Justin's Story
In 1993 my father decided to have his palomino Walker mare (Cotton) bred. Fancy, a light palomino TW/QH cross, was born April 1st of 1994. I raised her and broke her when the time came and she became my mother's horse. Shortly after that, my mother was stricken with a brain tumor and after her surgery, she decided all the horses had to go. I found all this out the day they delivered my old guy, Dan, and Fancy to their new owners. A couple of years later Dan went blind and the people were kind enough to let me have him back. At the time, they had bred Fancy a time or two and everyone looked well. Last year (roughly ten years after they acquired Fancy), I was in the area, so I decided to stop by and see my old "Fance". It was midwinter so everyone was in their winter coats and they were kept on a lot that was mostly mud (they had around a dozen horses and ponies by this time). My eye was immediately taken by a small, light-colored colt at Fancy's side who barely moved...just stood there. Then I saw why; his feet were so long, the poor guy could barely lift them out of the sucking mud that was knee-deep in spots. All the horses' feet looked like they were way overdue for a trim, but this little guy was the worst. The owners said they didn't know how he got that way, and they didn't seem like they were very interested in finding out, either. They then said they were looking to downsize their herd and that if I wanted a couple, I could just have them. They were a little surprised when I picked the colt, and I decided to take a pony who looked like he had promise; I figured that even if the vet and farrier said he wasn't fixable and we had to put him down, at least he wouldn't be in pain anymore. First they told me the pony was a yearling and then they said he was five; vet confirms five. They didn't know when the colt was born, just that it was sometime late last summer, which would have put him right at weaning age; they also didn't know who his sire was or if it was horse or pony. I left and made arrangements for a friend to haul them and called my farrier to tell him for what he was in for. When we came to pick them up, the colt was tied to a tree, and we were told he had been tied there most of the day as he wasn't used to a halter and hadn't been tied before. It was a little bit of a trick getting them in the trailer and we ended up having to pick the colt up and put him in. I named him Justin, since with the mud coating his legs solid to his knees and the just-starting-to-curl-up feet it looked like he had cowboy boots on, and that's the only boot name I could think of, ha ha! We got him home and the farrier and vet came out. We set up a plan to start working on his feet, and the vet helped us get on top of the lice problems and wormings. Justin in particular got a lot of attention in the first couple of weeks, getting him used to halter/lead, ground manners, and people in general. After his first trim, it took him more than a day to realize he could walk without hitting his chin on his knees, and when he realized he could run, he ran all the time! Many thanks to our farrier Steve, and Drs Johnson and Mehringer (and John & staff!) from Animal Medical of Dubois. Here are some pictures of his progress.
(And yes, I DO know he's a little 'indecent' in the above photo; I don't have editing software and it's not really obvious unless you're looking for it, so I just decided to leave it since I like the rest of the photo.)
Justin, the day after arrival at our farm and after a good preliminary brushing. Notice how he keeps one front foot under him; he rocked from leg to leg constantly, switching feet underneath him every few minutes. Our farrier says he's the most flexible horse he's ever worked on, from all the rocking, stretching tendons and such.
A closer look at Justin's stance upon arrival. Granted, we had a little mud too, but not knee-deep like where he came from.
A closer look at the front feet.
This front hoof had actually rolled under itself and grew that way. It has been the most difficult one to get back in line.
One last shot of the fronts, pre-trim.
About two weeks after arrival; fronts trimmed once and attitude is a bit more friendly, but a brisk brushing gets enough old hair off to see the ribs now. He was scared to death of the trimming process but already trusted me enough to bury his face in my chest so I could whisper in his ear and reassure him. It was nowhere near as big of a hassle as we thought it'd be.
After his second trim. Notice how the legs are toed out, we were unsure if this would fix itself at this point. (Edited to add: as of this edit, Justin is 2 years old and his feet and legs are perfectly normal)
Here's a poor-quality video of him running; this was probably about a week after his very first trim. Once he was sure he could run, he ran everywhere!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ww3DkTU14is
Early springtime.
For the first several months, Justin never got out of touching distance from Tanner. He's gotten much better, but they're still close.