WELCOME TO HELL

never been so excited to be here

At the recommendation of my farrier, we pulled Courage's shoes for a cycle this winter. There are lots of advantages to doing that--letting the nail holes grow out and the hoof wall get stronger and the heels expand out and yadda yadda yadda.

What it came down to is that Courage has been on and off for six weeks because his poor tender OTTB feet were not so happy about the frozen ground in winter. Oh, and then it thawed and he started soaking them 24/7 in his muddy run. Guess how that went???

it helps a little when they sparkle

Exactly like you'd think. Someone doesn't have a run anymore.

Anyways. Farrier comes back tomorrow to put shoes on (YAY AND HOORAY I CAN'T EVEN WAIT OMG), and I just realized what that means for us:

A one way ticket back to bell boot hell.

Dammit.

fleecy bell boots

Don't get me wrong: as a confirmed tack ho, I have lots of bell boots in many different shapes, styles, and colors. It's a great collection.

It's just that it's a lot less fun when you're under strict instructions to use them at all times.

snowflakes and sparkles

I'm trying to tell myself it won't be all bad, but the truth is I probably can't use pull ons and just leave them alone until the mud dries up (June?) and until then, it's that same stupid drill, over and over and over.

Bell boots to ride.

Bell boots to turn out.

Bell boots to travel.

Bell boots to eat.

Bell boots to pee.

I can't be the only one. Who else has a permanent residence here?

Feet. Always Feet.

He is the best at remembering

No foot, no horse.

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...

And so on.

You know why so much colloquial equine wisdom is lamenting shitty feet?

Because they are the worst thing ever.

Ugh. Courage actually has decent-ish feet. He has heels on all four and the shape isn't terrible. He hasn't lost a lot of shoes and hasn't really presented any soundness issues thus far.

But this summer has been absolute hell on his poor feet. Despite all the other horses in the barn being COMPLETELY FINE, he isn't. His feet cannot handle the wet/dry cycle of (GET THIS) a little bit of dew on the grass in the morning.

Put it on thick

Yeah. That. At his last farrier appointment, his feet were flared and chipped out and all manner of awful above his still-attached shoes and he hadn't even grown very much hoof. I tried moving his turnout time back a little combined with adding bag balm to his hoof walls every single morning to act as a moisture barrier and only turning him out on the field with grass that was quite short to minimize potential dampness.

And yeah, apparently that got us nowhere. Homeboy is trying to completely disintegrate his feet again. Like 4 weeks out from his last shoe job. Sooooooo.

No benefit other than looking shiny.

New plan. Courage spends the first few hours of turnout on a drylot with some hay. When the grass in the fields is well and truly dry, then and only then, he may go out.

It's such a frustrating balance to strike. I really do believe strongly in turnout for horses' brains and bodies, and I cannot spend all of my management energy on making the farrier perfectly happy, BUT I have to take good care of his feet or there's no point in having a horse in the first place.

Maybe I should have gotten a draftie.