Our First Horse

The farrier came out this morning, and it’s official: Valentine has thrush. I’m actually relieved, partly because I know for sure now, and partly because the farrier didn’t seem all that concerned. Whew!

If you remember from my earlier post, Valentine had foot issues. He’d been sort of limping, he had stinky feet, and over the last few days, he wouldn’t let me clean his feet. I decided it was time to call in a professional. So Gabe came out and took a look. His diagnosis was that Valentine’s right front hoof has thrush, and that’s why he wouldn’t let me touch his other feet - it hurts him to to put weight on the right when I lift up the left. Gabe suggested we use Kopertox, but approved what we’ve already been using (Hooflex Thrush Remedy). I told him the pasture was pretty muddy, and asked if we should keep Valentine stabled while he’s being treated. He thought that was a good idea. He also suggested that, once the mud has dried, we trot Valentine up and down the road in front of our house to knock the mud loose, since Val won’t let me lift up the feet for cleaning.

So the plan for the next week or so: keep Valentine in the stall to keep the feet dry; treat with thrush medicine at least twice daily; graze him on our lawn (which is desperately in need of mowing anyway); and amuse the neighbors by “walking” my horse up and down the road.

Gabe also told us that thrush is very common here, because it’s such a wet place - it’s a fungal infection, and as you probably know, fungus loves wet. I also may have mentioned that it’s very muddy here. The mud is actually clay (I’m sure I could get a potter’s wheel and a kiln and have a nice pottery business on the side), which means that once it’s up in that concave hoof, it’s there to stay. Along with anything that gets mixed in with it - hay, rocks, the omnipresent poo. So once this thrush is cleared up, we will dose Valentine’s hooves with thrush medicine once a week to prevent a recurrence.
Have I mentioned that I really hate mud?

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When I thought about writing this post, I was planning on discussing the fact that every horse owner who does their own horse management duties is quickly going to learn they need an old pair of shoes for working in the barn. That, of course, is true, though I might add that if you don’t already have a pair of barn shoes, worry not as the barn will claim the first pair you wear. This past Saturday, Mikki, the Kid and I spent time catching up on chores since it was warm and sunny outside. By the end of the evening, we were sore and our clothes were pretty dirty. If you haven’t already done so, plan on setting aside a pair of old shoes, some old T-shirts and yucky jeans. Heck, we’re thinking about buying some overalls, too, since, you know, we live out in the country and all. Dogs will run through the mud and then jump up on you, your horse will take a drink and then slobber buckets of dirty water on your clean shirt, a glob of fresh horsey poo will surely drop off the manure scoop onto your hat (get a hat!) as you’re cleaning a stall and even more glamorous things you’ve never thought of will happen, so trust me on this one. Your barn shoes will be subjected to corrosive ammonia and stinky mud, some of which may never come off. You should also consider investing in a decent pair of mucking boots. On those rainy days your feet will stay drier and you’ll thank me when that large pile you haven’t cleaned up yet doesn’t ooze onto your socks. Some people opt for steel-toed shoes or boots but I’m not planning on cleaning Valentine’s stall when he’s in there so I’m going to skip those.

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It has been so nice in East Tennessee this past week. Think 70’s during the day with a few light sprinkles. A week ago today it was SNOWING, for goodness sakes. The forecast for the forseeable future, according to the local Dopplercast 9005 Weather Watch Storm Center (I made that up), is 70’s during the day and possibly even 80. Yeah! Mikki and I enjoyed Valentine this past week, as well as just being outside in general. As I walked across the yard in slow motion (just like the movies) with some springtime song playing in the background, I noticed the dogwoods in bloom (I don’t know what they are really but let’s call them dogwoods because that sounds nice), pretty purple flowers, bees buzzing about, wasps wasping…around me…get it off, get it off, GET IT OFF!

Just today, this very day (well actually since it’s after midnight, technically yesterday now) Mikki and I noticed a ton of flies bothering our expensive investment large family pet. We knew the flies would come. The fly paper hanging from every beam in the barn warned us of that. Now that the little critters are hatching, it’s time to get serious about a fly control strategy. Up for consideration: better manure control, evil fly-eating but horse-friendly parasites, fly strips (hung outside the barn since they are an attractant), on-feed fly larvae killer (such as Solitude IGR from Pfizer, containing cyromazine) and a solar fly trap (not sure what that is yet). Poor thing (the horse, that is) is being pestered something fierce and it’s only going to get worse. We’ll try a few of these “fly control” systems out and report back what’s working and what’s not working.

Oh, by the way, today is Parenthesis Day (in case you didn’t know). Okay I made that up too but I did use parentheses 8 times in this post (in case anyone is counting). Oops, 9 times now.

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