Dr. Silverhoof Goes Bye-Bye

It's the 100th post! And it's mostly good news.

On Sunday, my mother came up to the farm with me to see Royal and what this soaking and wrapping business was all about. I decided to go for a nice short bareback ride in the arena to see how Royal was doing. It turned out that he was doing quite well.

Being followed by my nearly 16-year-old Beagle who has an obsession with following me on horseback. No one understands it and Royal doesn't seem to care.

Royal last got bute on Sunday morning and got his last soak on Monday. By then he was becoming very impatient with the whole thing and I figured he'd been soaked enough. We did another purple wrap that day.

On Tuesday, I had to figure out how I was going to keep a wrap on his hoof without him shredding it. He has the ability to shred through 1/2" of duct tape and imitation Vetrap, although he never got any dirt in the hole. So my barn owner lent me an old soaking boot. We couldn't get it closed enough on top, so we used duct tape. It was ugly, but it kept dirt out, even though he still kept shredding the Vetrap inside it.

I had to wrap above his fetlock in the hopes it would prevent rubs, but the wrap kept falling down. Sigh. But he still doesn't have any rubs and I ordered an Easyboot Rx that I hoped would fit him better. It's made for protecting hooves in turnout and seemed tough enough to withstand Royal. But I had to wait for it to be shipped here, so I kept using wrapping and using the soaking boot. I did some riding with an actual saddle and various gaits on Wednesday and Royal was a dream. Totally sound with no hint of a lameness.

The Rx boot arrived last night, and I had to be at the clinic this morning. I took the boot with me and it got thumbs up from the vet. So I went to the farm afterwards and with the help of the barn owner, got the Rx on Royal's hoof and it fits! It also looks much nicer and more comfortable.

It's just wide enough, so I can't put any Vetrap underneath it. It's got plenty of length so I can hear it moving a bit when Royal moves. Still, it seems like will stay and the top part is soft enough not to rub. I am cautiously optimistic that this will work and we'll have this nonsense behind us after this week. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some jumping and have some fun again!