Arigato

Some of these are just harder to talk about than others. I’m so sorry to let you all know we had to let Arigato go. She was diagnosed with severe degeneration of her right hind coffin joint and navicular bone resulting in ongoing lameness issues. She was euthanized due to a grave prognosis for life without significant pain. The disease was likely the result of a previous infection before she arrived at SAFE.

We are unclear when the trauma to her hind foot occurred but evidences of this were present from the day she arrived at SAFE. However not being gentle, we could not safely sedate her and x‑ray. She managed well and the work we did to gentle her never seemed to cause too much discomfort. She was always slight lame but happily living and getting more and more peaceful around humans.

Last week she presented with signs of colic, within a few days started to become tender on her hind and the last 2 days not bearing weigh. Her pain was severe the last 2 days and we greatly appreciate our vets getting to her as soon as possible. She was not afraid or frightened, she took comfort in human touch and love, and was peaceful about everything we needed to do to help her this past week. She found a forever home with SAFE and had found love with our family. She was surrounded by love and friendship when she was peacefully laid to rest and like all things she did this with grace.

You will be dearly missed sweet teddy bear mare. Thank you for trusting and loving us as much as we loved you.

What great changes we have seen in this young mare over the last weeks. She is easily haltered now and able to safely walk out of her paddock and into the arena to work. Changing eyes remains a challenge for her so it is very important we keep working to help her free up and move across the front without panicking as she changes eyes. 

Ari is now fully vaccinated and has had a number of very successful farrier trims. We still see a mild lameness in her right hind and we have to continue her gentling so we can have her fully evaluated by our vets in the coming months. Luckily the work only seems to improve her movement and she does not become sore or more uncomfortable after being worked. It’s still a mystery why she had the bulge on her hoof…it may be a very traumatic injury that resulted in a big abscess that took a long time to surface? The crack and bulge are moving down the hoof as new foot grows and the crack is now practically gone. There are still some visual differences in the size and shape of the coronet band on that right hind but overall, she appears fairly comfortable weighting it now. Once the vets can x‑ray and we can have a few more answers, we will feel a whole lot more secure about her future. She is a very sweet mare and has soulful expressions. She loves to cuddle and her eyes are soft and sweet when we are working with her. 

Arigato came to SAFE with very overgrown hooves and some apparent lameness in her right hind. We have been working with her to gentle her enough to safely sedate her for X‑rays. She has a bulge about one inch below the coronet band. There is a possibility that this is a benign tumor known as a keratoma, but this will need to be confirmed through the X‑rays. The only way to treat a keratoma is by surgically removing a section of the outer hoof wall to access the keratoma. Depending on the size of the area sectioned off, it can take up to a year for the hoof hard layer to regrow. This would be a year on limited movement and stall rest. That length of confinement is particularly difficult for a horse to endure. A decision on whether or not it is in Arigato’s best interest to do the surgery is pending results of further diagnostics. In the meantime, she had her first farrier visit in early August to trim her hooves.

In the last month, Ari has made major steps in groundwork training. During the September Joel Conner clinic at SAFE, Terry spent about 45 minutes on the first day of the clinic convincing Ari that she could just get through the door to the arena. By the third day, Ari walked right into the arena to join the groundwork class. Another challenge that Arigato conquered was having the vet get up close to her. By taking the time needed to overcome Ari’s fears, the vet was able to give Ari’s first vaccinations and booster shots. Ari has had two visits from the farrier for hoof trims, and her lameness seems to have evened out. She has good days and bad days, but seems comfortable enough to continue the gentling work with her. We’re careful that working with her to improve her balance does not make her lameness worse.

Arigato came to SAFE having never been touched by a person. The staff got right to work getting her used to all sorts of new experiences. From haltering, leading, flagging, picking up feet and fly spray, check out the videos Terry, our Operations Director, has been sharing along the way.