Lameness and waiting

So my horse is lame. I'm not sure why. It's her left front. Hope I didn't break my horse. I have a few theories.

She's been somewhat off since her last shoeing but nothing definite. Off for a few days, okay for a few days, off for a few days...etc. But now she's off all the time. So maybe she's too short or maybe it's a nail in the wrong place. I had my farrier look at her a few days ago. He put the hoof testers on her and she did flinch at one nail. Not a major flinch but it was obvious that it bothered her. So he pulled that nail and said give her 4-5 days. If she's not better he will remove her front shoes. We'll see. So on Monday we hopefully see some improvement.

Could be an abcess. So I started soaking her foot. I've never soaked her foot before. She let me put the medicine boot on her and put the epsom salt water in it. She only moved once to test out what was on her foot but she didn't panic and stood still the rest of the time. So I guess I'll soak her foot for a while and see if an abcess shows up.

She has a new habit. She has started putting her front feet, usually her left front foot, in her feeder. She just started this earlier this year. In order to get the foot out of the feeder, she drags her leg out of it. I suppose after a while it would start to bother her. Must be the Foxtrotter in her-they tend to put their feet in everything. So I'm having our barn handyman lower the feeder. I know that won't stop her from putting her feet in the feeder, but at least she'll be able to get it out with greater ease. She also has a habit of scratching her belly on the corner of the feeder and she rubs all the hair off her belly. Then she's bother by the flys even more. Then she scratches more...then...well it's a vicious cycle. So even if the lameness problem turns out to have nothing to do with the feeder, it will be nice to get rid of the belly scratcher.

So my horse has some time off. I do have another horse to ride. Her mom, Skippy. Skippy is so different from Zoe. She has more "go" and is really sensitive to a rider's legs on her. I haven't ridden her consistently for many years, just off an on over the years. My husband or a friend rides her only on the trail. She gets ridden maybe 8 times a month at the most. She is 20 years old and you'd never know it by the way she loves to go. So I rode Skippy and I noticed something. Years ago when I rode both Skippy and Zoe, I remembered Skippy as being the better of the two. She was more responsive and I felt like she had more experience so I could trust her more. Memories are good for then, but I found out that things are different now. I tried to ride Skippy like I ride Zoe in my lessons and it wasn't working out so well. Zoe understands more than Skippy! Sure Skippy is still responsive but it only goes so far. Zoe responds to far more commands than Skippy. Sure Zoe is still slower than Skippy, but speed isn't everything. So I was proud of my little Zoe coming so far along. And I decided to ride Skippy like I used to ride-I wasn't going to change her in one ride so I might has well make it pleasurable for both of us.

Now to just wait and see what's up with Zoe.