Update on Jaz

After a gorgeous day with temps near 80°, I went to see my Boyz last night at Heather's. Jaz is in one of the front stalls, followed by Poco, then my little buddy Quaker, who also has hoof issues. There are three pregnant mares across the aisle and a several mares in heat in the pasture, so Poco is in rockstar heaven. I brought them out on a lead to eat some fresh grass on the higher ground, which has drained well enough to not be a mess.

I forgot to take pix when we were outside, and decided the mares would not appreciate the flash in the barn. It's not as if y'all don't know what they look like.

While we had Jaz outside, I ran a shedding blade over him and we picked his other three hooves. Two of them don't look bad, but his left front one is pretty nasty. On the other two, the black is a hairline, but this one is thicker. I'm amazed at how crumbly that part of the hoof is. I'm thinking I may have to cowgirlthef*ck up and learn how to use a knife. Yeesh, I scare myself. May also consider doing a hoof supplement for him. Suggestions?

Heather and Nita had soaked Jaz's foot in epsom salts and changed the dressing. Because he is in a nice dry stall, she didn't use the boot. He certainly prefers the duct tape method to the boot, which he kept trying to bang off his foot, albeit unsuccessfully. We removed the bandages and scrubbed the foot with a brush and tea tree oil soap, then soaked it in epsom salts, which Mr. Prissy Foot liked not at all. "Eww! Eww!" I can't really say it looks any better, but my untrained eyes have a difficult time seeing past the craters the vet dug. Heather's eyes and my nose told me it was draining. Jaz is unquestionably more comfortable and putting weight on it. I learned how to do the duct tape and vet wrap method of bandaging.

Jon, the farrier, will be out sometime around Wednesday the 25th to work on him, and I think I will just have him go ahead and do Poco again, too, even though they were last trimmed February 7th. I don't want them on different schedules.

I have paid for a month's boarding. This afternoon I'm going to look for some annual rye to throw while the weather is still too cool to sow Bermuda. Heather says once it takes, it will help hold any Bermuda we sow in place. Also need to pick up some more vet wrap and another roll of duct tape.

Remember how I told you Mike is working nights so was asleep for most of the craziness this weekend? Turns out, he was/is mad at me at how he perceives I handled it. I keep trying to tell him he has no idea of everything that went on! According to him, my decision to take the horses up there stemmed from panic. He says I should have got him up to help. Well, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't. I love the guy to death, but he'd have bitched the whole time if I had sucked him into the Weekend From Hell. He says he doesn't want anyone to think we're not capable of taking care of the horses, which has absolutely nothing to do with why I took them up there! In my judgment, a clean, dry stall, and competent people in the barn every 2 hours on foal watch, who are willing to care for him is a no brainer! Getting the horses off our wasteland is just an added bonus. From my perspective, he's being pretty darned condescending, so I'm pissed off, too.

Probably will not be able to make it up there again until the weekend. If Mother Nature cooperates, maybe I'll have some foal pix.