Finn's Story

Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 June 2010 12:24

If you haven't read Finn's whole story, start up here at the top and work your way down.  If you have and want an update from July 09 to June 2010 click HERE 

I have had Finn since 2002, I bought him from a hack barn, never rode him, just fell in love with him and bought him.  He was always slow and the farrier told me that Finn had more than likely foundered in the past.   I started doing research and eventually ended up taking Finn bare.

It has been nothing but a struggle to keep this horse sound and moving nicely.  I could have helped him sooner, but this was the journey I had to take.

The first slide show is Finn's feet 2003 - 2004.  We were on Long Island for most of these shots.  I was told that to have a sound barefoot horse I had to force him to walk on the terrain that I wanted to ride on.  There were no boots at the time I pulled Finn's shoes, except the Easycare EZBoot, they of course were no good so I started hand walking Finn over the riding trails.  The most that did was create a horse who walks on a leash better than either of my Boxers.  I will add that after the first try of getting him to walk on rocks, I stopped.  Instead we would go for long walks thru grassy fields and soft sandy Long Island trails.  Forced Marches made no sense and I wasn't going to subject my horse to it.

Somewhere in there the Old Mac's came out and for awhile I'd have fun, but Finn hated them and would rip them to shreds within a month or so at 165.00 a pop, thank you very much.  Then the Boa Boots came out, I was very excited and got those.  Of course Easycare didn't mention that the dials were a problem and it took them a while to figure out how to fix them.  Ruined 2 pairs of those.

I think I hurt his feet with those boots a few times too, I adjusted the dial too tight, trying to keep them on and then would duct tape them around his foot.  Ugh.  

Finn was not on grass, had about 3 hours of turnout and the other 21 hours were spent in a stall unless I went and rode him.  Which I did almost every day.  3 - 5 hours a ride.  

Here are Finn's feet in 2003 - 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't really have any pictures to share of Finn's feet in 2005, nothing spectacular to speak of.  We moved up to Orange County, NY about 65 - 70 miles from NYC.  Finn went from a boarding barn to a private farm that has three 20 acre pastures.  You can see some views of this in the Around the Farm photo gallery.  He was fine in 2005, I was riding him a lot and he was in a herd with 5 other horses.  His health improved dramatically and I think a lot of that was just being out 24/7 and changing his diet.  I started learning about nutrition, still am, I know about a thimbleful compared to others.  I had Finn tested for Cushings and IR they both came back negative.  I don't think the IR was done correctly though, no comparison with the Insulin and Glucose (I think that is what is supposed to be done).  Anyway, I digress.  So I let him eat grass and I rode him a lot up here.  As we came into 2006 his feet looked gorgeous.  I was riding him in Epic boots, with comfort pads and he was doing pretty good.  I didn't boot his hinds and in retrospect I should have.  But I was told not to worry about hinds, horses didn't get sore back there.  Well DUH!  But I've said this is a story of a journey, so lets continue.  I must say I had a lot fun riding thru the state parks up here.  I don't think Finn was 100% sound but I didn't recognize it, he did good int the Epics, as long as I didn't mind replacing cables and getting off to push the claps back down a lot :).  Here are his 2006 feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In late August I had a feeling about Finn and Lyme so I had him tested.  His titer came back from Cornell at 980 or something close to that.  I contacted a vet that Paige Poss had been using down in Virginia who specialized in Lyme treatment.  He prescribed 4 months of Doxy 100 pills a day, plus a special Lyme Support chinese herbal supplement.   Finn bless his heart ate those darn pills and that powder 2x a day for exactly 3 months and 29.5 days. The last feeding he refused so I let him decide he was done.  He improved, was moving more fluidly and seemed less grumpy.  I forgot to mention at the start of this long ass story, that Finn hates: To be groomed, touched, cuddled and was very nasty to all the other horses.  I saw some of this diminish but not completely disappear.

It was the winter of 2006/2007 that things started to change.  It was a cold snowy winter.  I didn't have to stress about Finn being locked in a stall so I started riding him a lot less.  Also the owner of the farm decided to start buying large square hay bales, they weighed 700lbs each.  He bought feeders for the pastures and he would put a bale in the AM pasture and a bale in the PM pasture.  Seven horses ate both bales in approximately 3.5 days. The horses blew up.  It took me awhile to catch this - sometimes you just can't see what is right in front of you.  By January the horses were huge and this started Finn's downward spiral.  I tried to capture it on the camera but was never able to show how bad he looked, but this picture does show how heavy and thick his crest was.  

I convinced the farm owner that we needed to stop putting out the huge bales and to put out hay based on weight.  This was accomplished and I also had the hay tested, Timothy, very low NSC and it has been consistently the same for the next two years as well.  The next nail in Finn's spiral was that I got a series of jobs that sent me around the United States from February til Mid April.  I would be home a few days at a time and then back on a plane.

