Hoof Drama

On Thursday afternoon, I clipped a lot of Speedy's fetlock hair in preparation for this weekend's upcoming show. I spent a lot of time looking at his feet while I hacked away at all those feathers. Afterwards, I gave him a pretty good work out. The next afternoon, while doing my daily "check," I saw this.

How in the world?

I groaned out loud, and my stomach rolled unpleasantly. I needed a second pair of eyes, so I immediately texted the ranch owner. She came out and looked at it with me. It was definitely not there the afternoon before, and in fact, it looked old. We both stood there poking it and tossing out ideas. Maybe he ...  He could have ...  What if he ...  Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.

I jogged him out. He was sound. I carved at it with a hoof pick. It collapsed in a bit more. All the while, Speedy stood there half asleep, occasionally checking for treats as I rested his hoof on my thigh. Nothing I did elicited any kind of pin response, and Speedy's not particularly stoic. 

Our best diagnosis was that it might have been an old abscess that never surfaced. That didn't ring true though as he hadn't been unsound. And with Speedy, abscesses have hurt enough to make him really lame. Our other thought was that he whacked it some time ago, forming a bruise. It could also be something completely different. Whatever it was, we surmised that during our ride the day before, his hoof must have flexed enough to weaken the damaged part of the hoof which then flaked away.

Internet image.

My most immediate concern was that the hole might be deep enough to have gone through the hoof wall into the sensitive lamina. As we studied Speedy's hoof, we did some very rudimentary measurements and determined that the hole was probably still within the horn of the hoof. Just to be on the safe side, I flushed the hole with Betadine solution which would help reduce the risk of infection. It was just after 5:00 which meant  my vet's office was closed for the day. Since Speedy wasn't in any pain, I decided to wait until the next morning before calling the vet.

The next day.

The next morning, the hole looked less ragged. I decided to ride before calling the vet. I wanted to see if I felt anything that was Not Quite Right (NQR). We had a great ride, and the next day, Speedy gave me the best third Level work he's ever done. 

Needless to say, I haven't called the vet yet. It seems that whatever it was, it resolved itself long ago, and today I am just looking at the remnants. My farrier is due in early March. I'll let him tell me what he thinks it was.