Bea Jay’s Story

My name is Bea Jay. I’m a 16 year young quarter horse mare. I am loved a lot and treated well. I loved going on rides with my person. Lately I haven’t been able to enjoy the rides like I used to. Seems my feet have really started bothering me. I tried not to complain but the day came when I just couldn’t do it any more. The pain was so bad I started limping on my right front hoof.

 My person came to feed me in the morning and saw I was hurting. She checked to see if I had a rock stuck. There was no rock. She called the horse shoer and asked if he would come and check me. He did but didn’t know what to do. She called the Vet. He suspected I had Navicular. He said there wasn’t much that could be done. That really scared me. I wasn’t ready to leave her. I wanted to go on more rides. I was still young. She was going to take me for x-rays. Another horse shoer put pads and Bar shoes on to see if that would help me. I was hoping she wouldn’t do that. I could tell from her eyes she was very worried and afraid. She said a prayer and asked for help from our Lord.

 Next day she went to work. One of her friends asked how I was doing and if she had called these other people yet. She told her no, that I was going to be x-rayed the next day. This friend said she should talk to these other people before they did the x-ray. She called them right then and there. Their names are Frank Orza and Mary Winn.

Now the story really starts. She asked them to please come and see me. They did that very day. Frank, God bless his soul, pulled my shoes off and when he finished I let out a big sigh of relief. You see, she didn’t understand how my feet really worked. How important the blood flow to my feet was to my overall health. I’m sorry to say at that point so much damage had been done and I was in so much pain that I didn’t know how much longer I could stand it.

 My person would come and walk me several times a day. It hurt so bad but I had to keep trying. Then came the day I just couldn’t walk anymore. She called Frank and Mary in tears. They said bring me over to their place. She loaded me in my trailer and off we went. When I got there the other horses seemed to like me OK. I was interested in what all these horses were doing. Maybe I could make some friends that were like me.

 Mary put some Hoofwings on my front feet. What a relief! I’m thinking, hey, this is good. I don’t hurt nearly as bad and I can walk around again. Boy, I’ll tell you this new sensation of blood in my feet again was really something. They throbbed all the time. My Hoofwings seemed to help a lot. I heard them talking about my hooves saying I had lots of damage but we were on the right track. I would get abscesses in my feet and I didn’t like it because they hurt. But they kept saying that’s good. I was starting to heal. My body started to regenerate new hoof and sole and my pain wasn’t as bad as before. I knew I could do it now. I can even go hours without my Hoofwings.

See my picture? That’s my person riding me again. I’m so glad she finally understood what I needed. She’s learning all she can about my hooves. She wants to be able to help others like herself. I’m going to go visit with my friend now. But, if you need help my persons name is Gail Sheppard. Frank Orza and Mary Winn made Hoofwings for me. They can help you too. Check back with me again and I will let you know how I’m doing in my recovery.

 Happy trails for all of us,

Bea Jay.