Some Answers

 

One of the more experienced farriers that does horses at my barn came out this morning and I nabbed the chance to have him look at Rush. I had been hypothesizing that she was footsore because she seemed about 40% better after having her feet trimmed, and perhaps the workload was getting to the point where she needed shows put back on. He took one look at her front left, cut away a bit of the hoof to get a closer look, and then immediately concluded that her feed was too rich and her laminae was inflamed- he didn't say laminitis, but that's basically the diagnosis.

I was silly and didn't get pictures, so I'll take some tomorrow, but the clue was some black discoloration in her laminae- perpendicular lines that looked kind of like crosshatching (see random internet picture) . I had noticed them after she was trimmed but thought it was some weird pattern left behind by the rasp- now I know better! Now I just have to convince the BO that it is not her hock sore bothering her and she needs to be put on something other than alfalfa cubes.. sounds like a simple conversation ("Hey, BO, Rush needs to be put on Timothy for one feeding because the alfalfa cubes are too rich for her and she's getting laminitis. Thanks!") but it'll probably blow up into this huge thing and there's a 70% chance the BO will refuse to change her feed. So that'll be fun.

See the black lines at the top? Those.

I also had Experienced Farrier look at Willie's feet, since he's gone like.. 9 weeks without being trimmed and a big crack was forming. The crack was done away with, mostly, and he didn't seem too concerned about the big hole in Willie's RF from where an abscess blew, so I guess it just looks really scary but in actuality is nothing to worry about. He's been doing really well after those two months on abscessy fun, and even took care of a Little on Saturday. So proud. Although he was angry with me yesterday for leaving him in the turnout for hours and decided to forget what lead changes were...