Hello! I haven't posted in a while because I went on vacation. which means although Daisy had someone to feed & water her, that was about it. I came back to some pretty dirty hooves!! still haven't gotten them cleaned out all the way. I guess we had some rain here while I was gone, so all that super fine dirty got all nice & wet & crammed into her feet.
Apparently Daisy enjoyed her vacation as she wasn't too interested in having her feet held for long enough for me to dig it all out. So we're getting back on schedule of daily feet cleanings. In the super hot months she didn't accumulate much, but now we're getting ready to go into fall & want to start on her now - start teaching her that they're getting cleaned EVERY day, no matter what.
The first day she was kinda a turd, and kicked out on one of her back feet. But I kept at it & made sure I ended on a good note ( VERY IMPORTANT, pretty much with all animals). Yesterday, she was still 'ouchy' about all of it, I think she's just testing me. But I did get some more yuck outta them & realized that she's a little thrushy in spots, not enough to treat yet - but they gotta get cleaned out & aired out. She seemed to have more issues when I was using the pick, so I resorted to digging them out with my fingernails. Still I'm trying to figure out if she's testing me, or if she is in fact a bit tender. Either way they have to get cleaned.
She kicked out again last night ( she has never previously kicked out before I got back from vacation - she's actually been really good about all of it). This time it was big enough to me to holler ' EHHH!' and thwack her on the rump. She almost looked stunned. So hopefully she understood that is NOT ok!
I worked on that same foot again, because I wasn't gonna let it end like that. Picked it up again, she tensed a bit, I told her to relax, she did, and she got her foot back.
On the left front she did her 'hopping around trying to evade me thing' which I've only seen once before when she was with the farrier. I just held on and as soon as she calmed down & relaxed her foot, she got it back.
So adventures with donkeys! woo, but really she is a good girl, I've seen worse. I did remind her that I know how to use the ropes on her. LOL. she hasn't experienced that yet, but if she keeps kicking out then she might meet them.
this session all happened before dinner time, so there was probably a little anxiety about that. but it has to get done one way or another.
I let her out to graze on the pasture for a bit, but I went inside to show some pics of my trip to my dad. I heard Daisy bray & I ran outside. She had somehow gotten through the strand of electric fence to the other side of the property. i think she squeezed through on the gap between the first step in post & the dog run. She probably tried to squeeze through, got shocked & the dogs were going nuts. So i came out & she's over there running around like a crazy donk. The only reason she's not allowed over there is there are 'dangers', some old fence boards that still have nails in them, a giant hole for a french drain I'm working on. She didn't seem to injure herself, but she was going nuts cuz the dogs were going nuts barking at her.
Got her back on the other side, put her up & gave a her a bit of hay. Then fixed the end of the fence by moving the post closer to the dog run & adding some twine so it doesn't get pulled away from it.
I ordered some horseguard fencing to section off a run & fence off the back yard from her. I'm hoping it'll keep her out of the backyard - away from the trees, and also let us let the dogs out in the backyard without them running around her. I'm doing three strands of the brown fence. I dont really like how the white looks, they're also done research that equines in fact can see the brown & green tape better, so the white is just for human eyes.
if you haven't read about horseguard fencing, you should check it out, its not like other tape fences. I actually had them send me a sample one time & its tough stuff!
I will post pics of it when it's installed.
Daisys feet are growing fast, which is a good thing. Its been 7 weeks since her last trim & that was way too long, she's more on a 4 or 5 week schedule. her backs need to be taken down pretty good, she's got about 1/2" hoof wall grown out. Her fronts are starting to shed her heels so now they're looking more normal.
