Finn

This fall Finn got a visit from one of his favorite volunteer friends Jessica. She took some beautiful photos of him and his foster mom Carrie. What a pretty boy he is! Thank you Jessica for visiting him and taking these pretty photos! You can see how much Carrie loves this boy!

We have found a fantastic foster home for Finn. He is alone for the moment but has an entire herd of horses across the street to keep him company until his foster person finds a horse of her own. Finn’s hooves seem to be feeling better on the soft hogsfuel footing at his new foster home and he continues to improve with each shoeing.

Here is the update we received just a few days after Finn arrived:

New digs!

I think there’s been a mistake. I was expecting a horse, but you guys left a yellow lab here instead! He’s awful large for a dog, and you somehow attached hooves where his paws should be, but the way he follows me around and checks in for scritches every few minutes is more canine than equus. I even got him to roll over. Tomorrow we’ll try playing fetch.

No, seriously, he’s so easy. He’s whinnied a bit in response to the horses across the street, but then he gets back to his hay net and looks relaxed again. He’s been exploring and the first thing he did outside was roll over eight times…eight! I should have videoed but didn’t have the presence of mind. He was so confused poking around out there; he was looking for grass so hard but there just isn’t any.

I’ll let you know if we hit any bumps in the road. I get the feeling he may be okay here! 🙂

We got to visit Finn recently and see how he is enjoying his new foster family. Our farrier Marla Karabinos was kind enough to travel to the foster’s home near SAFE Harbor and continue to shoe Finn for us there. The set up is perfect for Finn and his hoof comfort looks to have improved with the new pads Marla gave him 6 weeks ago and the turnout on hogs fuel. He looks overall very happy. I took him in the arena to see how he looked at the trot and he was only slightly off on his right front. Love that he is comfortable and feeling good! It maybe a good fit if his future adopters could keep him in a similar set up with out gravel, I think he likes it better. Here are a few photos from the day:

Finn has really been giving us fits trying to figure out how to keep his hooves comfortable! Our amazing farrier Jake Cowden recently decided to take Finn on as a foster horse, moving him to his home to be able to closely monitor him and make more frequent and subtle adjustments to his shoeing. Finn is such a sweet boy, it would be great if we could get him comfortable enough for light riding. But if we can’t find a way to make him comfortable then we will find the best way to keep him pasture sound and retire him as a companion horse. We haven’t given up yet on this boy and hope to find the right fit in shoes but understand if he is unable to be ridden. He is a GREAT companion and a very good buddy to any horse. The hard part will be to find him a home where he can be kept off the grass and his sugar intake carefully monitored. 

Unfortunately Finn has come up lame this month. We had Dr Krauter out to asses him and she found that the root of the lameness is in his left stifle. He is getting some time off and a loading dose of Pentosan. We will reassess him at the end of the load but we are now 3 weeks into it and he is still stiff on that left leg. At the end of the Pentosan loading we can also try him on a daily dose of Previcox to see if that helps. Sadly we may have to reclassify Finn as a companion horse instead of riding horse if things do not improve, but we will see how the Pentosan trial turns out. 

I have been riding Finn for about a month now. He is a gentleman for tacking up, he stands for mounting and dismounting, walks off and halts when asked and yields his hindquarters and shoulders from both the leg or guiding reins. He is comfortable at the walk but has some hesitation when asked to trot. We have been working to get him sound and comfortable and we have found that the shoeing package in the fronts has almost completely fixed his front lameness. Just over a week ago however, he became very stiff in his left hind leg. We had Dr Krauter from Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital out to evaluate him and she feels that there is probably some arthritis in his left stifle from the over compensation he had to endure for so long when his front feet were in pain. She would like us to try a loading dose of an intramuscular joint therapy to help reduce inflammation and give him comfort from any joint pain due to arthritis. After a month we will reassess and if needed try him on Previcox to help inflammation and joint discomfort.

We’ve had a setback with Finn’s soundness this month. He has had some slight stiffness and isn’t looking as comfortable as he had been. When farrier Jake came to put on his new shoes last week, we noticed a bruise next to his frog on the right front. There was no indication of a rock or anything lodged under the pad. One thought was that the pads with built in frogs may be putting too much pressure on the soles of his feet. After trying a few ideas, we decided on a flat pad.

