Cross Breeds

What do you think of her (video) (pictures)?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32004447@N02/3499417048/ http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3648/3496442112_5b0f2b8eb8.jpg?v=0 http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3487956020_e68600f5d1.jpg?v=0 The last one was a year ago. Ok, so I've posted a lot on here about Dakota, but just want as many asnswers as I could. I'm very nervous and could use some good notes on her. She's a six year old TB out of Secretariat and she was going to race but didn't due to a splint in her RF, which doesn't bother her. She had a prepurchase vet exam when I got her on trial a week ago, and my vet said Dakota has little muscle, soreness in her back and hind due to, most likely, lack of conditioning, and she gave me about an 80% chance that all of her soreness and stiffness in the hind right will disappear with proper conditioning and work on flexion. During her vet check, she was barefoot and not as sore, and she passed everything besides being stiff and sore in the hind end. She passed her flexion, too. She has good bones, good tendons (except her old splint, which was verified by my vet that it didn't cause pain or discomfort), and great teeth. So overall, sore feet and sore muscles. Right now, and in the video, she's recovering from short feet. She was given to me barefoot (her shoes had been yanked off after a bad shoe job. sigh.) and the hard ground she had been off had chipped off a lot of foot, especially on her RF. My farrier came out to see her about four days ago and we decided to do some basic front shoes in the front to create some growth. He said if she remained barefoot, the rocks and hard surfaces would prohibit proper growth. We also had to lift her off the ground a little bit. Right away, she was really sore, and my farrier said that if she hadn't improved in a week then we would go back, remove the shoes, and put them back on with glue. Personally, I would have liked to do that in the first place, but I trust my farrier for the most part. I've had her on stall rest since she was shod, giving her small handwalks like the one in the video twice a day, ending with grazing and a gram of bute. She has been looking a lot better, and I have some real high hopes for her. I'm going to start giving her beet pulp in small amounts tomorrow to help put some weight on, and once she's ready to be worked, I'll put her on alfalfa so I can have "more horse" to work with. :) So all in all, what do you think of her? When do you think she will be ready to start going under saddle? Do you think there's hope? I'm not worried about money at all, since I know that I'm at least helping a horse and I always have money coming in. I just lose sleep at night worrying if she'll ever be okay to ride again. Oh, and I saw her in January and she looked great, even though her rider wasn't asking her to do much. *Please no rude comments. I love this mare, and if she's going to have to remain a companion only, I'll still keep her. I want to know what people think of her. Did you seriously just read all of that to give a response like that? Weird... Does her lameness look serious or permanent to anyone? Thanks for all the positive answers, btw. :)

Public Comments

1. uhmm. wtf? this is great and all, but share with someone who cares. were here to answers wanted questions not give hope.
2. She looks great. (: Be sure to take good care of her! I love horses. :D
3. nice horse but if you have all that money why don't you help horses that are in dire need of some hope!!!
4. absolutely stunning horse. she looks very healthy, and well groomed. she also looks very athletic. so don't forget to work with her frequently ;)
5. Wow some people are really rude. that's quite pathetic!. Anyways, she looks great, but again a bit lame looking on the end side! But all in all seems to be coming along. If the vet gives you an 80% chance, then the other 20% chance is just being they're for your horse, the more you worry the more your horse can sense it. Just talk to her and help her out as frequently as possible. Shes going to be fine, and if you want any positiveness to keep you going just email me. Im always here for anyone who cares deeply for they're horses! =)
6. well, she looks pretty damn tender in front. personally i would have the damn shoes taken off. there;s no need for them at all if she isn't working. and even if she is she prob won't need them. none of my horses have shoes, my tb hunts, jumps 120cm courses and reguarly does endurance rides. and there's damn all wrong with his feet. if she's tender the worst think you could ahve done was put shoes on her because now you have no way of knowing whether it's her feet that are still sore or if the shoes are making her sore. the fact that your farrier said to leave her a week bothers me alot. no reputable farrier would leave a horse like that with a wait and see attitude my advice is to turn her away for the summer, barefoot, let her chill out and you'll find she comes in with great feet. give her some farriers formula in her feed, it works wonders. let her come completely sound again before you even think of shoes. although if she reacted badly to a set in the past, and then this set made her more lame, then i;m inclined to think that she's always going to be a bit lame after being shod. so why shoe her? the stones etc won't bother her feet - trust me. horses feet are desinged for this job. and they will harden over time. and i can tell you something for nothing, she's not by Secretariat, because he's been dead for 20 years. and because he's a tb that means no ai. sorry to be the one to tell you edit 2 : let me tell you a story about vets - my tb got a joint infection and two diffferent vets told me to have him put down, i was told by both of these vets that even if he survived the infection would have destroyed his joint and he would be crippled for life. he was so bad at one stage that out vet was going to come and put him down that night, but i couldn't let him go. that night his fever broke.. six weeks later he went out an won a puissance class. not bad for a horse that wasn't supposed to survive the night. when it comes to vets i respect their work and thier opinions, and 99% of the time i will listen to them. but sometimes, just sometimes, i get that gut feeling and i know that i have to just do what i think is right.,