It only took about ten minutes to catch Boulder today, using refined techniques from Monday’s session. We are getting there!
I discovered today that Dr. Naylor’s Blu-Kote is gentian violet and two other antiseptic and anti-fungal ingredients that are not tissue destructive. Better yet, it comes in a four-ounce bottle with a dauber applicator and only costs about $1.50 per ounce. The dauber works great for getting the stuff into crevices in Boulder’s feet—and not all over the place. (Gentian violet is bright purple, and does not come off.)
Using my new-found discovery, I thoroughly doctored up Boulder’s frogs today (Bob’s, too) to get rid of the fearsome thrush infection he has developed on two of his feet (Bob’s thrush is pretty mild, but I am tired of smelling it when I pick out his feet). We should start seeing some progress in a few days, I hope. I think the thrush combined with Boulder’s flat front soles are both making him pretty tender on gravel.
Boulder was pretty ouchy today on the tracks, so I think we overdid it a bit yesterday. He got the day off from riding today and just got a nice grooming and foot doctoring instead, and a return to his stall for an early supper.
I made tracings of Boulder’s feet today to help in shopping for boots. After a minute spent convincing him that a blank piece of letter-size white paper is not going to eat him, he did really well at placing his feet on the paper for me to trace. I am leaning pretty hard toward EasyCare Boa Hoof Boots. Our hoof trimmer thinks they will really help him. In the meanwhile, no cantering for him while being ridden—he’s just too tender today after yesterday’s session.
Boulder displayed no signs of any reaction to his vaccinations yesterday. Yay!
Bob decided the play the hard-to-get game in the pasture with me briefly today. Will they ever learn? Sigh. After I caught him and brought him up to the barn, he was briefly freaky because he couldn’t see his buddies. He calmed right down once I started grooming him, though. As usual, he was Roberto for me while I doctored his feet. His reward was an early supper, too.
So, two horses with bright purple feet. Check.
