Join The Club

Unfortunately I need to join several other bloggers in having an unsound horse since apparently #Mareproblems is back. I’m so frustrated and upset, I was actually in tears yesterday evening, and I just feel sort of hopeless not for myself but for Katai. I did do a little research and apparently this is a fairly common thing and it appears that I'm the only one overreacting this way. Last time this happened I’d been away from the barn for a few days so I sort of blamed myself for not being there enough to prevent the problem but this time I saw Katai Sunday, groomed and checked and everything looked good, and then was gone Monday but back out on Tuesday and she was already in a bad place. She had nasty gunk all down the back of her legs and had chaffed fairly badly already. Thankfully I did catch it a little earlier this time and she isn’t quite as bad but it’s not enough of an improvement for me to feel ok about it.

I just don’t know what to do at this point. Nothing has changed in Katai’s environment. She’s been out with a gelding and is still out with a gelding and when this happened last she wasn’t out with a gelding so that’s not the answer. She’s getting pretty much the same supplements and it wasn’t like I was a bad horse owner and was gone for a big chunk of time without seeing her. I only skipped on day and I just can’t be at the barn every day. I also just can’t keep her back end coated in Vaseline all the time because that’s not healthy either. I haven’t been able to find any common theme and without that I don’t know how I can be proactive and prevent this. She gets so bad so quickly that it doesn’t seem like I can catch it in the early stages even if I’m at the barn regularly.

I’m going to do some research and possibly get a vet involved at this point to see if they have any suggestion. Someone suggested that it could be a PH thing and also suggested raspberry leaves. Since the main ingredient that’s supposed to help with mareish behavior in raspberry leaves is magnesium and she is getting that I haven’t been giving her raspberry leaves but since the person who suggested it is a researcher and scientist I think it may be worth a shot.

I’d had a happy post all written up about how while L is gone for a few weeks I’m going to put a plan in place and work really hard on developing her strength outside of the arena as well as working on our relationship. I also finally got my iphone camera fixed so that I can get some pictures and now the only picture I have is of Katai’s poor sore backside 

More to come as I get this figured out.