March 19th's Farrier Appointment

Look who came to visit us....it's Mark and his big trailer of farrier goodness!

Do you know what I love most about this picture?  That it's MARCH and nice enough we could be in shirt sleeves.  Thank you Mother Nature!

Tom's last shoe finally came off on March 19th.  We'd been maintaining a one shoe off, one shoe on dynamic in order to accommodate a single EasyBoot RX.  Since my last one was finally overcome by the rigors of staying on a 2,000lb draft horse (see our previous post for the video!), Tom was going barefoot.  I'd ordered a pair of the regular Easy Boots in the largest size they made so that his hoof would still be protected from the great outdoors.

The hoof had grown out enough since this began (again!) in September that the hole appeared to be growing out well.  After the trim it was not as deep as it had been.

Afterwards, as we headed back to the field, Tom was only a bit ouchy.  Since we had to traverse the gravel of the barn yard that was easily explained away as nothing serious.

I bet I know what you're thinking...."Famous last words"

And you'd be right.

The Destruction of an Easyboot RX.

We've been enjoying some fabulous weather, and the boys have been outside nonstop.  The temps were in the 70s for almost 2 weeks, the grass has come on strong, and the Tommy is feeling his oats!

March Update

I can't believe I've missed over a month of updates!  I'd like to say that we've had new and exciting experiences, but basically it went like this:

1.  Farrier pulled shoe and found serious thrush

2.  Cleantrax, cleantrax, cleantrax

3.  Tommy went to vet to see if canker was cleared up.

4.  Vet found infection in multiple areas of the hoof and opened them up.

5.  Cleantrax, cleantrax, straight bleach soak and more antibiotics for the canker area

6.  Switched to collodial silver to treat areas.  Went through a bottle, then went back to the thrushbuster.
Infection seems to be cleared up, move to every other day thrush treatments.

7.  My super sniffer thinks it smells infection.  Farrier comes back out, cuts a little back, and looks like it's clear.  We move to twice a week thrush treatments.

8.  I take off the wrap one day to find gray ooze.  Booo thrush.

9.  Back to the thrush medication.

10.  Weapon's farrier comes out for his trim and is nice enough to cut back the frog a bit more so I can get to it.  That was a week and a half ago, and we still have the gray ooze.  Its time to start some clean trax again.

In addition, the boys left the door open to the scales and Annie (the red one)

 got inside and got ahold of one of the EasyBoot RX's.

Until that point I had a pair, and I rotated because the material gets damp from the heat of his hoof and was holding moisture in.  So now we're down to one boot, and that one is ripping.  I'm hoping to get a few more weeks out of it, but we'll have to see.

I want to see what EasyBoot's new Back country - how great would it be if it came in draft horse sizes??

In the meantime, I have one adorable, loving, goofy, and fun loving red heeler to rehome....any takers??

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Tommy Blue Foot

Somehow I'm not able to figure out how to add the Follow Us on Facebook button to this blog.  I know it can be done.  I've seen it on other people's websites, I just can't seem to do it.  I'm going to blame it on Monday, and try again on a Friday.  In the meantime you can just click the link above.

Time for the Reveal!

Last Saturday was shoe removal day.  I was nail biting nervous to see what it looked like underneath.  I'm always biting my nails though so maybe that doesn't signify anything special.

Mark arrived and we got to work.  By "we" I mean Mark.  I just held the horse and offered helpful commentary like "I think he's going to move," and "Oops, did the dog just lick you?"  What can I say, Mark's lucky to have an owner like me looking out for him.  I'm sure some farm dogs are mean, right?  I mean, what's a little slobber between friends??  Annie's sure they are friends.  She's a little goofy though.

The shoe came off easily enough, and it appeared that the canker had not grown back.  The bad news is  the thrush came back strong.  Guess the copper silicone and my Thrush Buster didn't do it's job.  Or here's a scary thought...maybe it DID work and it's still this yucky.


Lucky for us it was one of the last nice days we had before our winter weather hit so we went right into a Clean Trax soak.

The hardest part is finding a bag big enough to go around and his hoof and strong enough to hold up to him standing on it that long.

I love Clean Trax.  It makes the hooves look so nice and clean and pretty when it's done.  One day I will do a Clean Trax soak on all four hooves and take before and after pictures so you can see just how nice it looks.  I think I need to wait till the $10 Congress sale first though!

I changed thrush medications.  I'd been squeezing some Thrush Buster under the silicone, but clearly it wasn't working very well, so I switched to Well Horse.  This product you apply with a toothbrush.  I squirted a bit in the hole and then scrubbed it all around.

Then I went a little crazy and applied it just about everywhere.

Then I put on our handy EasyBoot RX, and everyone went out for a little turnout in the beautiful sunshine.  Look - Weapon and I aren't even wearing our coats!

Tommy Blue Foot Rides Again

Thursday's weather was just too nice to resist, so Tommy and I saddled up and took a little jaunt around the wheat field.

It's been months since we've ridden, but he was just as well behaved as if he'd been ridden regularly all fall and winter.  I knew he would be though, because we're both firm believers that there's no sense in being foolish; and there's always time to stop and have a nibble.  Unlike Weapon, who spent the duration of our ride galloping the fence line.  Tommy and I agree this is exceedingly foolish behavior, and we would *never* behave this way.  Although it is interesting to watch...

Good Morning 2012!

This morning was an almost balmy 49 degrees.  I headed out to the barn to feed and then the weather started rolling in.

Hello storm clouds!

It didn't take very long for the wind to start howling.  Luckily the rain held off until right when I was walking across the barnyard with the grain. It would have sucked if I'd missed a good drenching!

Then the wind started.  I sounded like there was a semi truck coming up the lane.  I went around the side of the house to look, but nope.  Just the crazy wind.

The temperature has been dropping since then, and it looks like we'll be having some really yucky weather for next week.  Just in time for Tommy's farrier appointment.

It's been a slow couple of months.  Too wet for Tommy to get much turn out, and definately too wet for any riding.  I'm not complaining though, because I'd rather have 40s and rain than 20s and snow.  I'd like to do one ride in the snow, then it can go straight back to being warm!

I had grand plans of doing a Christmas photo of the horses in their Santa hats.  We did one test shoot just to see how that would work out.  Nobody was thrilled, but Weapon was his normal photogenic self.  I was going to crop out my hand and bit, but that just seems like too much work.

Tom was so far from thrilled it was funny. 

Then he shook the hat off and stepped on it.  That's what we think of Santa hats at our barn.

Next year I'll have to do Santa hat pictures in the summer when everyone's slick and shiny and pretty.  Clearly I couldn't be bothered to knock the mud off, but in my defense it was just supposed to be a test run.   I'd have done it properly later.  Really.