When I was home I was trimming clients so Finn and my other horse Oisin were totally ignored.  Finn stood out in the fields with the others and just ate and ate and ate.  The next cure I tried was by a Dr. Thomas www.forloveofthehorse.com.  He came highly recommend from a few places, so I decided to try him next.   I did a consult with him, had all the bloodwork drawn and sent to him.  He told me Finn's liver was not functioning correctly and a few other things.  I was instructed to buy a LOT of different expensive, supplements and syringe them into Finn's mouth.  Some of it was 2x a day, some 4x a day. I think I started that in Feb or March and continued it til the day he crashed.  I also wasn't paying attention to the grass situation in the pastures I had played roulette with him in 2006 and his feet looked so good that I thought I was just lucky, grass wasn't a problem.

How frigging brilliant of me, eh?  

So on May 9th 2007 Finn had an acute laminitic attack, he came in from the pastures for his AM feeding and he was in a full blown attack, rocked back, in serious pain.  I stopped the herbal treatments and dry lotted him, put him in Old Mac's with pads and Bute.  I don't think judicious use of Bute is a bad thing, despite what some of the fanatics say.

In June 2007 he popped a horrible abscess out of his right front coronet band.  Wow that was ugly to watch and I had a lot of doubts about what to do.  As soon as it opened he started moving so much better, until the abscess started developing in his left front, that was smaller and came out faster.   Here are the 2007 photos that I feel like sharing.  I know a lot of people feel they could have done better, some are probably right and some wrong.  My biggest fault was in thinking this issue could all be fixed barefoot.   Finn's feet looked like they did because my only options were barefoot or boots/pads.  I kept his feet in a shape that were most comfortable for him.  Was it the right thing to do, probably not, I should have shod him back then.  But, I know I couldn't be here now, if I hadn't been there then and a quote to go with it; "You did the best that you knew how, now that you now better, you'll do better." Maya Angelou.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the hoofcare sites show their successes, I will too, I'm proud of what I've accomplished.  But I'm going to show the not so good cases as well.  Those that I struggle with, because I do like helping people.  I know there a lot of folks out there going at this alone and I want to help.  So, I'm laying it all out the good, the bad, the really bad and the ugly.  

By 2008 Finn was a pasture ornament, in the Spring I pulled him out of the pastures, March as a matter of fact.  He stayed in the dry lot on the low NSC hay and he did just okay.  February, March and April I kept him in Equicasts, it helped a little but nothing spectacular.  It was very discouraging, every once in a while I'd try to ride him in boots/pads and he would be just okay.  In June he had another laminitic attack, fairly acute yet again.  WTF, he was now on Mag/Ox, Chromium supplement, Flax Seed, Copper/Zinc, Vit E, Selenium, and some other crap, more money down the toliet.  

I've debated with myself, Ruth and Marta whether I would show the 2008 pix, they are ugly and embarrassing.  But being who I am, I'll throw it out for the world to see.

Here you go, there are only a few, even I have a heart and can't take what everyone would say if I showed all the pix ;)  

 

 

 

 

 

I do have some photos from April 2008, that I'll put up, but it is not going to happen before the holiday weekend.  Check back and I'll add them when I can.  Now, I want to revisit the past and talk about Boots before I move on to the next series of photos, which are of my foray into shoeing.

So, as I said, at first I tried the Old Mac's, Finn hated them and would do all he could to rip them to shreds.  I went thru 2 or 3 pairs while still on Long Island.  The Boa's were a total nightmare.  The dial would pop open while riding, thats why I started duct taping them to his feet.  Wish Easycare had been more forthcoming and just told me I needed to put a cork in the dial cover.  Thanks guys, for keeping that a secret - 2 pairs of Boas trashed.   Then the Epic's came out, they fit Finn's feet well and he kept them on, mostly.  The clasp would pop up in tall grass but I figured out I needed to put a cotter pin in the hole, modification #1.  Then of course the metal teeth tore up the wall, so I would sit upstairs, unscrew the screws and roll the metal teeth up and out of the boot.  Then I'd take pliers or channel locks as some call them and smash the teeth down, cut out the heel strap and then put the screws in.  Don't even ask me to tell you the story of my tears of frustration when I got the damn screws mixed up (did you know the front screw was a different length than the other two?)

Thats it right?  Wrong! I had to cut the tongue of the boot down too, so it didn't interfere with the coronet band.  And yes I received 15 stitches in my thigh after one botched attempt at this cutting procedure.  Me with knives and guns - scary!  I won't bore you with the gory details.