A few things to note: Finn has extremely soft hooves and Jake is very careful to lightly clamp the nails down. Too much clamping and the nail pulls straight down. Finn had a hard time with nails this shoeing. On the right front, his “better” front hoof, the nails would go in fine, but when it was clamped, Finn would take off steps. This happened when we were trying a bar type shoe that would wrap around the heel. The pain may have been from too much heel pressure.

Now he is 80% sound compared to where he was before. If he’s not back to normal next week, we may put him back on Previcox for a week to see if that helps. Jake also thought that we could try some dental impression material inside the pad next time to help stabilize the hoof. Finn’s heels are almost too expanded and as he steps this extra flexing on soft hooves might be part of the pain.

Another area of discomfort is his right shoulder where he had the puncture wound prior to his intake. When Jake holds that leg in a certain way, it is clear that Finn doesn’t like it. He also will take a few bad steps after this leg is worked on. He also looks very stiff and somewhat sore on the hind legs. We had the chiropractor come out last week to work on him, but it didn’t seem to help much. He tends to drag both hind feet and “shuffle” the hind to trot.

Finn is a darling horse, and we are working hard to figure out the answer to relieving his discomfort. We are still holding out hope that we can make him sound enough to at least carry a rider at the walk.

As we talked about in his last update, Finn needed some special treatment and thanks to Jake Cowden, he has been able to get the shoes he needs to feel great. We gave him a few weeks after the first set of shoes to getting used to moving in them. When we trotted him out, we were very happy to see how much better he looked. Last week he got his second pair of therapeutic shoes and everything is going very well. He has been introduced to trot poles, and while he is a bit clumsy over them at first, they help him get a nice rhythmic trot, free up his shoulders and pick up his hooves. We have reintroduced the saddle and bridle again and he is less concerned with them going on and working with them. He remains a constant gentleman, easy to handle, groom, bath and exercise.

I decided to introduce him to a new girl friend, Skittles, this past week. At first they both pretended to ignore each other but by the end of turnout I could see a friendship budding. When I took them back to their stalls they each called out to each other checking in on one another. Finn is a very sweet boy and anyone would be happy to call him their friend.

We’re starting to understand Finn’s lameness issues a little better, thanks to Dr King who has determined that Finn a few hoof related problems going on. He does have chronic laminitis, but that does not appear to be the cause of the lameness we’ve seen. The lameness is likely being caused by navicular syndrome. Navicular syndrome, more accurately called caudal heel pain, is a chronic progressive disease caused by degenerative changes to both the navicular bone and associated soft tissue structures. Often it is treated with joint injections, but Finn’s chronic laminitis prevent us from treating him with steroids. So, we’ve been advised to make shoeing changes to deal with this condition, in hopes of keeping him comfortable and sound.

Farrier Jake Cowden has been donating his services to SAFE on Finn’s behalf since he arrived at SHS. In light of Finn’s diagnosis, Jake donated his time and materials to provide an extensive shoeing job for our horse. He built a full pad to give him support all the way around and help him land more comfortably on his heels as he walks. Jake also rolled up the toes of his new shoes to speed the breakover. Finn was trimmed, using x‑rays as a guide, with shorter toes and lowered heels. Jake believes that this new shoeing will help keep Finn sound, and if it does, he will need to continue to be shod this way.

We want to thank Jake Cowden, not only for his generous donation in support of SAFE, but also for his incredible skill and talent when it comes to helping horses like Finn who have complicated problem feet. Finn is a terrific little horse, and we very much want to see him remain sound and comfortable. So thank you, Jake, for making that happen for him!

Mr Finn was a superstar yesterday! He wore a saddle for the first time since coming to SAFE and was completely unfazed by the experience. Terry says was a perfect gentleman! Way to go, Finn!!

As we’ve mentioned before, when we took Finn on as a SAFE horse, we were told that he was not sound for riding due to an injury he sustained when he was started under saddle as a young horse. He has a consistent lameness on his RF at the trot. Putting the saddle on was an experiment to see how he would react. We don’t know at this time if he will accept a rider with as little excitement as he did the saddle. Terry is in the process of trying to arrange the donation of a lameness exam so we can hopefully get some information about the nature of his injury and whether or not it is treatable. We should know more in a week or two. 

