All Wrapped Up: Review of the "Hoof Wrap"

Injuries are seldom positive, but looking on the bright side Rufus's has provided some husband/wife/horse bonding time.  

Soak, soak, soak

Along with that, I've also gotten the chance to use a few products on a long term basis that I otherwise might not have encountered.  On the off chance that my experience might be helpful, I thought I'd review a few of them over the next few weeks.

New wrap

I mentioned the Hoof Wrap in my last post, as the final layer of protection that allows Rufus to be out and about with the herd.  He's been wearing one  24x7 for the last going-on-four months - a pretty fair test of usefulness and durability.

• What it is: the name actually describes it well.  It's a soft, easy-on, plasticy/canvas wrap with hook & loop fasteners and a removable pad. 
• What it does: protects the sole and hoof (and any injuries) from the ground.
• How to put them on:  Remove the backing from the velcro squares, attach the pad to the wrap, and then just follow the numbered tabs.  After multiple applications, I found actually found it faster to pre-fasten all but the last two tabs on the wrap, then simply slip the wrap on and do up the last two tabs.
  
  
• Where to get them: you can purchase direct from the company's website, but I've been ordering  from Valley Vet : quick shipping, reasonable prices, super helpful customer service, and a slight discount when you buy two or more at a time.)

Rufus has worn his:

• In the mud: some wet does seep in, but cleaning the wrap isn't hard.  Either wait until it's dry and let it slough off, or if it's stuck on, it soaks off easily. The fasteners do collect some gunk, and they don't stick closed as well when they're covered in muck, so having a second clean wrap on hand to change out doesn't hurt.
  
  

  

  After a few wears

• On extremely hard ground: when it's super dry - it's drought-stricken northwest Kansas out there, so there's never a shortage of dry - the interior pad compresses faster.  Rufus would walk a hoof-print shaped depression into a pad in a day.  In dry conditions, I could use the same wrap until it fell apart, but the pad needed to be swapped out at least every other day.   Pads do puff back up enough to reuse several times before they stop recovering.
  
  

  

  Interior of the wrap with pad after several uses

• While turned out:  the terrain in the big pasture (10 acres) is uneven and brushy. Initially I was worried the wrap would catch and pull right off.  I wasn't completely wrong, as he come in sans wrap more than once.  But hey, those hours I spent walking concentric circles gave me a chance to work on my tan, right? And overall he lost his fly mask a lot more frequently.  The wraps actually stayed put much better than I predicted. 

Horse approved? From the first, Rufus had no objections to wearing the wrap.  It provides decent traction, at least on dirt and pasture, and doesn't cause rubs or irritate his skin.  (We do wind on a layer of Vetrap, both to prolong the effectiveness of the Corona as well as to provide a buffer between horsehide & the stiffer fabric of the wrap.)

Bottom of the wrap after about a week of use, without duct tape

 Another reason to like the wrap?  Unlike most of the boots I looked at, I didn't have to know what size shoe Rufus wears, or take measurements, or order different ones for front and back.  Hoof Wraps come in one size, which they say will fit 80% of horses.  Just looking at one, I would not expect it to fit drafts, minis, or small ponies.

Toe view of a well used wrap - this one I retired, but you can
see how the outer reinforcing layers had worn through. 
The velcro fasteners were shot on this one by this point.

On average, wraps lasted 2-3 weeks before the bottoms wore out.  I did have to do some restitching on the front tabs of a couple of them, and I started reinforcing the toe area with bright pink duct tape, both for extra wear and for better visibility in case of loss.

Reinforced, for visibility and longer wear

Still in use, but showing some wear.

I've been so pleased with how well the wraps have preformed I even wrote the company, to say how much I like them, which I almost never do.

Rufus in the wrap, walking - very brief

 

If I could make any changes, I would:

1. Use stronger thread to attach the fasteners. (Those were what I ended up sewing back on on a couple of occasions).
2. Make the fasteners and/or the wraps in bright colors to make locating lost ones easier I never would have guessed basic black would be so difficult to spot!
3.  Supply additional velcro stick-on squares with the replacement pads, because I always ran out of those before I exhausted my supply of pads.  (Velcro does make a stick-on product that will adhere to flexible vinyl, but it can be tough to locate around here.)

