Nope, this is not a whining-ouch-it-hurts post. But it stems from that.
I've noticed over the past couple days worth of impared locomotion that there are things that hurt that well, maybe shouldn't hurt since they did not bear the direct impact.
Ah-HA!! Can we apply this to our horses somehow? (In case you are wondering, sleep has been an issue of late as well. Last night was the worst, as Jo the Wonder Nanny Dog was utterly convinced we were about to DIE because of STORMS outside. She did her best to keep me awake- all night- watching for tornadoes. Have I mentioned I really do love Jo?)
Right- so as I was struggling to find a happy thought instead of, "If I chunk her old ass outside and leave it there, would she die of a myocardial infarction? And if she did die, where would we bury her?" it dawned on me that my smashed hoof is not unlike a damaged hoof on a horse. And the resulting aches and pains in other areas might just be what our horses experience when they suffer with a stride alteration/ abnormality.
For example- my stride has been altered quite a bit. Flexing my foot during "breakover" is quite painful. To protect the affected area, I am rolling my foot to the outside. Not unlike a horse who is suffering pain in the toe would alter his gait. So, if we are going with the my foot = horse hoof analogy, the compensatory pain I'm feeling ( calf muscles in both legs, radiating to left thigh and left lower back in particular,) what muscles are affected in our horses when they have to alter gait?
Hmm.... seems to me that I've seen issues arise in supporting limbs (kind of a no-brainer there,) but that pain has also radiated to backs, necks, shoulders, hips, hocks and knees too. And that resulting compensatory pain can cause serious secondary issues, only adding to the strain of the initial injury and overall healing time.
Now this is a sticking point with me. I'll dig in my heels (surely not my TOES right now,) and argue till we are blue in the face that a horse who is even slightly off needs to be carefully observed and proper exercise provided. When you have a horse who starts out slightly "off", and ends up landing say, toe first, you are compounding the physical effects to the initial lameness throughout the entire body. If you continue to use the horse, say an intensive lesson with a less than well balanced rider, what do you think is going to happen?
If you want a solid horse, you have to have a solid base that is pain-free. Even a small amount of pain will alter their gait, and create issues through the rest of the body. This argument also points out why *proper, balanced, timely* hoof care is critical--- if you don't have proper balance in the hooves, how can you ever expect your horse's body to remain balanced and comfortable, able to work to it's fullest potential?
Thoughts anyone?
~MM
8 comments:
Good post - feet first - if they're not OK everything else is affected, usually in a bad way.
All so true. I definitely notice on both Frosty and Spooks that once I got their IR-related feet issues under control, that I then had (have) to contend with shoulder stiffness and soreness.
Both horses are making remarkable strides (possible pun intended ;-) as the feet pain has left and their bodies are starting to loosen up. It has taken a lot of massage and a lot of stretching exercises, both on the ground and on their backs, to start to free everything up again.
Spooks still wants to tippy-toe across anything but the softest ground and I am seeing some resulting damage in the way he wears his toes and some splitting of the hoof wall from the filaria.
Turk is due to be reshod and I think I may cheat a little and just have the black horse reshod (maybe just the fronts?) as we continue to work through other possible problems. I think it is worth it to try to prevent further damage to his feet due to the possibility of deep tissue thrush or residual IR symptoms.
It is lovely to have a farrier again that actually helps improve the foot with his shoeing vs. the ones who just nail a hunk of metal onto the bottom of the foot.
I agree 100% Without a solid ,stable , COMFORTABLE "base of support" all body mechanics are compromised , horse or human. Add to that a potentially unbalance base of support in the rider and you have a trainwreck on your hands!
Completely agree!
And hope you are back to your painfree gait soon!
You are so right. This should be a 'no brainer' but I know things like this slip my mind. It's happened to me, personally, awkward position of my hip caused knee pain - duh! Luckily, I haven't noticed this with my horse - but thanks for reminding me that I should look at all angles/connections if something comes up!
All right, I do agree BUT this also brings to mind for me the reverse being true.
As an example of this, Storm came back with his feet all messed up, as you know. But I don't know if you know that one of his feet actually made a very dramatic change. Where the horse HAD a perfectly beautiful round hoof, he now has an elongated hoof that is slightly club. I'm pretty sure this change in hoof growth came from pain in his shoulder AND probably improper trimming/shoeing.
I'm hoping by fixing the trimming and the shoulder, the hoof will eventually return to it's normal healthy shape. I believe the challenge will be because the shoulder and the hoof growth will "feed" off of each other, it will be a long road.
Which makes it all just one more HUGE reason to see that a horse's feet are ALWAYS right so you don't get caught in these vicious circles hopefully.
MM -
You are so right about all this connected stuff. I can tell you on a daily basis how it feels to try retraining all those big rubber band muscles that they cut through to cut out old, bad bone and insert cool, new ceramic and titanium stuff. It's like learning to walk all over again, but you're not allowed to fall down. Ha! The knees and shins really take a beating, then there's the cramps in the arch of your foot that just won't give up. It's so easy to forget what attaches to what. I just remind myself that each day is much better and I can MOVE again. Yeah!!! So take care of that toe and your horse's toes, too. Love ya,
Juanita
Totally agree. But how do you find the balance between "rest and heal" and "keep moving to keep the blood flowing"? How do you give just enough bute to keep them moving normally without compounding the original hurt area? Such a balancing act :(
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