Club is On A Roll; Ellie Abscesses

What a month!  The ups and downs of this business are crazy and, frequently, happen at the same time.

The Canterbury Racing Club, which is managed by GRS, is on quite the streak.  Maryjean got to the Hawthorne and ripped off three consecutive wins before being claimed away from us in her last race.  Between her second and third win, Terice picked up a win of her own.  Both horses were well prepared by Clay Brinson and ridden superbly by Emmanuel Esquivel. 

The girls have been on fire and Terice goes at it again later this afternoon at Hawthorne.  If she can win she will extend the Club winning streak to five in a row and notch her own second consecutive win. 

The girls have helped the Club achieve several milestones this season: most wins in a season (5 and counting...I hope); first allowance effort (Maryjean, finished 3rd); and most consecutive wins (4 and counting).  It's been a lot of fun and I think the Club members have had a great time with it.

At the same time, our 3YO Minnesota bred filly, Elusive Edition, came up lame one day during her turnout.  It was heartbreaking.  She was way off on the front end and, because she has such an expression-full face, she just looked miserable.

Initially her feet looked good and we put front shoes on her which seemed to help some along with a short course of bute.  Once she was off the bute, however, she went totally sideways again and we hauled her up to Clearly Lake for Doctor Kathy Ott to take at her.

Step one was to use the hoof tester and see what she had going on in the feet.  As she moved around Ellie's right front hoof Dr. Ott exclaimed, "Whoa...look at that puss!!"  She had inadvertently squeezed and abscess with the off tester and drained it.  You could almost hear Ellie sigh audibly!  Her demeanor changed and she was obviously experiencing relief already.

To be on the safe side we went ahead and took x-rays and they revealed the abscess as well as a moderately low hoof angle in both feet - not unusual in Thoroughbreds.  The ankle shots also showed no wear and tear on her joints at all.  They actually looked great so there was some good news!

After days of cleaning, soaking and wrapping after a long day of work, Heather had Ellie in good shape (hey, I held her...).  Each day she was feeling better and better, playing and bucking and generally enjoying the outdoors.  The abscess cleared and dried up and her farrier has put special pads on under the hoof to give her some additional protection and compensate for her low hoof angle.  She still has nearly two months before she heads south to get ready for the season and it looks like she'll be healed up nicely and ready to get back to work when the time comes.

Ellie's hoof wrapped for treatment.  The blue wraps were just for transportation protection.

Her interim trainers, Roy Bland and Michelle Allen who will get her ready in Oklahoma for the Canterbury season, were wonderful in providing experience-based information, advice and checking in on her to see how she was responding to treatment. And hats off to the staff at Cleary Lake who were excellent with our girl, the folks over at Turn Crest where she is turned out and her farrier, Steve.

Heather deserves special mention.  She did virtually all the hard work in getting her back to health, spending nearly a week completely exhausted with an achy back to get the hoof treatments done.  That doesn't happen and Ellie doesn't get better.

I have no idea how her hoof angle impacted her racing ability at all but even if it did a little bit, discovering it and fixing it is going to help.  We learned that she has to go long and that sprinting is not her gig, so that should help as well.  Maybe putting together all the little pieces will get her on the right road to success on the track?