Minor details aside, I would highly recommend adding a Hoof Wrap to whatever emergency kit is in your barn or trailer for a quick, economical, easy to pack, temporary solution for stone bruises, thrown shoes, etc.

July: an injury

A hot, mid-July Sunday.  Middle of the day, and too sticky to ride, so I had the radio cranked while I cleaned out the tack room and granary entry way.  The horses were dozing in the shade of the barn, stomping flies. 

Not the same day, but you get the idea.

In the length of time it took me to run up to the house to use the bathroom and re-fill my water jug, Rufus somehow managed to split the inside of his right hind hoof clear up to the coronet band.

The pictures of the initial injury are on my cell phone - can't figure out how to get them transferred.

To this day I have no idea what he connected with, but he was three-legged when I got back to the barn.  I called the farrier, of course.  Repeatedly.  No answer. 

We both called around to several area horse-owners for other farriers with no luck - either they weren't taking new clients, were not traveling to our area, or didn't want to deal with Arabians.

Tuesday we ended up at the vet, who trimmed the hoof back pretty radically and recommended Bute, soaking, booting, & restricted movement.

July 17, 2014

A week later the farrier finally returned my call.  After a visit during which he confirmed too big a chunk was missing for a shoe to help (and called the vet a hack),  he said what we were doing was probably going to work as well as anything else.  So there we were...

In the meantime, I'd gone online hunting for long-term horse boot solutions, and stumbled on Hoof Wraps at Valley Vet (love that place).   For weeks we soaked Rufus's foot twice daily in warm water & Epson salts, followed by applications of Vetericyn wound spray (recommended by our previous vet from SD) on the exposed lamina and Coronoa hoof dressing along the coronet band, Vetrap and a Hoof Wrap to cover.

 

No Bute at all, as amazingly, after the vet trimmed the ripped triangle of hoof away, he was barely off, and progressed speedily toward completely sound.  I hate medicating if it's unnecessary, and the padding provided by the Wrap allowed him to walk, trot, and even lope without soreness.   Needless to say, he hasn't been ridden at all.  But he has been able to go out in the big pasture with the other three without any ill effects.

August 3, 2014

As his hoof grew out, we ceased soaking.  By late September, the lamina was no longer exposed and we transitioned to once daily changing of the cotton pad coated with Corona followed by Vetrap & the Hoof Wrap.

August 31, 2014

His hoof continues to look better.  He's on a hoof & joint supplement, which I think is helping, and I'm cautiously optimistic that he won't have a long-term crack running down from where the split went up into the coronet band.

Oct. 12, 2014

Oct. 26, 2014

Oct. 22, 2014
Rufus, second from left

Pony outing - pics

Rufus & Sunny on arrival

The ground looks a lot better in the pictures!

Sunny showing off his collected walk

Time for a break

Thunder checks things out

Somebody else's cones - good idea, though

More investigation

Amyra's dust bath

Homeward bound

It's so undignified!

Could have called this post the Many Faces of Amyra, but Rufus is in here, too.

Amyra and Rufus both have white and pink noses.  They sunburn when the days get long. 

Which doesn't make either of them really appreciate sunblock.
 

I don't really blame her - I don't really like the feel of it going on either. 

Rastafarian Rufus

 Rufus prefers to combat bugs and sun with his own personal brand of sunblock - a nice mudbath.  After the last rain he came in wearing enough mud beads for several nice mud pies.   My mom was kind enough to de-mud him, which he thoroughly enjoyed.  In fact, I suspect had the mud not dried up overnight, he would have rolled in it again just for the extra attention.

Amyra, on the other hand, is not so copacetic about her time spent soaking in the bucket. 

That expression says it all, doesn't it.  Actually she's been pretty good about it - only tipped the bucket over once. 

