Ollie is a 14 year old Irish Sport Horse who needed a place to live. He is a retired Grand Prix jumper (which meant he was jumping 6 foot jumps!) who had developed navicular and suspensory issues in his front legs, which prevented him from being ridden. Although his owners were committed to caring for him, he was miserable out in a retirement facility where he got very little interaction with humans. He was moved to a training facility in Utah, but his owners lived in California and wanted to be able to visit him. So he came to live and Hanaeleh in June 2021!
Ollie wears special shoes with pads that keep him sound and to prevent him from further hurting himself. When he came to Hanaeleh, he had shoes on his hind as well, but we were able to pull those without too much issue.
Over the past few months, however, Ollie has had a lot of difficulty keeping his shoes on! We usually have the farrier out every six weeks, but around week five, Ollie has been losing his shoes either in his stall or while being turned out in the arena. Luckily we’ve been able to find the shoes after he’s lost them, but when he does lose them we are unable to work him because he can hurt himself, and the farrier has to make a special trip out to put the shoes back on.
Thankfully we have an understanding farrier who makes the extra trip out!
Ollie’s discarded shoe.
This week, the farrier had to come out twice- once to put on new shoes, and then another time after Ollie lost the new shoe and pad that was put on. The farrier came back out again this week and put some special solvent on Ollie’s hooves this time, however, to help strengthen the area so the nails will hold, and the shoe will stay on.
Just another chapter in Ollie being his silly self!