Day 5- An Abcess

Not of Y but his running companion. Damn, the horse was training so well. Abscesses bring training to a screeching hault. For anyone interested I'll share some learning experiences, but, first Y's training up to date:

Sunday Oct 29: third pasture test. Y's prior care is unknown so there is concern re grass founder. He will get on grass about two hours this date, and is again chased by the herd boss, but only to the periphery of the herd this time rather than across the fence. We're making progress. Y does a little trotting and slow galloping by which time I discover he has lost one of his sales shoes. Big surprise, not. And then I proceed to make my first of what undoubtedly will be many misktakes with Y in that instead of immediately doing the shoeing and proceeding with the planned exercise, I go ahead and ride my others first. By the time I get back to Y on the first day in Missouri of Central Standard Time, the sun has dropped like a rock, and I'm out of daylight to shoe. First lesson for the derby i'm supposing, give the derby horse priority. From now on Y will be #1 each day. I was a little worried about the continuing lethargy, disinterestness, and weakness of the little fellow today.
Oct. 30. Monday. The sun is out, and with Y the nutrition is starting to kick in. This is the first day he is showing normal energy. I tack on the shoe--i'm going to use Queen's XTs initially--and put Y in the pasture for his run. The self-starting companion has developed an abscess. So I use a lazy old gelding as companion. With me chasing we got in about 10 minutes of riderless gallop and trot around the pasture. The strenghtening continues. Y shows more muscle tone than he did when he got off the truck last Thursday. The coat is now glistening instead of dull and unthrifty, and voila, the little fellow has popped up a couple of inches. Yearlings spurt this time of year particularly with changes in nutrition. Those boys in KY might have cost themselves $7-9,000.00 with their substandard care of this horse. Right now Y would draw a little attention in the walking ring outside the sales pavilion. With just a few days care he has turned into a flashy little horse.

Abscesses have become so standard with our we weather on the farm that i've turned into an abscess expert, though even for the expert finding, locating, and curing can be tricky. E.g. with today's abscess--right front foot of a horse deep into training, I waited 36 hours from the start of foot pain to digging with my hoof knife to locate the abscess. Too soon. I was too anxious with missing training, too anxious to use that horse as Y's running companion. I located the area of pain with the hoof testers, removed as much sole as I dared, but, no abscess. In short, I started looking to soon. The first thing about abscesses--one needs to wait at least 48 hours, and 72 hours is better, before the first knife work. I'm speculating, but, probably initially the abscess is very small and close to the sensative laminae. It actually needs time to develop and find a weak spot nearer the sole surface so that it is actually locatable. If you start to search too soon, 4 times out of 5 all you'll find is healthy sole. That's my situation today, so, I applied Epsom Salt Paste to the sole surface and put the hoof in a rubber boot. On those occasions where I'm unable to locate the abscess, this method will bring it to the surface about 50% of the time. The other 50%--I still am without an answer when despite all efforts you are unable to locate the thing. Had I waited things out, i'm fairly certain I would have located, and the thing would be over. Now i'm punished by my own stupidity, and hoping the epsom paste will do it's thing.