It’s been a good couple of weeks since I posted here. It’s just as well Sonny’s feet have slowed their growth rate for winter because my arms & back are shot! I really needed a break.
I left the trim an extra week so Cas can see what I would have normally trimmed off. As it turned out she was an extra week getting here so his feet were a tad long compared to how she would like them to be. In anycase there wasn’t much to remove.
But the toes do have to be shortened more than the white line indicates because the old hoof is almost gone & the new hoof is yet to show so the white line is gone around the toe now. So now it is up to me to keep this trim going good as Cas has work commitments now for 8-10wks until November. Hopefully during that time the rain will let up & the ground will dry out & his feet will start getting a good work out.
Sonny has been not wearing boots for a week or more now mostly due to so much rain but also because the ground is so soft & it is a good chance to start getting him used to going barefooted again.
He has had a sore LF for 2wks & I have been waiting for an abscess to emerge but none has. Now the soreness seems to have abaited. He was a bit sore after trimming & I gave him a bute yesterday afternoon because he seemed off colour. Way out of character he laid down in his shelter while I discussed how to trim Jude & Cassie with Cas. He didn't get up when Cas was using the grinder on Jude. He actually had a sleep! He was dreaming & whinnying in his sleep. lol Also I think because he is still being paddocked alone & the mares go off way down the back paddock where he can't see them, he gets really upset. So much so that he won't lay down & sleep. He spends the whole night running around & screaming. With so much rain all night it would make it very uncomfortable so he was probably dead on his feet & having that nice soft dry hay bedding, he just couldn't resist the need to sleep.
This afternoon I got him in to do some liberty play & practice knealing down on one knee which he finally learnt a week ago. After a short session he became enthrawled by something way across the hills. He seemed unusually high spirited & trotted a little which was nice to see. I decided to take him out down the road for a walk. He hasn't been out the front gate for a year I think. I booted him all round & we went for a nice walk which he thoroughly enjoyed. He stood tall, eyes bulging as he gawked at all the cattle in paddocks along the road. So he must be starting to feel better now.
I took the pretrim photos on the morning Cas was to trim him but the rain didn’t let up & Cas was late. She did him but it was dark by then. Too much rain next day or 2 until today when I was able to get him out of the paddock, remove his boots & get some shots outside where there was some light. My old video camera doesn’t have a flash. In today's photos you can see a white line around his coronets. That's from having his boots on all the time during all this wet weather. On the day I took the pretrim shots I let his feet dry before I took them but today I had to take the photos straight away.
He is getting a little hand feed although he has finished the supplement. He has eaten the whole house yard right down so I am planning to move him to the front paddock as soon as the rain lets up & the long grass dries enough for me to mow lines through it to stake the electric fence along to divide the paddock on half. He will be able to see the mares all the time & still get plenty of exercise in a slightly less soft, sloping paddock. Hopefully he can go bootless there too right from the outset.
Anyway here are 2 photos with the remainder of the pretrim & trim shots at this link. http://s340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/BBB/July%202012%20Sonnys%20feet%20photos/
