Lily is doing light dressage work and lots of walk hacks as I fight a fungus that has taken up residence on her right hind cannon. It showed up before our last event, Will O'Wind, but I didn't want to mess with it too much and make her sore, so we kept things at bay for a couple weeks until show season was over. Now I've been attacking it full force, but it is proving hard to figure out. I think I've finally found a combination that is working to dry it out and kill it: scrub with iodine, then cover with Blu-Kote spray (which I had no idea was anti-fungal until I talked to my friend who works at the feed store. Good to know!). The rain-rot like scabs seems to be drying up, and it's not nearly as sore to the touch as it was last week. Thankfully she hasn't been lame on it, and going for walks keeps the swelling down.
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| The view through Lily's ears |
I'm bringing Zippy back in to light work; he was off for most of August and September with a HUGE abscess that just would not go away. It first appeared after his first show in August; he showed Sunday and on Wednesday he was lame. He has a history of abscesses so I was confident that's what it was. Two weeks of soaking and foot-wrapping later, and it still had not popped. Jon, our amazing farrier, came out and dug this massive abscess out, I just could not believe all the puss that was oozing out of the hole. I soaked and wrapped his foot for a week, then Jon came and put Zippy's shoe back on. Zippy has very flat, soft soled feet, so we felt that putting the shoe back on as soon as possible was the best course of action, and the abscess appeared to have fully drained. I gave him another week off to recover, and things seemed back to normal, so I began riding him again. That led to 2 weeks of the same schedule: I would ride him Thursday, Friday, he would have Saturday off, Sunday he would be 3 legged lame, abscess would pop again from the same spot Monday, by Wednesday he would be good as new.
During all of this, my hopeful show schedule for Zippy was obviously out the window. I had hoped that he would debut in eventing at Touch A Rainbow unsanctioned, but it was not to be, so Lily took his place. Then I hoped he would be ready for a small combined test on Thanksgiving weekend, but he still was not feeling 100%. Luckily, or not, the show was cancelled and rescheduled for this Sunday.
Jon came out at the beginning of October and pulled Zippy's shoes, and I was fully ready to let him chill until spring, but he has been feeling great so we've started back to light work and he's entered in the 2' division at the combined test this Sunday, assuming he feels good.
Jon dug another small abscess out of Zippy's left hind today, which was a surprise to me as he's been working really well this week, but I'm glad we seem to be getting his feet semi-sorted out. I think it'll be a process of figuring out how to keep him happiest; Jon and I have discussed shoes and pads next spring, but we'll see what the winter does for Zippy's feet.
Tom has also been doing a bit more work. He went for his first hack on Monday with Vinnie for company, and was wonderful. He didn't put a foot wrong, though he was pretty sure he was not made to go up and down hills and that it was way too much work. I had a young woman and her coach come try him this morning, and again, he was lovely and tried hard for them. He is such a sweetheart of a horse, I think he's going to make someone very happy.
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| Tom making sure I'm sure he needs to work this hard |
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