Pony Pick-up

Karin, Braelyn and I are heading out early this morning, even before the walk. We are heading to Forrest, IL to pick up Bonnie and Mindy from Emily's farm. We will head to Middle Grove from Forrest, drop off the 2 ponies, pick up Larry, Ella and Ayanna, head to Ruth's to drop off Larry and finally back to the farm. Ayanna is coming back for a new coggins, Ella is coming back for lessons. Karin has a youth group camping at Middle Grove on Sunday so Ella may be heading back there for that group. We usually need every available riding horse for this group. I've been fretting a bit about Clair's filly and after research find I was fretting for nothing. We noticed her front legs were a little splay footed. We haven't had a Thoroughbred foal here for years and honestly couldn't remember if this was normal or not. This is what research shows: Many foals are a little base wide in front (the feet tend to splay outward) because they are so narrow through the chest, but become straighter as they grow up and fill out. If you try to correct them very much as foals, you may create a problem, because you have actually over-corrected by the time they are yearlings or 2 year olds. “A foal that’s a little splay-footed in the front legs is usually nothing to worry about. As his pectoral muscles and shoulders fill out, this pushes his elbows out and turns his feet in, which makes him straight as he grows,” says Taylor. Another factor affecting limb growth involves the physeal growth plates (the cartilage that turns to bone, at the ends of the long bones, lengthening them as the foal grows). “Because cartilage is derived from the same embryonic cell types as bone, loading and compression stimulate growth of these areas similar to how these forces strengthen and remodel bone. As a result, a foal with minor angular limb deviations will actually correct itself,” he says. The growth plates are stimulated to grow more on the more loaded side. This tends to straighten the leg because the loaded side is growing faster. Mother nature fixes most minor limb deviation problems. When we acquired Sophie, the buckskin TN Walker, she was splay footed as a yearling but nice and straight by the time she left for her new home at 3 years of age. Emma is starting to show signs of coming into heat. The owner of the 230 pound English Mastiff stud dog was notified this morning. We talked to his owner in early April about using him, hope she is still studding him out.