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I received an email about a horse that was being diagnosed with laminitis and chronic Founder.

Bradley.......I'm writing from Cabo San Lucas Mexico..........
We have a fantastic horse , Santana"........he's in big trouble......we think it's Laminitis........can I call you to talk about it.........or can you recommend someone else to call.........we have no way to x ray.....
So appreciate any of your thoughts..........with sincere thanks, Lori
 

I replied with:

Nine days later I receive another email:

Hi Bradley, I’m Jacque the horse owner in Mexico that my friend Lori spoke to you about, the Laminitis was caused by years of bad shoeing, not a grain founder. I'm not much for typing so l am going to try and call you instead, what is the best time to call you ? l will send you some pictures of his feet taken yesterday. Thanks for showing an interest in trying to help there is not much of it here as you can imagine. All the best Jacqueline

Below are two of the photos that I received:

First thought is the Bars and Heels are so over grown,

That this is were the pain is coming from.

Well call me silly but as far as I see there is no founder and who knows about laminitis, as it has been a while since the first email contact and if there is no heat . . .

. . . After I received these photos I received a phone call, and that is what I said. we talked extensively about it, and all I could do is suggest that the horse just needed a good trim and shoes, as the horse is normally ridden in and on sand daily as well as gravel. The owner wanted me to describe to her what to tell her horseshoer to do. After only discussing the true point of the frog, and thinking that she doesn't really understand what I am saying, I said "This is really tough, It is to bad I just can't be there to do it, or explain to your horseshoer what I mean".

She replied with "Really, Could you?". The next day the flight was booked and I was on my way.

Below is where the horse is stalled

The horse was not really up to the seven people around him, or the scary X-Ray machine. But we all got through it, safely.

It is always best to take X-Rays of the feet slightly elevated on a block of wood, both feet, fronts or hinds equally loaded. But Santana was not calm or cooperative, and the only way he would stand still was to have one foot on the hoof stand. So we did the best we could with what we had to work with.

This is the front right foot and you can see that there is no rotation at all

The local Farrier Yayo on the right.

When Yayo and I first met, I said through an interpreter, "I don't know what you know, I just know what I know, so in my explanations I realize you may already know what I am talking about. So I am not in any way trying to insult you, I am just going through the steps of trimming and shoeing".

The shots above and below, I cleaned out the sole area and knifed a blueprint for the nippers to follow, at which point Yayo said "I don't do that I just nipper through the sole". Also there are not many photos to chose from, but I cleaned out the bars and frog better than what is shown.

The owner had told me the night before that the trainer thought that one of the problems with the horse was that the feet were to small, and the removal of the shoes was to enable the foot to broaden and become larger. And that was the prescription given to Yayo. As we worked I was directing my conversation to Yayo, but my intent was for the Trainer to hear that the coffin bones shape and size is what dictates the shape and size of the hoof wall, and to try to change that is inviting disaster to occur.

I basically did what I was asked and showed Yayo what I do and then suggested he continue and finish the job, as it was his horse. He thought that I should finish the fronts and he would do the hinds.

The heat of the day was so intense, and the day dragged on, so near the end the last shoe was about to be put on the left hind, and Yayo stopped and said to the interpreter that there was not as much expansion on this shoe as the other hind. I said "You saw it, and called it, so I will change it". He suggested maybe it wasn't necessary. So I just repeated what I had said and opened it up.

At the end of it all I said "Yayo, you are every bit as good a Farrier as I am, and the only difference is, that I use heat to shape a shoe and you do not". To which he said "Thank-you".

I also added "You know what you are doing, and are the professional, do not let them tell how to do your job. You know how to keep this animal sound."

During my time there I learned much about the situation, and had I known it all before I left, could have saved the owner a great deal of money.

Jacqueline, had owned this horse, Santana, for six years, and pretty much rode him daily on the beaches, from her previous stable. And for six years this horse remained Sound. Santana had developed a small lump on his neck, and after the Trainer/Holistic Person, at a different stable, had convinced Jacqueline that the way to remove the small dime sized lump was with "Sub Sonic Sound Waves", and the benefit to this treatment was that it would also turn the horses neck right side up, and build much needed muscle mass in his chest. (Really???) At this point Santana was moved to this new location, which I might add is absolutely wonderful, and a reflection of the stable owners commitment to happy horses. Now that Santana was at his new home, treatment had commenced and training had be stepped up to develop Dressage Discipline Muscle Mass. At this point the trainer/holistic person felt that Santana's Chest was to narrow, and the legs were crooked, the feet were to small and needed to be broadened, and the sum total of these problems could be solved by removing the shoes, while "Sub Sonic Sound Waves" were being used to assist in rebuilding this horse. Somewhere in all of this the horse became lame and was confined to stall rest and not allowed out of the stall, on orders of the new trainer/holistic person, as there was large rock gravel in the isle ways, "...and the horse would be sore". The Trainer/holistic person also was saying that "The horse was laminitic and was chronically foundered because of years of bad shoeing".

When I arrived I insisted we bring the horse out of the stall and down to the cement pad so I could have a decent look at the animal. I also insisted on Rads of the feet and we called the only X-Ray Technician for several hundred miles or more.

By the x-rays I could see what I was sure of, and that was there was no rotation of the coffin bone. And there was no indication of Laminitis.

After a good trim the slight swelling that was in his hind pasterns was all but gone, and by the next morning his legs were right.

After working on this horse, I suggested we turn him loose in the riding arena, watch him, and let him tell us how sound he is now. He ran around, bucked and kicked, as though he had been stalled for two months, and was happy and sound.

Next, while alone with Jacqueline, the owner of Santana, I said "You have gone to great expense to get me here and make your horse sound, and after that task has been completed, I would think that what I have to say now should be implemented immediately. You need to command that trainer/holistic person, that lamed your horse, to never touch him ever again. She needs to, not feed him, not train him, not to even think of him, or, talk to you about your horse ever again. If you can not do that then you need to remove Santana, and stall him at the old location. YOU WERE SOLD SNAKE OIL, and that SNAKE OIL lamed your horse. If that person ever has anything to do with your horse, you just wasted your money on me."

I next moved into questioning her about training for Dressage, and the need for it, "Do you plan on riding Santana on the beach, or move to the Dressage arena. In other words do you plan on ever riding in the dressage discipline?"

To which she said "No".

"Then," I asked "Why would you need to develop those muscle groups?"

"Santana has been fit to ride the beaches of Cabo for six years. Why change that?"

At the end of it all she hugged me crying, and thanked me profusely.

Click Here for Me Sailing off Lands End Cabo San Lucas

Click Here for General Photos of Cabo San Lucas

As Seen In The Castlegar Newspaper Thursday September 25, 2008