A New Tail for Rufus

Not much riding this weekend, unless you count hopping on Sunny this morning for the trip up to the south pasture.  I took advantage of the Monday off to sleep in, and was still in my PJs, feet stuffed into knee high rubber boots, although I had thankfully yanked a sports bra on with my tank top and scraped my bedhead into a pony tail.

Because of course we encountered the first vehicle in two weeks, a neighbor, who stopped to chat.  "You won't get much exercise up there, now will you," he informed me.  Probably not, but I was only one cup of coffee into the morning and riding sounded a lot more appealing than walking.

Should probably have ridden in the cool, relative calm really early the last couple of days because by the time 8 a.m. rolled around the wind was up and the humidity was an ugly thing.  This evening we have a tornado warning in effect until midnight and huge thunderheads on the horizon.

With all the wind, the flies haven't been too bad until this weekend.  Spray helps, as does having a nice long tail.  And among other non-riding activities we got the barn cleaned out really well so that should help with future numbers.  But Rufus, thanks to the barbering efforts of Eyore the donkey he used to pasture with, does not have much of a tail to swish with. Poor guy - his tail goes like a propeller, to not much effect!

So tonight I ran a bucket of warm water, washed his tail out and let it dry - which didn't take long - put a loose braid in below his tail bone, slightly amazed that it actually has grown enough for a decently long braid, looped it back on itself, ran some twine through, and wrapped it up with vet wrap.

The  first thing he did on getting turned back in with the rest was whack Sunny with his extension.  Did I mention I used bright aqua vet wrap?  Sunny sucked back and took a good look at Rufus.  Something wrong with this picture... he walked off, still studying the tail out of the corner of his eye, and of course Rufus followed him.  It was comical - Sunny was trotting to get away from Rufus, who couldn't figure out why Sunny was concerned but wasn't going to stay behind to get eaten if the boss was worried.  I really thought I'd split.

It took longer for the other two to notice, but once they did, they joined Sunny in a tight knot with Rufus about 10 feet away looking at them all puzzled, still swishing but much more effectively.

It didn't take too long before they'd decided his tail wasn't going to reach out and grab them, but watching them try to get close enough for a good sniff without getting swatted sure was funny. 

I'm so proud!

I'm not complaining about the cold - not after looking at the temps our neighboring states to the north are "enjoying" these past few days.  It's been chilly here the past few days, but our lows have been higher than the highs up there!

So yesterday it was in the 30's with a pretty good breeze and having been spoiled by last week's mid-50's I spent the morning debating: to walk, or not to walk.  Walking would mean layering... and one direction or the other I was going to have to walk into or across the wind.

But the temps kept creeping incrementally in a warmer direction, and it was on the upward side of 35 by 3 PM when the sun finally poked out from behind the clouds, so I went down, cleaned the barn and being all warm from that, decided to go for my walk.

I walked south and east into the wind, figuring that it was going to cool off by the time I turned around and I wanted to have the wind behind me for the hike back.  I could feel the temp easing back down, but the sun was still nice and warm, and when I turned around I actually unzipped my top layer.  For about a 1/3 of the way, it was great.

Then the wind switched.  And picked up.

Wind is NOT supposed to come from the northeast.  And it was cold, too. My zipper went right back to the top, and I was really happy to turn that last corner toward home, even if it meant walking right into Mother Nature's AC vent.

Which is when I saw them...  The boys - well, two of them - were up on the east creek bank.  They haven't been going into the creek bed since it snowed because a) snow and b) melting.  The footing down has been really slippery.  And as far as I know, other than the first day's excited scramble up the steep slope, none of them have been on top on the other side.  There's a perfectly good path along the creek toward the bridge and back up the other side at a gentle angle, but straight up the hill is SO much quicker.  But Sunny and Rufus figured it out, and there they were.  I'm so proud!

They'd been up there exploring long enough to nibble the bark off of a couple of the baby elm trees and leave poop piles up and down the fence, so they must have headed that direction right about the time I left.