So back to my boot saga, Epics worked for awhile with the comfort pads and the dome pads - Finn loved the dome pads.  Then his fronts outgrew the size 2 Epics,  in 2008 I switched to the Renegades.  Now don't get me wrong these are great boots, just wish that Kirt had been more clear on what had to be "modified" on his boots to get them to fit right.  He has remedied that and has good, detailed instructions on his site.  I bought a pair for Finn's fronts and for his hinds.  On my first ride with my Green (in the Northeast...hulllloooo..duh!) Renegades out on trail, I lost the LF.. I've been looking for that sucker for over a year now, still haven't found it.  Then 2 or 3 days later, Finn was wearing his hind Green Renegades in the pasture and while I watched him run around with the herd I saw something fly into the air.  "God@#$$%"  I went out to the pasture and found one hind Renegade twisted up over the coronet band and the other hind foot had just the captivator wrapped around his pastern.  I quit! 

I gave up on Finn, put him out in pasture and rode other horses.  Every once in awhile I would get "crazy" and take him on trail, it almost always ended with me frustrated and getting off.  Even though I said I was done with the boots I would take him out only if protected.  I even started using Vettec Adhere in conjunction with old Ezboots, I'd glue those suckers on to his foot and ride him.  That worked for a few weeks, one time, then the boot came off, leaving the front of the boot still glued to the dorsal wall.   The final straw was this past fall, I found an old pair of Old Mac's put them on with pads and took him on a trail ride, that magical moment ended in me crying as I hand walked Finn back to the truck and trailer.  I told my friend, to smack me if I told her I was going to ride Finn.  

Then a door opened, and it wouldn't have if it hadn't been for Jaye Perry, a farrier down in Georgia.  That bugger hounded me all over a few internet boards in regards to another horse here on the farm Murray (another story).

Then Ruth Hamilton and I started talking more about the whole barefoot only ideal.  She started out as a farrier so decided to go back to basics and put shoes on her horse Bud.  Bud, who is just like Finnegan had moved to Arizona last June, he did good for awhile and then got really lame.  She had found the Epona's and liked what she saw and used them.  The improvement was immediate and Bud was much happier.  I'll get Ruth to tell his story here too in the near future.  By the way, Ruth pulled the shoes about a month ago and Bud is sound and bare all around, riding over terrain he used to stumble on in boots and pads.  So I took Ruth's advice and ran with it.  I had made friends with another farrier George Geist from PA and he was kind enough to come up in January of 2009 and help me shoe Finn for the first time.  Poor George, he can't stand the Epona's he claims they melt in the forge when trying to hot shoe them.  See these Hammer Heads have some issues (just kidding).

The first shoeing which I'll show you was good work by George, but neither of us set the shoe back to the correct breakover.  But you know what it didn't matter, he got better.  His stride got bigger, I saw knots in his muscles in his neck disappear.  Within a week his back started changing and I hadn't even ridden him yet.  In the second week I started getting on him bareback and riding him around the barn, 10 minutes a ride 2x a day.  Then I increased that to 15 minutes.   I wanted to be careful, one of the things I'd also experienced during the past 2 years was that I could cause Finn to relapse really easy with exercise.  He would look good and be moving better so I'd take him on a 30 minute ride.  The next day he would be laminitic again.  It really was a horrible circle I was stuck in.

Well on the third week I started taking him out on trail rides with a friend, he was doing really good, we started with 1 hour rides but quickly moved up to 2, 3 and 4 hour rides.  I started riding him 4 or 5 days a week.  The weight and crest started melting off of him.  I changed NOTHING else, he was still on the Mag Ox/Chrom supplement, Flax Seed and Alam.  No other supplements or herbs.  Within a week of shoeing his Digital Pulses disappeared, he had them for about 3 years straight.  Here are some body shots from the other night (May 09)  Not the greatest but best I could do by myself, he keeps coming over hoping for a treat.  

 

 By the end of the first month shod I started noticing other changes as well.  Finn didn't mind being touched, or groomed.  I used to have a horse who would dance all over the place while I tried to groom him.  That behavior is gone.  He just stands there.

At the next shoeing Ruth was here for the shooting of our soon to be released trimming DVD.  She helped me shoe his fronts for the second reset.  This time we set the fronts back a bit further and rasped a breakover into the bottom of the shoe.  I saw even better changes in the wall as soon as I did that.  I shod him every 3 or 4 weeks, I had trouble at first getting the shoes to stay on in our fields.  But with the help of the Hammer Heads and Ruth I got better at rasping the foot flat as well as nailing and clinching (Thanks to Bob Pethick as well)  

But the biggest changes didn't happen until I shod Finn on April 24 and set the shoe where the "Perfect Hoof" would be.  I am Blown Away at how the foot changed almost over night as soon as I did that.  It's like all the structures "sucked up and straightened out"  I'll show those pix in this slideshow.  I have taken pictures of every shoeing, and if there is interest I'll put them up.  For now, I'm going to show my first shoeing from January 09 and photos of the shoes and his feet naked from a few days ago.  I pulled his fronts 3 days ago because I knew I wasn't going to ride him til Memorial Day weekend.  So I got some good shots of his naked feet.

