And then along came Maizie -- part 2

We exchanged folders – mine with cash for Maizie’s transport and theirs with Maizie’s papers, an expired coggins exam and missing the health certificate she was supposed to have gotten back in December.  There wasn’t time to look through the folder at that moment, though. I put it inside the house and grabbed the halter I’d bought for her. We got her unloaded and safely down to the pasture, deciding at the last minute to just turn her loose with Dahli. The two of them immediately approached each other and started to work out their relationship by trotting around and around the pasture. Dahli tried to sniff her tail and started off a round of bucks, followed by more trotting around. That would continue for the next couple hours.

Oh, by the way...
As they were leaving, her seller mentioned, “Oh, by the way. A couple months ago she went lame. We brought her inside for a while. Thought it was gravels, but I couldn’t find anything on her hoof. Then she got better…I think she may have just stepped in a hole. The ground was cuppy and frozen at the time, with holes all over the place."

A week later, I found Maizie down. When she got to her feet, she was 3-legged lame.  She laid down again a short time later. I used this time to clean her hoof and search for signs of bruising or abscess – nothing. No pain response, either, to tapping and pressing with a hoof pick.  No heat on the hoof wall, and no digital pulse.There was no puffiness, swelling or heat anywhere on her leg.

You've got to get them when they're down
Whatever the injury was, at this point it actually worked to my advantage.  For a week, I’d been unable to touch her other than briefly as she trotted by.  I’d had to leave them living out, as she wouldn’t stay in the barn long enough for me to close her in and wouldn’t let me get a lead shank on her. Now I had my chance.

I managed to coax, drag, bribe and scold her from the back pasture to the barn. Dahli followed and I got them both closed in the aisle. My aisle doubles as a run out shelter; I use my stalls for storage. This gives them a 12 x 50’ area to live in overnight and during storms, and enables me to seasonally protect my limited pasture while giving them plenty of room to move around.

2 days later, she was starting to put more weight on the injured leg.  I was off from work that day, so now had time to rasp the hoof – I still didn’t see anything until I put on my reading glasses. Now I could see black ooze seeping from the white line area of the inside quarter, about an inch ahead of the heel. Plus a little bit of a bubble in the sole just to the inside of the ooze. Gravels/abscess it was, so I dug through my trunks, pulled out an old container of ichthamol, a pile of pampers diapers and a half-used roll of duct tape. I cleaned the hoof as best I could, packed the abscess in ichthamol to draw out the pus, and bandaged her hoof in a diaper. Within a couple days, it was totally healed. She’s been sound ever since.

Just in time
They lived inside until she was completely healed. I was going to start letting them out again, when I checked the weather. A major blizzard was headed our way. I immediately changed my plans. If I hadn't been able to get them back in the barn ahead of the storm, my barn would have been filled with snow drifts. Instead, I just kept them for a few extra days until I was able to completely dig out the front door.

Never assume a coincidence when enemy action fits
It has dawned on me, given that the breeder had picked up two mares, not just Maizie, that the mystery shipper had seemed so “off” and then disappeared, and that the breeder had chosen to sell just one of the two mares, and not gotten the health certificate as she'd told me back in December, that I’d been set up. My guess is that when Maizie developed the mystery lameness, the seller decided to dump her quick before she put any more money into her. My guess is that the other mare that she’d bought will get some training, get started under saddle and appear for sale sometime next year. She offers a rescue or two along with her home-breds on her website. Time will tell.