It was closing in on time to pitch their evening hay, so I walked on up to the house to put my chore coat and boots back on, and by the time I got back out Thunder was up on top too.  But I didn't figure they'd stay up there long once they saw me heading down to the barn.  Sure enough, I could hear the mad scramble and lots of thudding headed my way - they get 2 cups of grain each in the mornings, but hope springs eternal that there might be more in the offing at night. 

All Vetted

I had our trailer all cleaned out yesterday before we confirmed the vet appointment and I realized we'd need it this morning.  So I figured I'd be out there with the bucket, shovel and hose again this afternoon, because the first thing the four-foots do when they get in is christen the trailer - lol!  But as it turned out the trailer the guys used to haul the horses out west was still sitting out at J's.  It needed to be dropped back off at M's place which is right over near Eric's where we were picking up Amyra and Thunder, so new plan. 

Two birds with one stone, we'd drive out to J's and hook up to M's trailer, head to the farm and collect Sunny and Rufus, then to Eric's for Amyra and Thunder, and then to the vet's. 

The trailer's a 24" stock, longer, but not quite as tall as ours, and with no front tack, but nice a roomy especially for not-too-long ponies like ours.  Sunny and Rufus could both stand crosswise without bending their necks.

Four on board

Thunder started snorting and bobbing his head at me when I got to his stall.  He seemed happy to see me, but happier to be outside as we walked to the trailer.  Eric says once he got past the whole nervous anxiety thing, he's been lovely to work with.  He's still watchful and kind of wary in the barn aisle - eight years of outside living doesn't make adapting to a stalled environment easy, even when the stall is spacious and the barn is nice and light. 

We decided to load Amyra, the lone mare, in last since if someone was going to kick it chances favored her - or Sunny and he was already in the spot next to the mid-gate - getting annoyed at Thunder for sniffing at her. Thunder took a minute to sniff the strange trailer, then stepped on like a champ, but Amyra out-did him, bailing right in like she's been loading daily for years instead of once - today - in the past year.

At the vet's we pulled up in the not-too-terribly-wide alley between the clinic and the storage units next door.  The clinic's located on a busy road, and to make things even more interesting, the power company is retrenching or something equally loud requiring heavy equipment next to the road in front.  So no shortage of noise and traffic, it's just about reached freezing, and the wind is picking up by the minute.  Fun, fun, fun.

But in spite of our running a bit late, they were able to get to us right away, so we got everybody unloaded and lined up in a row of sacrificial victims along the trailer.

Rufus, Sunny's ears, &Thunder's back
(Amyra's beyond Thunder)

 Rufus and Sunny didn't flinch at getting poked, and Amyra stood like a rock for her draw and her rabies shot.  Thunder was good too, for him.  I requested the female vet for his sake - not great with strange men - and he'd been stellar for her when she did his rabies shot earlier this year.

He wasn't quite as copacetic this time, but we accomplished his draw with only one pull back, and it didn't involve the needle.  He actually spooked at the clipboard when she was drawing in his markings for the health papers.  I untied him for the draw, and although he danced a few steps when the needle went in, he stood for the draw itself just fine. 

In around half an hour, including time to chat, we were loading them back up again - this time in reverse order.  Thunder and Amyra in first and then Rufus and Sunny.  We dropped the last ones in off at the farm 

"Really, that's all you wanted us for?"

and then swung back out to Eric's to return Amyra and Thunder.  I was really glad to get the trailer left off at M's and head home - that wind is getting nasty!

We'll have the blood test results back in a couple of days, and one more moving hurdle ticked off the list.

Home again, home again

The guys all finally rolled in after dark last night - I think 5 days of deer camp was... maybe too much of a good thing?  At any rate, they unloaded 10 deer in our garage for the night while I patted pony noses through the trailer slats. 

T regaled me with hunting stories while I (again) waited impatiently for the Rufus report.  Finally, after hearing how they'd walked here, driven there, hiked up this hill and down that bluff, I asked, had they ridden at all?

Between the snow and icy build-up, they ended up riding only one morning.  And T forgot the camera.  Sigh...  Rufus did just fine, though.

