Thursday, June 5, 2008

Hungry Boots and Surrender Socks

The vet called this morning to say that Raven's blood and fecal samples were normal. I confess to being disappointed, but only because I'm fond of easy answers. Miss Thing seems fine today, though very wet -- the weather remains exactly as predicted.

My older sister always called underwear wedgies "hungry bum" when we were kids and this evocative image has stuck with me for decades. Today I am reinventing it to describe the rubber wellies I wear for farm chores as "hungry boots". Unlike the pair I retired several months ago, these boots relentlessly try to tug my socks down over my heels. This morning I realized that I have unconsciously classified my sock collection into pairs that do and do not surrender to the hungry boots. Due to a laundry shortage I was forced to wear surrender socks today, and had to pull them up (balancing on one foot) three times while mucking the paddock. Do other people have this problem? If not, what type of socks and/or wellies do you wear?

3 comments:

Mrs. Mom said...

LOL! What a great post! I used to divide my socks like that too, and tossed out any undies that would not stay put ;) (We called it "Indian Underware" cause it was always creeping up on us...)

We would probably still have that problem to some extent, but living where there is a drought right now... I can muck paddocks in my sneakers and have no problem.

Speaking of Indians, I guess it is time to go do my rain dance ;)

(**No insult meant to Native Americans, mind you. I have a heafty does of Mohawk in me...;) )

Anonymous said...

Greetings; I've a formerly foundered horse and I thought I'd pass on a few hard-won bits of wisdom. I hope you don't mind.

First, eliminate the sugar and carbs and feed a low starch no-sugar-added (i.e. molasses) feed with good grass hay. I use Buckeye Safe'n'Easy but there are other comparable choices. Second, limit pasture to a reasonable intake. You're already doing this with a grazing muzzle - yea for you and Tonka. Last, but certainly not least, pull shoes and get an experienced natural trim.

My horse has stopped all laminitis episodes and now trots barefoot down a freshly graded gravel road without missing a beat. But please understand, it's taken 22 months after instituting the above changes to get to this point.

My chronic laminitis epiphany occurred at roofrehab.com. There's lots of good info and pics and tons of food for thought.

Hope this helps. Wishing you and Tonka happy trails!

dp said...

Thanks to both ladies for your comments. I should clarify that Tonka did not founder in my care -- I knowingly purchased a foundered horse as a rehabilitation project. He has probably never been shod, and we've had a natural trimmer working on him every four weeks (she's coming today, in fact). At this point he gets 2 hours of muzzled pasture time each day, and free-choice low-carb grass hay in the crusher dust paddock. He also gets a bit of high fat feed with some flax, sunflower and mineral at breakfast and dinner.

We've had Tonka on this regime for 4 months now and he is making good progress, but there is a long way to go. I will have him x-rayed again at 12 months to check the position of the coffin bones. I'm so glad to hear that your horse has made such a full recovery -- I hope that we will be able to say the same for Tonka given time.

Thanks again!