We Are Not Alone

MissThunderStruck
(Ibn Kontiki x Katsie Kitten)
Registered, bay, arab mare, born 2-9-95

In May 2008, I was given an arabian stallion & mare. Both were very well bred & I was excited to get them. I made arrangements to meet the hauler 1/2 way to pick them up. While we were unloading from the hauler's trailer & reloading into mine, she told me about some of the other arabs needing homes. They were all from the same couple who was looking for good homes for their horses. The hauler had taken some pictures with her phone & she showed me some really nice horses. One mare was big, bay & very nice looking. I could see that she was rolly polly fat in the picture, but I could also see that she was nice. If she'd been on the trailer instead of still in NV, I would have brought her home.

Fast forward to 2009. I was again thinking about that big, bay mare. I kept debating whether I should see if she was still available & whether I should bring her home. Then a friend mentioned that she'd like to find a mare of Kontiki breeding to breed to her stallion. I told her about "my" mare & arranged for her to get the mare. I was excited for my friend & glad she was getting the mare because at least now I'd get to see the mare who'd never left my thoughts. Two weeks ago my friend brought MissThunderStruck, aka "T", home. She told me "T's" feet were in horrible shape so we checked to see if my trimmer, Sally, would be willing to trim "T". As luck would have it, Sally was due at my place on Sunday the 4th.

My friend arrived with "T" & she wasn't exaggerating when she said "T's" feet were horrible. I was skeptical as to what Sally could do to help those feet. She looked, making faces & noises that just added to my skepticism. Then she went to work with nippers, knife & rasp. It was amazing to watch the layers of dead & diseased hoof fall away. It was very apparent that "T" was an old, chronic founder case. Her bars were huge & laying over; her toes were long with a significant lamellar wedge; her heels were high; flares sprawled in all directions; & it was no wonder poor "T" had trouble walking around her own feet. With every step she had to lift & swing her feet so she wouldn't bang her own legs. She moved somewhat like a wooden puppet with exaggerated movement. Sally uncovered a diseased track of what might have been an old abscess or gravel track or...??
It took a while to get "T's" front feet trimmed. She needed rests in between & Sally switched back & forth often between feet. It was obvious that "T" was uncomfortable on her feet. But what a really nice mare. Even in her discomfort, she was a doll to handle. She tried hard to behave & do what was asked of her. Finally Sally determined that she'd trimmed as much as she could in a first trim. What an amazing difference. It was funny at first to see "T" try to walk on her new feet. She lifted them really high until she found that she could walk normal. She was so much more comfortable on her feet. Sally didn't trim her hind feet because she thought "T" had endured enough for one day. On the gravel drive "T" was fairly ouchy, but in the sandy roundpen she was fine. Each day she improves & fortunately she'll soon be sound.

MissThunderStruck is another example of what happens when a horse is allowed to become obese. While she's thinner than in the pictures I first saw, she still has the classic cresty neck & fat pads of a horse with IR. A good part of her life has been spent on rich, irrigated pasture. This past year she'd been moved into a stall but still fed the baled alfalfa from the irrigated pasture. It's probably a miracle that her founder didn't send her coffin bones through her soles considering her obesity was never addressed. Luckily for "T" she's now in the care of someone who will manage her obesity. She'll also get the routine hoofcare that's so important to foundered horses. "T" will now have the chance at a long, healthy life.
For me this has confirmed that those of us dealing with foundered & IR horses are not alone. Together we can save horses who once would have been lost.