Easyboots To Rescue

A couple of days ago I did mention about 'Mr F' hoof boots twisting and seemingly having become a tad too big. Well turns out just as well because they have been most handy in keeping 'Mr F's feet dry and clean so his heels can recover for a while.

And so, here we have two front feet. The sole and heels are covered with two layers of cotton wool (cut off a roll). Over that I placed a food bag to keep it all dry and then wrapped a thin layer of vet wrap over it, carefully leaving it loosely wrapped around the pastern. It only serves to keep the dirt out. So far this has worked well and the frog is starting to look a little better. Any moisture inside the food bag is held by the cotton wool. But although 'Mr F' very patiently stands still during the whole procedure and even though I can just let his leg rest on my knee while I fiddle around with scissors etc it is still time consuming and tricky in the half dark before getting off to work. 

It is clearly no long term solution. I have tried to go all the natural way with hoof treatments but I may have to revert back to using Keratex. The fields at 'Buttercup farm where much more muddy and sodden in wet weather but at least there 'Mr F' could get onto dry ground. He can't do that here, hopefully soon though. Meanwhile I have to find a different treatment method. I have last year used Keratex mud shield powder, as a last resort. And it worked amazingly well and has saved me a lot of time and 'Mr F' a lot of unnecessary discomfort. So now I shall go and try their Hoof Gel.

It's a challenge keeping a Thoroughbred who seems to have lost most of their natural resilience through breeding as natural as possible. 

We shall find out shortly how well the hoof gel works.

The rain is forecast to stop for the next few days so I look forward to photographing some of the beautiful tree colours.