Since it was so late when they got home, we decided it would be easier all the way around to collect Sunny and Rufus this morning.   All eight four-foots were lined up along the back of the barn enjoying the sunshiney heat reflection.  Sunny had parked himself a good 10' away from the closest horse and declined to brave the line-up to come greet me.  He did whinny, though. 

Needless to say, neither he nor Rufus put up much fuss about leaving.

Loading Rufus

 As soon as I had his halter off, Sunny headed over for a long drink and then it was straight to the spilled corn by the grain bin.  (Rufus didn't bother getting a drink first.)

"It's good to be home!"

No squabbling over spilled grain now :)

T and his buck

It really is good to have them (all) back home safe and sound.  We'll collect them again in the morning, head over and pick up Amyra and Thunder, and they'll all get a trip to the vet's for a Coggins test and a rabies shot for Amyra.  The other three all got theirs this spring.  The results should be back in a couple of days, and then it will just be a matter of setting a date for their big trip.

Rufus (Hunting) Report

Cell phone service in remote rural areas of SD being what it is, contact with T has been sporadic at best for the past couple of days.  The weather over the weekend certainly didn't help.  We've managed a couple of abruptly truncated phone calls and a few brief emails.

He's of course managed to provide a daily hunter vs. deer report, the news that they had 4" of snow Saturday, and he responded right away to my report on the Blazer (service engine light ='d $300+ for a new evap emissions solenoid and canister/filter due to poor design decision - the solenoid's directly over the spare tire - under the car - and it locks open sucking in dust when the stupid thing goes bad.  Grrrrr!), but not a word on the really important topic: how was Rufus doing? 

The one really good connection we had was cut off in mid-question by a hurried, "Someone just shot a deer!  Gotta go."  Click. Turned out to be a false alarm.

Finally, last night, I got a short email delivering the cheery news that a nice muley buck will be finding a new home in our freezer.  And he reported that Rufus is going just great.  Hallelujah!  LOL!

Move is a 4 letter word, and a Thunder update

That's right, folks... we're moving.  Bags, boxes, cats, horses & all.  To Kansas.  Sunny & co have a few more weeks in SD while we finish packing & get things horse-proofed.  We haven't set departure-day yet, but it's looming.

The house here is a disaster.  It's amazing how much stuff one can cram into a not very big house - and since the one we're moving into is smaller, down-sizing isn't just a nice idea, it's a necessity.  I'm hoping that once everything is finally pitched, donated or packed I'll be finding more L-ove in my M-ove.  Right at the moment I'd just take a sufficiency of boxes the right size!

On the positive side of moving, the new place is an acreage and we'll finally have the horses at home.  There's one big pasture already fenced that will do fine for this winter, and a stone run-in shed/barn with a good roof.  And a couple smaller spaces that lack fence but will work with temporary electric for day-time grazing until we can get permanent fence up.  We'll have some fence work to do - mostly cutting trees back - but for now we'll be able to run electric on the inside of the existing fence.  

In the meantime, life continues - between getting everything we want to get done here accomplished before the weather turns, and getting the new place move-in ready, there hasn't been much quality pony-time going on.  Today we took Rufus to get shoes and Sunny got a trim.  A dual-purpose visit, as the farrier was at Eric's and we could check in on Amyra and Thunder.

Rufus stood nicely for his turn.  Sunny was not as cooperative, although he did have the excuse of a very rambunctious horse playing in the indoor arena directly behind him.  After the third time we'd been peppered by flying chunks of dirt, Eric retrieved Jackson, who was having way to much fun racing around, bucking and snorting.

The word is that Thunder was initially leery, but is coming along.  He's unsure of strange men, so that didn't surprise me.  After Rufus and Sunny were done and back at the trailer, I went back in to check on Thunder - his stall is very close to the crossties we were using.  Sunny had walked in and out without any sign of being aware Thunder was there, but Thunder was anxiously watching down the aisle where Sunny had disappeared.  It was sad.  

Other than being anxious at having been deserted by his buddy yet again, Thunder looks good and was definitely happy to be rubbed and have his itchy spots scritched.  T visited Amyra while I made nice with Thunder, and then we loaded up and headed out.

