My family as recently acquired two beautiful Morgan/Belgium mares from someone selling them. They're amazingly sweet and well trained as far as we could see. A day or so ago we braved cleaning their feet for the first time, those hooves are enormous and quite intimidating.
Amy, the younger of the pair we had no trouble with. She lifted her feet and held them for us nicely.
However, Heather, her older sister, allowed us to clean the front hooves, but would not lift the left back foot, and would not hold her right. She was upset and antsy so we choose to leave it be and try again later seeing as no one wanted to get hurt.
We were watching them out in the pasture a few hours ago, and my we noticed a pink patch under the fetlock joint, which is hidden by a tuft of hair. She wasn't letting us get a very good look at the sore, but this is what we have figured out about it:
-An inch wide
-Six inches long
-Pink, raw or recently broken open
-There's no liquid or blood, caked or still wet
We've concluded that it may have happened before she came into our possession. We would very much like to avoid calling a vet if possible because of the expense just to find out it's nothing to be worried about. She's well worth the expense, but if it can be spared we would be relieved.
Any ideas or helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.
Amy, the younger of the pair we had no trouble with. She lifted her feet and held them for us nicely.
However, Heather, her older sister, allowed us to clean the front hooves, but would not lift the left back foot, and would not hold her right. She was upset and antsy so we choose to leave it be and try again later seeing as no one wanted to get hurt.
We were watching them out in the pasture a few hours ago, and my we noticed a pink patch under the fetlock joint, which is hidden by a tuft of hair. She wasn't letting us get a very good look at the sore, but this is what we have figured out about it:
-An inch wide
-Six inches long
-Pink, raw or recently broken open
-There's no liquid or blood, caked or still wet
We've concluded that it may have happened before she came into our possession. We would very much like to avoid calling a vet if possible because of the expense just to find out it's nothing to be worried about. She's well worth the expense, but if it can be spared we would be relieved.
Any ideas or helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.