand I knew I needed a new Vet and as much as I liked our farrier I thought it was time to go in another direction with a farrier that was more familiar with the heart bar shoe.

So I began my search for a new Vet and farrier…

[scottk]

[QUOTE=Cala![](ber;8010927]
I am waiting for the next installment, please continue. And, by the way, Tempe looks like he wants to go back to the track and win back your “investment”.[/QUOTE]

He does look strong doesn’t he. The only track he will see though is if I bring a TV out to the barn so we can watch his great great grandaddy in the movie Secretariat. By the way, he has Sham in his bloodline also. How weird is that? Unfortunately he was retired with a bad knee.

You can see it here

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/Tempy%20Killiam%2010-20-14_1_zpswrvhxuvo.jpg)

[Calamber]

Ouch, wow. He runs and turns like that on that knee and always wants to be out front! Holy moly. Sham had a heart like a lion to try and run with Secretariat, well, until they broke that in the Belmont, but he was a good sire. I knew one of his son’s at Charles Town. This is a good story Scott, you should write a book. Waiting for the next installment, I am really enjoying it and can’t wait until the arrogant vet gets kicked to the curb.

[FalseImpression]

loving every line of it… thank you…
you may be new to horses, but you learned a lot. I know people who have had horses for 30+ years and know a lot less.
Those horses won the lottery. Enjoy them! they look happy and healthy, have lots of room to play… I hope you found a good vet and a good farrier by now!

[scottk]

Here they are th![](s morning. I kept them in all day yesterday due to the temps combined with the wind. They were a little rammy LOL

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/th_20150216_090251_zpsdyupzv9l.mp4)

More on the Vet a little later…

[sjdressage]

[QUOTE=scottk;8012837]
Here they are th![](s morning. I kept them in all day yesterday due to the temps combined with the wind. They were a little rammy LOL

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/th_20150216_090251_zpsdyupzv9l.mp4)

More on the Vet a little later…[/QUOTE]

Wow, those horses really hit the lottery. I started the thread and can probably add some insight. John, the owner, decided to retire the horses and boarded them at a facility in south jersey. Unfortunately the boarding facility he went to May have been good for an easy keeper but they were not experienced enough for these guys and didn’t go out of their way to help john. When John had the farrier come, he had to go catch Ashton to bring him to where the farrier said he had to work on him. He had major separation anxiety and was impossible to work with. Of course the barn owner did nothing to help. How about trimming him in the field with his buddy? How about someone grabbing his buddy and holding him nearby? How about offering a hand. Nope, nothing. Farrier left. The horses were really skinny by then so John bought his own place literally for these horses. He had another farrier come and by then his feet were worse and he had trouble standing. The farrier said she couldn’t do it and had to come back with tranq. She never came back and kept putting him off, putting him off, putting him off. That is where I believe you came in. So, basically it was a case of someone trying to do the right thing but unfortunately not having the right team in place. John had some experience from working around the barn but hadn’t been doing it for very long. I’m so happy they have a great life.

[PeteyPie]

They look great. What a nice ending for those guys!

Scottk, you and your wife are wonderful.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Our farrier said that sometimes a heart bar shoe can be detrimental. He uses a straight bar shoe more often. Have you tried those soft-ride boots? They work well and stay on in pastures.

Lucky horses!

[scottk]

[QUOTE=sjdressage;8013131]
Wow, those horses really hit the lottery. I started the thread and can probably add some insight. John, the owner, decided to retire the horses and boarded them at a facility in south jersey. Unfortunately the boarding facility he went to May have been good for an easy keeper but they were not experienced enough for these guys and didn’t go out of their way to help john. When John had the farrier come, he had to go catch Ashton to bring him to where the farrier said he had to work on him. He had major separation anxiety and was impossible to work with. Of course the barn owner did nothing to help. How about trimming him in the field with his buddy? How about someone grabbing his buddy and holding him nearby? How about offering a hand. Nope, nothing. Farrier left. The horses were really skinny by then so John bought his own place literally for these horses. He had another farrier come and by then his feet were worse and he had trouble standing. The farrier said she couldn’t do it and had to come back with tranq. She never came back and kept putting him off, putting him off, putting him off. That is where I believe you came in. So, basically it was a case of someone trying to do the right thing but unfortunately not having the right team in place. John had some experience from working around the barn but hadn’t been doing it for very long. I’m so happy they have a great life.[/QUOTE]

I agree with what you said. John was doing the absolute best that he could for the horses. As I indicated in previous posts he was very overwhelmed. I am very appreciative of him trusting me with the horses. There is no doubt that his intentions were noble. He has come to the house on several occasions to visit with them and his mom and sister were here also. I text John pictures and we still talk from time to time so I can give him updates. The bottom line is he didn’t take the easy way out (auction ) which I know he would never have done and thank goodness we were looking for horses at the time. By the way, I was going to help him complete the run in if we couldn’t get Tempe to load and he had to stay for another winter. That was for certain. By the way, are you Heather?

[scottk]

[QUOTE=WildandWickedWarmbloods;8013352]
Our farrier said that sometimes a heart bar shoe can be detrimental. He uses a straight bar shoe more often. Have you tried those soft-ride boots? They work well and stay on in pastures.

Lucky horses![/QUOTE]

I believe I know what you are talking about. Please be patient if I screw this up as I haven’t been around horses too long. The way it was explained to me is that a heart bar shoe needs to be fitted properly. The v shaped part of the bar is what supports the frog. It has to be adjusted so that it is not in constant contact with the frog but a little below it. This way constant contact won’t irritate him but if he pushes off or walks ( or runs LOL ) a little too hard and the frog pushes down it will contact the shoe and not be able to push any further thus preventing the coffin bone from rotating downward, or so I think I was told.

He has been in the heart bar shoe for the last 10 weeks and it appears that he is responding well.

I haven’t tried soft ride boots but did have him in “Easy Boots” earlier last summer.