Tucker Update

Team Tucker - a couple of not training related questions and a bit of an update.

The smoke is horrendous yesterday and today. It is a brown, smelly, irritating mess. On top of that it is around 100 degrees for the last few days. No riding, darn it.

This is my first time saddling Tucker on 6/16. Note the look of concentration. I still concentrate but I am able to tack up in a lot less time now :)

Tucker is starting to be more of a love bug. He is very good about me touching his feet to work on them and put the donut on. I usually do that while he is eating. I nicknamed him Secretariat because of his long neck and his propensity for eating. Fortunately, he isn't actually a race horse.

When I feed him his good food, he stopped rushing me after I used the flag a couple of times. Now he stands by the rail and looks away until I slide the food bowl in. It is very cute.

Since he is new to me, it took me a couple of weeks to figure out what is best to feed him. He dropped a little weight but now he is getting plenty of orchard grass with a SMALL amount of alfalfa and 2 quarts of Total Equine a day. His butt looks fabulous.

As for Tucker's scratches. Looking a lot better. I tried the veterycyn but boy was it expensive. It did help but not very quickly. After a week, I switched to desinex/fungal cream/triple antibiotic. Last couple of days I am using Nitrofurazone. Both sets of goopier stuff have helped. The scabs are coming off a little at a time and healthy tissue is forming. I do have to make sure I brush off his ankles a couple of times a day since the goopier stuff attracts sand.

His donut for his right fore foot does seem to be helping with his shoe boil. Looks less irritated although it is still puffy. I am putting it on him in the evening and taking it off in the morning since I rarely see him laying down in the day time.

Tucker has what I am pretty sure are big insect bite bumps on his neck and his back.

I am thinking I need a fly sheet which I have never used before. Not sure what to get. The flies are terrible this year. Also a fly mask. Again, never done that before with my little guys but Tucker seems to be affected more than the little guys. Maybe it's his color? We have giant horseflies this year, too, never had them before.

To do those things I will have to measure him.

Any suggestions on the fly mask, fly sheet? Things to know? It is so hot here I hate to put anything on him but the bumps aren't nice.