Hopefully I'll get back over soon and be able to take some pictures of all this progress he's making!  In the meantime, back to my boxes.

First Snow

Okay, so it's October - nearly the end of October even - but still, the white stuff yesterday morning was sort of shocking given the fall weather to date has been sunny and unseasonably warm.

And the white stuff wasn't pretty and fluffy, either.  It was cold, damp, grey and blustery out there.  The snow was just wet enough to sort of stick to everything.  Raw gusts slapped at us, periodically sending globs of semi-frozen slush smacking down - invariably catching the gap at the back of my collar and running ice water down my neck.

The ponies looked resigned, tucked out of the wind with their coats all fluffed out.  They followed us up to the bale to see what we were up to, but didn't linger.

It was chilly up there, and the rattling noise of slush-balls letting go to fall on dead leaves and dry underbrush had them pricking their ears and swiveling their heads around to see what was sneaking up on them.

Moisture = good, but I sure wish it would have come earlier in the month as a nice, warm rain!

Best Evening!

No long ride yesterday, but in the evening we fooled around bareback in the pasture for a while.

It was a gorgeous evening - sunny, crisp with the scent of dust and fallen leaves hanging in the air.  With me on him, Sunny was - as usual - unconcerned about where Rufus was.  We wove around the pastures side-by-side and played follow the leader, taking turns leading. 

Nothing particularly fancy, but the first time we've ridden together since T's been home.

Pony update - Saturday PM

Had a bad moment yesterday afternoon when my phone buzzed with a new text from Eric - I immediately had visions of Thunder through a fence or flipped upside down in the crossties...  Thankfully, although horse-related his message had nothing to do with my spotted boy.

Sunny and Rufus continue to coexist uneventfully if not cheerfully, at least on Sunny's part.  Poor Sunny - he doesn't want Rufus too close to him, or people, for that matter, but he doesn't want him too far away, either.  Yesterday morning when I checked them Rufus was at the hay feeder and Sunny was loafing under the big tree nearby.  Both of them nickered at me, but I missed hearing Sunny's high-pitched whinny peeling out in greeting. 

Sunny was of course absolutely fine with me rubbing his belly and scratching the itchy spots around his ears, but when I walked over to do the same to Rufus, Sunny took exception and started to run him off.  Not acceptable.  So I stayed with Rufus, and every time Sunny approached with his ears back I chased him off.

It took about three times before he stopped and stood, staring at us mournfully from about 10 feet away. After I'd loved on Rufus for a while, I walked him up to the waterer.  Given Sunny's behavior, I wanted to make sure Rufus had had an opportunity to drink - where the waterer sits is sort of a V, and he might not have wanted to risk getting stuck in there if Sunny was stalking him. 

We went up the hill, trailed at a respectful distance by Sunny, who plodded along behind us with his ears tipped back, flicking them forward hopefully every time I turned my head to glance back at him.  The fat lambs were scampering and bouncing around in their lot - they share common fence and a waterer with the horses.  Rufus keep an eye on them, and a weather eye on on Sunny, who was sort of hovering back near the corn bin.  I was keeping an eye on Sunny, too, and he knew it. 

Rufus sniffed at the water, but didn't seem too interested in drinking - not sure if he just wasn't thirsty, or if the water didn't taste like what he was used to.  He didn't seem overly worried, though.

When Rufus headed back down, I ran interference through the narrower part of the lot by the gate, and then walked with Sunny out into the pasture.  When Rufus showed signs of coming over to visit, Sunny pinned his ears again, and got himself chased away.  Herd dynamics are fine, but he will respect me when I'm standing there and learn to mind his manners.

Maintaining a respectful distance

Also a resentful distance

When T and I checked them yesterday evening - taking Rufus up to the waterer again, where he did drink, but not in a hadn't-had-anything-to-drink-all-day way - Sunny was still crabby.  But Rufus isn't sporting any nip marks, and when he wanders off Sunny trails along behind him, making sure he's not left behind. 

I'm hoping to get a ride in this afternoon, which should give them something to commiserate about - lol!