Blowout!!

At Last!

Tucker has a good sized crack about in inch or so long in his coronary band right in the front center of his hoof. The abscess/gravel has finally blown.

It was raining and really windy this morning, so I left the poultice on since it still looked nice and neat and there was plenty of cotton to absorb any discharge. Tonight, when I brought him out to change it and soak his foot, he was almost completely sound. I would suspect that a big opening in the coronary band might still be a little sore.

He was quite cheery and his eye was quietly content for the first time in days. He was also a very good boy about standing well with his soaking boot on, not really spilling too much of the soak tonight. I suspect it might have felt good to have that sore spot in the warm water.

I rebandaged the whole foot with lots of Ithammol on the coronary band. I don't want to take any chances of his doing damage to his unshod foot while the rest heals. I have him stalled in the side stall with the little pen set up under the run in roof where he will stay until he is fully healed and reshod.

The weather was really nasty today. Cold, rainy and windy. Suffice it to say that after shivering all day in school--guess the heat was off for the season since it had been hot last week--I did not even think about riding. I'm not sure it's going to dry out by tomorrow either. Hard to say how much work the two lesson horses are going to get before Thursday's clinic.

Still Tuck's almost smiling face made the sun shine on my day. What a relief.