We’ve had some difficulties keeping Finn’s shoes on recently. His feet seem to be pretty soft and his shoes have just fallen off a few times. But they seem to be holding better now, and hopefully with better nutrition and hoof care, his feet will improve. We treated him for some deep splits in the frog and those are beginning to look better. He continues to do well with the ground work and retains what he is learning from session to session. He is still showing off and on lameness when going to the right and on small circles, which could indicate a possible shoulder or leg issues. We’ve also noticed some stiff movement from him when at liberty in the arena. He is gentle to be around and easy to groom.

Finn has been in ground work for the past several weeks, and he’s been very impressive! He’s made a big impression on Laura M who has been coming to Safe Harbor Stables a couple times a week to help Terry with ground work. Laura is very enthusiastic about Mr Finn…she wrote this update after the first time she worked with him:

Laura and Finn

OMG I am COMPLETELY in love. Utterly, ridiculously besotted – the kind where you scribble the guy’s name all over your school notebooks and work his name into all the silly songs on the radio. The kind where your friends roll their eyes every time you start a conversation because every other sentence starts “Finn says…” or “Finn did this funny thing the other day…”. Smitten. Head-over heels.

This “Channing Tatum” of a guy is just everything that *I* personally want in a horse…now of course, I’ve only worked with him once and he’s only at the very beginning of his training with us, and everybody’s tastes and needs are different — but I can’t help thinking he’s going to make a heck of a companion for some very lucky person. There is SO much potential there.

To start with, Finn is built like a TANK. Stunning dark palomino color with thick salt-n-pepper mane and tail and mounds of muscle. He’s not tall – maybe 14.1 or so (we haven’t measured him yet) but I bet he weighs 1,100lbs if he weighs an ounce…big wide chest and a butt that won’t quit. He’s short and stocky on powerful little legs, and he can MOVE on them. His stops and turns are lightning-quick and seriously powerful – I’d definitely want a horn to grab onto!

He ground-ties to groom no problem. He isn’t super-helpful with picking/holding his feet up to be cleaned, but I am guessing that less-than-awesome foot care (and thrush) means that there’s some discomfort associated with his feet, so that’s no big surprise. He doesn’t snatch them away, but is reluctant to pick them up and will kind of fidget with them while you handle them.

He backs so easily on just the second day we’ve asked for it from him; it’s wonderful. He’s still not super-comfortable about being asked to do stuff – a little on-alert – but very attentive and willing, and tuned in to his handler. He takes cues so readily, and wants to please – he’s just not got a lot of experience and is a bit nervous.

Lunging him is pretty easy – he’s not super-balanced, and is SO light in the halter and watchful of his handler that he’s over-bent to the inside most of the time. I think that will become less and less of a problem as he gets more experience.

He is super-responsive and eager; it’s best to keep to very quiet, steady cues. I can see how he might ramp up quickly if he gets too worried or frightened, and he’s SO heavily-muscled and athletic that it can probably be pretty dramatic if it happens. He needs to build confidence and trust. He seems like a steady kind of guy who hasn’t been handled much and is simply in a new situation now with more demands than he is used to. He needs time to become more experienced with people and all our weird requests for behaviors from horses (backing, lunging, moving various body parts around, picking up his feet, etc).

Laura and Finn

He did quite a bit of head bobbing at the trot to the right, unfortunately. I am not sure but I would guess that the pain is somewhere in his right shoulder or leg – that is the foot with the crack in the hoof, but also supposedly he had a knee problem (?), and it’s the shoulder where his puncture wound was – so we can take our pick of causes. It does come and go a little bit, and seems to get better as he warms up. It’s much better on a large circle than a small one. He seems mostly sound at the walk and also the canter, though he couldn’t maintain the canter very long.

To the left, he seems pretty much sound – didn’t see head-bobbing, though he over-bends that way more, so his movement is kind of stilted and odd anyway.

Overall he is still new enough to lunging that it’s hard to get consistent gaits and really judge soundness with any degree of detail– but he’s definitely lame SOMEwhere when he trots to the right. I don’t see it so much when he’s at liberty, but he’s mostly moving in straight lines then.

We worked on flexing, and even though he is really light in the halter under other circumstances, he’s tough to flex. He’s got a very short, thick neck, so it’s probably not the easiest thing in the world for him to do, too. But again – he’s so willing and eager to please, he made good progress.

Finn is such a nice horse! He’s happy just to have his halter put on and be taken for a walk – he loves interaction and physical contact. Loves to be loved on!

