Clover Ledge Farm

First, let me say THANK YOU for sharing your opinions on my shipping boots/leg wraps/naked legs post.  I have still not made a final decision on what I am going to do with Miss Ellie's legs for traveling this year, but at least I have more ideas to consider.  It isn't a clear cut issue, which is what makes it tough for me to decide what to do. * Being stuck in a never-ending cycle of winter sadness and sickness hasn't been fun; sadness because it won't stop sn*wing/icing and sickness in the form of a two-month head cold from hell.  Thankfully my children had the milder form, yet my head cold turned into pneumonia, which is something I never want to experience again.  I was so freaking sick!! Feeling stir crazy and crappy makes me seek out random projects to complete.  Bonus if it includes filling an online shopping cart and then waiting for a package delivery haha.  I admit I did my fair share of internet surfing and impulse shopping this winter!...

My horse is strange.  She has always been prone to small scaly spots on her body, but generally they go away with a bath, good grooming, and maybe a dab of Vit E capsule or Derma Gel.  However, since last fall, she has had THIS crap on her elbow. And how fun!  And she now has the same spots on her hip and thigh.  Even the hair is dark in these areas.  :-( close up of hip - I don't know why it looks yellow/green but it is not in person close up of thigh I have tried a million OTC products and nothing works.  I have tried both triamcinolone acetonide cream and dermalone ointment (corticosteriod) prescribed from my vet and those did not work either.  And I tried them for days/weeks each, trying to see if it would just take time to work.  Nothing works.   Not pictured is Bag Balm, Vit E capsules, and Lotrimin which all did not work I know she lies down on this side at night, so the best I can figure is that these are es...

Besides the normal spring shots and Coggins draw that my horses had last month, today I had my vet back out for a chiropractic evaluation on Snappy.  At age seventeen this year and with twelve years of racing under her belt, it is only a matter of time before she shows some arthritic changes.  Late last fall, I noticed she was hesitant to canter at times and I didn't feel it was training related.  Of course, it was time to start our winter hibernation anyway and after our last six weeks of "work" up until December only really being low impact trail rides, I figured I may as well give her time to rest over the winter and reevaluate this spring.   She has been EXCELLENT under saddle this spring, a far cry from the flighty bundle of nerves last year at this time .  She is walking, trotting, and halting without a fuss, calm transitions, and correct lateral work at the walk.  All the basic buttons are finally there without any temper tantrums.  The snow i...

Snap Dancer is probably the only horse I have owned who has the strangest little problems.  My old Morgan, Sparky, liked to randomly colic and freak me out and Dreamy has COPD which I have managed in a wide variety of ways over the years.  While both of those issues are scary and potentially serious, I was always lucky to be able to easily treat them over the years.   Snappy has had ulcers, aural plaques, weight gain problems, and now dry elbows (which if I don't treat could eventually turn into shoe boils and/or capped elbows).  They have always been slightly flaky when she wears shoes for half the year, presumably from the heel end of her shoes hitting her elbows when she lies down in her stall. Over the past several months it has gotten progressively worse.   Her elbows are not inflamed or swollen , just dry and cracked with flaky skin.   I have tried bacitracin, Bannix, a product called Dublin Dip , and Vit E capsules and bell boots at ...

Let me begin by saying that I have never owned a horse that was a hardkeeper.  My horses have always been vacuum cleaners, air ferns, roly poly things that barely needed any grain no matter their level of activity and would eat as much hay I could stuff into their faces. When I first met Snappy in 2012, she was eating fourteen pounds of sweet feed a day and I was mortified.  But of course, I did not know her well at that point, she wasn't in my direct care, and while I would not have chosen a sweet feed, she was in heavy work (racing) and probably needed the high amount of calories. A few months later when she suddenly became mine, I changed her feed to Triple Crown Complete.  When I treated her ulcers later that winter, I switched her to Triple Crown Senior and Nutrena Boost, which is a rice bran pellet.  I have always been happy with Triple Crown and while I cannot remember exactly how much grain she ate, I know it was MUCH less than fourteen pounds a day! ...

While I have been an equestrian for almost thirty years, I have never once had to deal with a hoof abscess...until this spring!  Reva had been back into spring conditioning almost three weeks when she came up DEAD LAME on March 23.  Of course, I was upset and figured she had done something horrible to one of her front tendons.  She was literally unable to put any weight on her left front.  Her forelegs were like tree stumps.  My farrier came out the following day and couldn't get a reaction with the hoof testers (this was a Saturday at the end March), and told me he didn't think it could be an abscess.  This made me pretty worried, and I tried wrapping her overnight and give her a bit of stall rest until Monday when I called the vet.  I hoped maybe she would come out of it and I tried not to panic.  She just pulled the wraps off, though they did make her tendons look normal again (Back on Track wraps are awesome!)  I figured if the BoT wraps ...

My veterinarian came out today for spring shots and Coggins.  I had to take a day off from work, which is a pain, but it all works out.  He was supposed to be here by 9AM, but I received a call that it would be closer to 10.  No big deal.  Then he called again to say he would be running closer to 11 because he had to stop and put a prolapsed vagina back into a sheep!  LOL!  Well, OK, then!  I have heard it all now!  I never have a problem if my vet or farrier is running late because of an emergency (especially when they call to let me know!  :-) because I would want the same level of prompt attention if I had the emergency here! I had planned to ride the mares after their shots.  It is good to get them out and moving after a series of shots and a 20 minute walk is pretty laid back.  But because my vet was running late, I opted to ride first.  Not ideal, but if I wanted to fit everything in before I had to...