An inside look

Sobeck asked Nestrick a key question over the phone: Would walking Raye cause the nail to drive further into the hoof? The answer was “no,” so Sobeck told her it was OK to trailer the mare back home for treatment. She would meet them there.

“One of the big concerns with anything that penetrates the sole is that walking on it will drive it deeper,” says Sobeck. “In those cases, you need to get creative and use blocks of wood or bandages to keep the object from coming into contact with the ground. The nail in Raye’s hoof was already below the level of the shoe, so she wouldn’t be putting any pressure on it with each step. That’s why it was OK to put her back on the trailer.”

The ride home gave Nestrick time to consider where and even when Raye may have stepped on the nail. “She had been seen by the farrier four days earlier, so I know for sure she didn’t have it then,” she says. “I hadn’t ridden her since, and she hadn’t left home until I loaded her up on the trailer to go to Kim’s. I suppose she could have stepped on it in the 50 yards or so we rode at the park, but that doesn’t seem likely. She must have picked it up at my place, which is hard to explain.” There had been no recent construction on Nestrick’s farm, and in the 27 years she’d kept horses there, she’d never had trouble with a rogue nail before.

Sobeck met Nestrick when she arrived and began her examination of Raye. “In my mind, the nail didn’t look like it was in a good place,” says Sobeck. “It was in the middle third of the hoof, the area that includes the navicular bursa. That’s the area I’m most concerned about because an infection there can be very destructive and difficult to treat.”

A series of radiographs showed even more reason for concern: The nail had entered the sole at a horizontal angle, looking like it ran parallel with the ground, but the x-rays revealed it actually took a sharp 90 degree turn upward inside the foot, heading directly for and possibly even touching the coffin bone.

Sobeck didn’t hesitate in recommending a referral to a surgical clinic. “I told Val that if it were my horse I’d take her to a clinic, because that’s the complete truth,” says Sobeck. As Nestrick loaded Raye back onto the trailer, Sobeck called ahead to Chino Valley Equine Hospital to let the staff know to expect the pair.