Not my best week ever

I did not get out to the barn on Tuesday. I was at work until 7:30 pm tackling an emergency. The original precipitating problem was a mistake on my part, which did not help.

Then on Wednesday I drove to Boston and back (3 hours each way) for a wedding dress fitting, which basically shot my day from noon to midnight. During that time, a situation developed involving the wedding that is basically something out of the worst, most ridiculous advice column you have ever read, only it's happening in my real life.

Then last night I got a call from my new farrier:  he was really worried about Tristan's feet. He had significant amounts of thrush and white line disease in all four, but worst in the back. We've fought this before, and apparently my neglect over the last few weeks sent it into overdrive.

So instead of getting on my horse and having even a short ride through the fields, I dug through all of my medical supplies (again, some more) and commenced soaking his feet. When I got to his stall and picked them up, I actually started crying, which tells you something about how fucking awful this week has been. They don't look good. I didn't take pictures.

I did take pictures of my poor aisle safety decisions, that's got to count for something, right?

While he was hanging out, I had a chat with the new farrier. He was worried that he would have to resect some of the hoof, which would lead to significant soreness that he felt could only be alleviated by putting shoes back on him. We talked through a lot of options, and I came away from it thinking that he really respected my past knowledge and expertise in the area.

The upshot is that I will aggressively treat him for 4 weeks, and the farrier will do a recheck. So the plan is that Tris will get Durasole every day as many times a day as the barn staff can do it - I left his brush bottle out for them - and I will alternate soaking with White Lightning with other methods.

"Other methods" will include a little bit of experimentation, so stay tuned for that. Tonight I'm going to pick up some Magic Cushion as an overnight hoof packing. I'll probably also rotate in sugardine. The idea is to hit this hard. 

In terms of stress, I am actually of two minds. On the one hand, ugh. On the other hand, this actually gives me something to do that is fairly straightforward, gives me time with Tris, and has lots of quiet downtime built in. So it will sort of force me to slow down a little bit, which is the good news right now.