By August of 2014, Farletta's feet were bothering her so much she would walk out of her stall so sore she could barely move. I hated keeping her in the stall but the sun is relentless here in Kentucky in the summer and she burns badly. Here is a pic of a burn she received the previous summer after just 6 hours out in the sun:
With no shade available in her field or in the dry lot at the boarding stable, I felt the stall was the best option but it was doing her feet no favors at all! She was so lame that day in mid-August, I put her in the dry lot as an act of desperation. She'd been going in the field with her grazing muzzle since early spring but still was getting increasingly more lame as time went on. She was out in the dry lot overnight and returned to her stall for the hottest part of the day as usual. |
However, this time when I came out to see Farletta that afternoon, she walked out of her stall about 75% more sound than the day before! I couldn't believe the difference! I returned her to the dry lot that night and the next day she came out of her stall 100% sound on the cement (though still tender-footed on the gravel).
That was enough to convince me. I was going to do whatever I could to change her environment and help her continue to heal.
I was fortunate to rent a home that had some land and my sweet land lady gave me permission to create a safe place for Farletta to live. This is the start of Farletta's "paddock paradise" which is currently just a fancy-pants dry lot but I'm working on it.
That was enough to convince me. I was going to do whatever I could to change her environment and help her continue to heal.
I was fortunate to rent a home that had some land and my sweet land lady gave me permission to create a safe place for Farletta to live. This is the start of Farletta's "paddock paradise" which is currently just a fancy-pants dry lot but I'm working on it.
The fence was already there around what I'm guessing is about a 1/2 acre lot. It was full of lush Kentucky grasses so I hired a bobcat to tear out all the grass and had a big dump truck haul it away. You can see the posts are getting set for her shelter, I wanted her to have as much shade as possible to help avoid the sunburn. More pics coming soon!