We set him loose in the arena, and he had lots of pent-up energy to burn. He ran around and around, kicking and farting, having a good time. Never a laid-back ear or hint of a bad attitude…just joy at moving his body. Where many (even most) other horses tend to look outside the arena as they run around and are very much on their own agenda when first put at liberty, Finn always had an ear or eye on the people in the arena, and stayed at the end close to us most of the time. He is very, VERY social – though not at all pushy. Without even trying, most of his direction changes were to the inside.

He’s quite athletic, and we didn’t see any signs of obvious lameness or unsoundness. Very quickly he was willing to come in to us and never showed anything but pleasure at being approached. No standoffishness at all.

Began working on some basic groundwork. He’s attentive and calm with everything, and is SO willing. He backed like a dream once he caught on to what was wanted, and he just naturally yields his hindquarters. He is quite submissive, but not in a fearful or reactive way. He just simply watches to see what you want, and then does it. Loves praise, no false pride – very workmanlike and calm, but interested and has good energy. He desensitized to the rope on his body and legs very quickly, and even when he was a little afraid at first, he stayed supple and soft to just one finger on the halter. He naturally looks to people for direction on how to stay safe and what to do – he is really incredibly sensible, willing, and smart – everything Quarter Horses are justly famous for!

I am guessing he will go best Western – he’s definitely not the usual build for English events, and judging from his movement at liberty, it’d be quite an effort for him to get that stocky body over any kind of jump. I can’t see him ever having that long, elegant lateral drift like a TB or Warmblood – it’s more the down-n-dirty athleticism of a cutting horse.

As long as his feet get good care and assuming there are not permanent repercussions from his old injuries, he’s got an amazing ability to get low into the dirt, rock over his hocks, engage that magnificent rump and execute serious power-turns, so he might make a great roping or “fun-show” level reining prospect – or pack you along trails until the end of time. He’s short, but stocky enough to carry an average adult. He is a bit older so I wouldn’t want to see him pushed TOO hard as he ages – but he’s got a lot of quickness left in him if managed and conditioned properly. For right now we will build up his strength with liberty and ground work and help him shed some pounds in the process.

Finn was released from Dr Hannah’s care this week, and is now part of the herd at SAFE Harbor Stables. He’s already found one new BFF in Jewel…the two of them are quite smitten with each other. They are a nicely matched pair, about the same size and very similar in color as well. They spent some time hanging out in the arena together today, and there was some definite smooching going on!

Upon his arrival at SAFE, Finn got reacquainted with Terry. Finn’s puncture wound is almost completely healed and he’s feeling a lot better!

Farrier Jake Cowden made a special visit to Dr Hannah’s Cedarbrook Veterinary Hospital to visit Finn. Finn came in pretty overdue for a trim, so his feet needed someone pretty immediate attention. He has a crack in his front right cornet band that, as it grows out, creates a crack all the way down to the tip of his toe. This may require him to always keep shoes on his front feet but it remains to be seen if it affects his soundness. He was a very good boy for the work even though, as you can see from the photos below, the puncture wound on his shoulder was still in the process of healing. We are very thankful for Jake’s experience and kindness towards Finn.

We have a new horse to introduce. His name is Finn and he is a 14 year old Quarter Horse gelding. Finn was injured in his pasture when he impaled himself through the muscle of his right shoulder. His owner was unable to afford to have a vet out to see him. She treated his wound herself for a few days but when it began to become infected, she called SAFE for help. Fortunately with the recent adoption of Nora, we had a space available and were able to take him. 

Finn was signed over to us, and we delivered him straight to NWESC so that Dr Hannah could see to his wound. She discovered that while the wound was extremely deep, it was angled in such a way that it was draining well, and she found no debris remaining in the wound or signs of necrotic tissue. Finn will remain at NWESC for further treatment of the wound, as it is important that it heals correctly from the inside out. 

Finn’s previous owner told us that he was injured while being started under saddle as a young horse, but we are unclear as to the exact nature of his injury. He has a badly cracked front hoof, and the crack appears to be growing from the coronary band. Other than these issues, and his injury, Finn is in good health and is in fact a bit overweight. We’re getting him up to date on teeth and shots, and we hope that he’ll be released from NWESC in another week or so. He’s a very sweet horse, and we have high hopes that we’ll be able to find him a new home where he’ll get the care that he deserves.