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LYRICAL - 10-year-old Quarter Horse mare
Lyrical arrived at the ranch in August, 2006. She was about 200 lbs
under-weight, and seemed slightly off on one of her front legs. The
lameness appeared to be intermittent - here today, gone tomorrow.
Needless to say, it was very hard to diagnose where the lameness was
coming from and what the cause of it might be.
This picture was taken at the end of September. Lyrical already looked like a different horse! She had gained her weight back, and her coat had picked up a glorious shine.
At this point, Lyrical had begun to actually run and buck in the pasture, so I had very high hopes that she was improving and her lameness was resolving itself with the regular balanced hoof trims she was getting.
During the appointment with the vet, we came to the conclusion that Lyrical had navicular. She tested positive with the hoof testers when pressure was applied to her hoof. We did the X-rays to see how bad it looked, but when they were developed, we were both very surprised to see that her navicular bone was showing no deterioration. We concluded that Lyrical is in the beginning stages of navicular at this time, but has not been lame long enough for the bony changes to take place in her hooves.
Update July, 2007: It is funny how you think a horse that is getting around pretty good should be an easy fix. Lyrical is still battling her "mystery lameness" and she has been at the ranch almost a year now. At times she has heel pain on her left front, and other times it is the sole near the toe that is tender. A few months ago, my vet, farrier, and I decided to try a bar shoe to keep the sole from flexing. That was a disaster! Her hoof was getting very clubby looking after only 4 weeks with the shoe on. So, I had my farrier pull the shoe and after about a month of being barefoot again, her hoof looks pretty normal.....but she still limps. She still trots and canters with her buddies in the pasture, but then she limps even worse afterward. I'm sure she is here to teach me something, and I sincerely hope for her sake, I figure it out soon.
Update August, 2007: When I wrote the last post, you can probably tell I was feeling a bit discouraged. I have felt all along that Lyrical needed someone trained in the Pete Ramey or Jamie Jackson barefoot trimming method to help her. I had been searching for a farrier that knows this method for months, and had been unable to find anyone who could do the trim the way it is taught in their books. Well, this month is different! I found a Pete Ramey farrier, and he came out to the ranch and trimmed Lyrical. He said her heels were still too long and a bit under-run, the hoof walls were too long and causing her quarters to crack and break off, and her toes needed backed up considerably. We corrected that problem, and in less than 3 weeks I am already seeing an AMAZING change. Lyrical trotted the entire length of one of the longest pastures on the ranch today, and even though she was still a bit short strided, there was no severe head bobbing at the trot like she has consistently exhibited in the past. I believe we are definitely on the right track this time! :)
Here is the "before" picture of one of Lyrical's front feet. Notice how the heels are too
long, and are now bearing weight a full 1-2" under her foot. The bars are too long, and so
are the hoof walls, which is causing the wall to break and chip. Lyrical had been on an 8-
week trimming schedule. This was taken about 7 weeks after her last trim.
Here we have the "after picture. Notice how the long heels have been removed, so the
weight is now being carried at the back of the foot where it should be. The hoof walls
have been rasped back tight to the white line, so there is no excessive hoof wall to chip
and break now. This farrier also put a "mustang roll" on her toe, so she will have a
quicker break over.Movement is critical to healing a navicular horse. Lyrical is out on a large pasture 24/7
where the best feed is at one end of the pasture, and her water tank is at the other. So
many people feel sorry for horses that are lame, and think it is best for them to not have
to move very far to eat and get water. Nature tells us (from the Mustangs) that the exact
opposite is actually true.
Copyright 2007 Sunny Acres Ranch - All rights reserved.
One day in November when Lyrical appeared to be as sound as I had ever seen her, a friend of mine decided to saddle her up and see if she was a saddle horse or not.As you can see, Lyrical has been trained as a saddle horse. She seemed a bit rusty with the cues, but was very quiet and tried hard to please her rider.
After about 10 minutes of riding, she started to limp again, so we called it a day and unsaddled her. I decided at this point that the lameness was not something that was going to resolve itself any time soon, and I made an appointment with my vet to have X-rays done.
