Hay Day

[North Country Gal]

What a beautiful spread, RR! My kind of place, for sure. Give Badger a hug for me.

[RanchRoper]

Oh he gets lots of hugs....my wife runs that dept.

[JEBar]

Dry hay. The sugar is called Fructan. The condition is called laminitis or more commonly "founder".

has Badger had this type of reaction before .. .. if not, any idea of why this time ..

[RanchRoper]

The march of time....same as the rest of us. He is 20 now. So basically he may have had a touch of this before but difficult to diagnose. We had xrays done of his front feet. See that sharp bone pointing down? That is the coffin bone. Main bone in foot. There is a tendon that runs down back of leg attached to it at the back. What holds it in the front is ligaments and stuff called Laminae. They connect to it from the front hoof wall. Laminitis weakens these filaments and they die off. With nothing to hold the coffin bone in place the tendon pulls it until it rotates pointing down at the bottom of the foot. Pressure on that bone causes lameness. Bad enough and you end up putting the horse down because of extreme pain. He is ok....but prone to it and the bone has shifted a fraction. So careful shoeing, and leave as much sole on bottom as possible during trim.

[JEBar]

thanks for the info the makes what's going on easier to understand .... as you'd expect, its an area I know even less than nothing about

[BigAl52]

Need some rocket scientist to come up with sugar free grass. Guess this means Dakota will be called to duty more.

[RanchRoper]

Hoping to do some light riding on Badger in a couple of weeks once he grows more sole back. Just got trimmed last week.
But Dakota gets the call for awhile for cattle work. He's younger too. 20 is starting to get up there in horse years...

[RanchRoper]

They were out for a couple of hours on grass yesterday. Moderation.
Fall grass will be better for him: it cures over the summer. Less rich.

[PT7]

Great to hear Badger is mending...nice to have Dakota helping out. What a pair!

And you, RR, and the missus are a special pair, too, by taking such good care of your beautiful horses. Bet Badger & Dakota appreciate the nice homestead you've provided them, too.

[BigAl52]

Badger is like me ready for retirement