We acquired Sera as a 2 year old after receiving a call from one of my trimming clients. Sera was at a neighboring property and was scheduled to be euthanized due to lameness. We went with our trailer and picked her up. At first, she appeared to have long flared out bare feet, but after getting her home I discovered that she had steel shoes with plastic pads buried in her soles. They had been on long enough that her walls had grown completely around the shoes…totally covering the shoes. The nails were all gone. She had scars from rope burns in all four pasterns, a knot on her poll, and a swollen knee. We learned later that the farrier/horse “trainer” that was hired to start her had a bad reputation for tying up and beating horses into submission. This neglect and abuse led to many years of PMES rehabilitation.

What at first seemed to be a simple barefoot rehab turned out to be the longest most difficult rehab that I have ever been through. It sure seems like we came together as an outlet to vent our anger with careless/cruel/ignorant people, but I learned to use the anger as fuel to get through difficult moments and to let it go as soon as I was out of the tangle. Sera was scarier than me when we got mad at each other. She is a horse with a huge spirit. She has a lot of fight in her and I’m guessing that guy didn’t like her fight. I bet it got ugly.

I also learned the most from Sera about going out of my comfort zone and pushing my limits. It took me 7 years to stabilize Sera’s feet but with the advent of Easy Care Cloud boots and weekly trims, Sera has been thriving for the past 8 years.

Her gift is willfulness and an unbreakable spirit. Her lesson for me has been accepting that I can only do my best with the lessons that I have learned at the time, but never give up expecting a new lesson to come around the corner. I’m still working on her soft tissue.

Sera has been on 1-3 week trims for 15 years.