Chiapas and the Guatemalan border

As we went upwards out of the coastal lowlands we found cooler weather. The countryside was nice but it was still rather scarce horse wise. I had a fun few days out of the heat.

   

 

We made it to Tuxtla where we planned to rest up for a week while waiting for new hoof boots. After a couple days off I noticed that Roxy was sore in the front legs! It first showed up 2 hours after feeding her some concentrate feed one morning.

The hard hot miles in Oaxaca, combined with me giving too much corn and different feed to Roxy along the way, made for sore front hooves. Her stomach was stressed at the same time as her feet. The indigestion added to her hoof stress.

The result was slight laminitis. Once identified, we proceeded to treat it in the following way:

1. No more grain

2. Ice on feet

3. Buta fenyl injections twice daily for 5 days

After 5 days of treatment a vet came by to look at another horse at the stables. He looked at my horse and said that if she had had laminitis, it was VERY mild.

I do know that there was hoof wall separation, and that it had started probably a month previous, but had gotten worse in the last 2 weeks.

So I was now going to do what was required to get the hoof wall tight again.

For 2 weeks afterwards, when I put the hoof boots on in the morning, I added a bit of water first, and copper sulphate powder, to get rid of the bad bacteria in between the sole and the wall. This treatment worked really well.

As we worked on this healing, we got a ride sorted out to close to the border. After staying at the Lienzo Charro Mi Lupita for a couple of days while Roxy got treatment, one of the boarders offered to drive me to his ranch closer to Tapachula. I was originally going to cross in the mountains at La Mesilla, but with Roxy being sore, I was more interested in getting as close to my destination as possible so I could rest her there all fall if I had to.

Then another ride was needed to the border. The manager of the ranch decided he’d drive me to the border. I thought fantastic. We left the Wednesday morning, 2 days after I arrived. Unfortunately for him and me, his truck started overheating pretty bad. A almost 2 hour trip took almost 4 hours. We had to stop for water about 10 times, as well as get a new rad cap.

My contacts at the border told me to meet them near the border crossing at El Carmen.

I got across, but not before my second contact, a border official who was a friend of a friend, started giving me all sorts of bullshit prices. Like 25 usd to leave Mexico, and 500 quetzales (65 usd) to enter Guatemala, and 125 q (15 usd) for a hotel and 300 q (40usd) for a bale of hay! He also didn’t live at the border town, even though over the last few days I asked him to send me his location so I could co-ordinate my logistics. He was so full of it. I was tired of the bullshit.

That evening, after all the crap that day, I ended up staying at a hotel in the border town, instead of at my “friends” house with next to no money. That night, I put out the appeal for some donations to finish the trip, and over the next couple of days got some great help.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! The vets, my hosts, my help with transport, those who supported and donated….

PS. THE SADDLES IN CANADA ARE STILL FOR SALE….

The next part of the trip, heading up to the Guatemalan highlands and then on to Lake Atitlan, then Maya Pedal, I’ll cover in my next post.