Finally I want to add that I did shoe Finn's hinds but not until about 6 weeks into this experiment.  I think his front feet hurt him so much he didn't pay much attention to his hinds.  Once those were feeling good, he started noticing that the hinds needed help too.  I haven't documented that progression, I will try to get some pictures soon.

So here are Finn's Shoeing pictures.   Many of the BUA (Barefoot Uber Alles) state that shoes harm the hoof, please look closely at the May photos of Finn's feet.  He has been wearing shoes since January, look how healthy the hoofwall is.  We still have some issues to work on but what an improvement from January 2009. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it's June 2010 and I now live in Tucson Arizona, Finn came here on April 10th, I arrived May 7th.  He is doing phenomenal and we both love it here, although I'm sure he misses all the grass.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, I haven't updated his photos or story since May 2009.

In July 2009 I went to the Epona Institute to learn how they apply their shoes.  I learned how to utilize the glue, impression material and shoe placement.  It made a big difference and with both Finn and my other clients I saw even better changes in the hooves and the overall horse health.  The weather cooperated and Finn was getting ridden about 4 - 5 days a week and despite the grass and the rain he stayed sound and his feet looked pretty good.   The only issue was just like the past two years Finn developed an abscess in his right front foot, it was painful and took 2 weeks to pop out of the coronet band.  The good news was it didn't occur in the left front like it had the past 2 years.

Here are his feet in August 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I'm including September's photos so you can see the foot before and after shoeing.  There is nothing remarkable to comment on, the big changes are coming in later albums.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, Finn was doing great and then per his usual modis operandi he hurt himself on October 5, 2009.  While running thru the slick, muddy pastures he fell and tore his Peroneus Tertius.  I took him in to see what was wrong and had radiographs of his feet as well.  The vet determined the tear and here is what that looks like.  Please note the limb should not bend back in this manner.

 

 

 

I was told to lock him in a stall for 4 - 6 months and that he should be, hopefully would be rideable after that.  I chose not to do that, I felt he would heal better with movement.  It worked out for us, not suggesting that is what everyone does, but what worked for Finn and I and he is fine.  I am getting ahead of the story, back to the Fall of 2009.  Here are the radiographs of Finn's feet, shod in Epona's from January to October 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pulled his shoes at the end of October and decided to leave him bare as long as I could. I knew if the ground got too frozen he would be in pain and I'd have to shoe him but we were having a warm winter and lots of rain so he ended up remaining bare until January 2010 when I started riding him again. 

 

The next set of photos were taken 8 weeks after I had pulled his shoes.  We had no grass, just muddy fields, nothing changed except no Epona's and no exercise.  I realized last fall that the Epona Package was actually helping to hold the foot together.  Water disorganizes the filaments in the Keratin, and these photos really show it.  I had trimmed him in November so these photos are about 4 weeks from the last trim.  Also when I say it was muddy I mean swamp like conditions.  The horses were standing out in fields with mud over their fetlocks.  In June, July and August of 2009 my area received over 30" of rain.  I would have to go and check about Sept - Dec but it was higher than normal as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next set of photos were taken in January 2010, I was getting ready to ride him again and the ground was very frozen, he was having trouble walking in the rutted pastures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't take any more pictures while in NY.  Finn's feet basically stayed the same, I shod him once and then realized I was moving to Arizona.  I left the January shoes on Finn for 7 weeks and then pulled the fronts.  I did not shoe him again and he left for Arizona on April 6th.  He arrived at Ruth's house on April 10th and started his new, drier lifestyle.  I've put up some photos of Finn's old home and riding terrain and then his new home along with the riding terrain.  I've also included a video I made of the terrain while riding.  Ruth shod Finn a week or so after he arrived, fronts only.  She ponied him out on her rides and he did okay.  My third ride here I realized he was not happy bare, so I shod his hinds.  He did much better, the video should show why he would need shoes.

 

 

 

 

This brings me up to date and current, the next series of photos are of Finn's latest shoeing on June 6, 2010.  I pulled the shoes the day before, trimmed him and then shod him the next morning.  I've included two sole shots of what the foot looked like after wearing Epona's for 4 weeks in the desert.  Finn's feet are much softer than horses who have been here all their lives or two years or more.  24 hours of barefoot dried the foot out and gave him a digital pulse in his right front.  

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