Seriously

I think if I could go back in time and stop myself from thinking "I'm very happy my horse doesn't seem to hurt himself" way back in January, I would. That was the last thought right before he swung his face into a post and smashed up his face (which still isn't completely back to normal yet - his right cheekbone is still larger than the left). Then he desleeved the back of his left hind and although that is healing and I am back to riding, it still isn't completely healed yet. And now he has figured out a new way to cause me distress.

This is his foot from Memorial day on our ride. That flat spot along the side of his hoof is from him dragging his hoof along something sharp enough to wear away hoof wall.

Not the best picture because of the shadow, with the outside edge of his hoof has been worn into a flat edge.

I talked to the BM about how in the world he might be abraiding his hoof in such a manner that he would be loosing hoof. It really looked like a rough rasp had been taken to his foot. I looked at everything in his stall, but we really couldn't find a definitive answer. We decided he must be banging it at the bottom of a run, on an edge there, when he was in turn out. His GF (Cha Cha) was in the run right next door and then would stand at the bottom of her run and snuggle. When she went inside to attend to mare things, he would go next door and try to undo the latch on Maggie's run so he could go inside with Cha Cha. The first time, he actually got into her run and into her stall, so he could be inside with his love. After that, the BM fixed the chain so he couldn't get it undone, which he retaliated to by pawing the bottom of the gate. The BM agreed to move his turn out to a different field where he didn't have access to either mare. That did not fix the issue.

Last Friday, when I went out to the barn to remove the bandage from his leg, I saw that Ashke had continued to strike his left front against something (which by elimination, had to be something in his stall) and had taken more hoof off. There wasn't anything I could do on Friday night, since it was very late, so I when we went out on Saturday morning, I talked to the BM about it again.

 More hoof impacted and a longer straight edge.

From the side you can see that the wall is up off the ground, exposing what I think is the sole.

We were baffled. There did not seem to be any place in his stall where Ashke might be rubbing his hoof that made any sense to either of us. I told the BM I would be back out on Sunday and would be chalk to cover his hoof to see if we could figure out where he was rasping his hoof. On Sunday, after our ride, I covered his hoof with blue chalkline chalk and hoped it would tell us where the issue was.

Monday the BM told me the only place she had seen blue chalk the night before was on the bottom of the swing door to his stall. In closer inspection, there was a slight lip between the metal of the door and the bottom trim, plus several screw heads sticking out from the trim. It was possible he was striking the bottom of his stall and dragging his hoof across those things out of boredom.

Seriously.

I think this started when he was on stall rest and has just continued once he was let out into his run again. The crazy thing is he has to stand outside, parallel to the doorway in order to get his hoof into a correct position to paw at the edge of the door. He has no real reason to do so except for compulsive behavior, bad habit, or sheer boredom. I think he needs to be worked more. Stupid injury.

I'm so done with the rain.

On Tuesday night, J came out with me and chalked the bottom of the door with silicone chalking (good for windows and doors) while I rinsed the thick mud from my horse's body. One of these days he will stay clean for longer than two hours, I swear.

 Chalked the bottom edge and the screw heads

She does good work.

In an effort to alleviate boredom, I repurposed some of the dog toys my dogs aren't really interested in and brought them to the barn.

Ashke seemed very surprised when he first made it squeek.

I also hung up a couple of toys made of firehose with fuzzy parts for sensory play.

After the silicone set, we covered the bottom of the door with gorilla tape, which I really hope is gorilla strength so that my stupid horse can no longer grind away pieces of his hooves.

On another note, he seemed very sad last night, that I was there but we weren't riding. I thought he might want a break after being ridden three nights in a row, but perhaps I was mistaken.