My story begins last April (2006) when my mare Tinker, strained a distal sesamoidean ligament and was prescribed bar shoes with pads. The shoes seemed to help the injury, but she ended up with a very nasty stone bruise that abscessed where a rock got stuck under the bar, in the same leg of course, and it never quite went away.
She'd get a little better, then go lame again. All winter, it was the same story, never sure, though, if it was the foot or the ligament injury bothering her, they looked the same, really, she'd avoid putting any weight on her heel. I had the vet out numerous times, and by this time he thought her lameness was a recurrence of the ligament injury, that she had fractured a sesamoid, and he suggested making her a broodmare, but I'm not in a position to do that.
So by late winter, I was so distressed that I contemplated putting her down, since she just would not get and stay sound, and I just can't afford to pay board on an unrideable horse. But before I did that, I got a different vet to give me a second opinion, who ultrasounded her leg and said the ligament was fine, the pain was in her feet, maybe she's got navicular, so she suggested shoeing changes. The farrier was coming the next day, so I made sure I was there to tell him just what the vet wanted done. When he took off the shoes, there was a bloody hole in her heel, where the original abscess had been, but he went ahead and shod her the way I told him the vet wanted, and the horse seemed okay for a while. Meanwhile I had become convinced that the pads and bar shoes were not doing her any favors, that they were making pressure points on her heels, and since the ligament injury was healed there was no reason to keep the bar shoes anymore, and so I asked him to remove them and go with plain flat shoes at the next appointment. He refused to do it, shod her the way he always did, NOT the way the vet had said, and the horse immediately went lame again. She was obviously very sore behind, and soon could not put any weight at all on the left front where the abscess had recurred.
By this time I had been reading everything I could about barefoot care for horses, and decided to take matters into my own hands as much as possible, so I took off her back shoes and the left front myself, found a new farrier who specializes in barefoot to take off the last shoe when she was able to bear weight on the left front again,and trim her a little -- and sent for Easyboot Bares and comfort pads. I figured at this point we had nothing to lose. All the "expert" advice wasn't helping my horse, so why not try something totally different.
Well, it was the best decision I have made in years! Her front shoes have only been off two weeks, and despite the crater in her heel where the abscess was, she is already totally sound and happy in her boots for long trail rides! My horse is back, thanks to those Easyboot Bares! To think, I almost put my horse down, when pulling her shoes and getting her Easyboots was the answer to her problems. Thank you, Easyboots!
Tina Hartley- Holland, PA
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