Week Ten - Progress On Operation 'Twinkle Toes'

We’ve been bringing Lottie in without her boots on over the last week and she’s definitely very careful (more careful on the 3ft of sharp gravel she crosses) but doesn’t seem particularly sore. Putting boots on to bring in has become more or less unmanageable. With the mud and the girls fighting at the gate on rainy days, it can mean taking your life in your hands bringing them in on your own, nevermind putting your backside in the air to apply boots (see next post!)

The girls have gone from 24/7 turnout to being in over night this week. The rain has been pretty bad over this last weekend but we're thinking/hoping it may well turn better again before winter hits properly.

We've also introduced Simple Systems to their diet in the hope that this will ensure they're getting all they need for healthy hooves! Jazz suspected we'd added arsenic and it's been a slow process for her to get up to the amounts she's supposed to have. Even Lottie was suspicious for a second or two, but it didn't last!

The Veterinary Physiotherapist came out to see Lottie on Thursday. We haven't seen her since we got Lottie about a year ago and it was a good excuse to see her again (the trimmer recommended an osteo/physio to check nothing else was interferring with normal movement).

There was quite a transformation in Lottie after she’d worked her magic. She didn’t think her feet were causing any referred physical problems specifically and thought her front-end/shoulders were just as before (she saw Lottie when we first got her nearly a year ago, so when she had shoes on). There’s a little development and tension in her neck and shoulders from fighting the bit in her past life but she was more concerned about her hind end. She thinks there may be an old injury there from a fall or similar and she’s given us some special massage things to do to keep out the tension. Lottie was really perky afterwards and is definitely moving better! I trotted her up for the physio a couple of times and she said the odd movement was really apparent in a lazy trot and thought this might have been what the trimmer had seen.

Lottie certainly brightened up afterwards and that (along with the colder weather maybe?) has brought back a horse that's definitely more willing to move (whether asked to or not!)