Bad me, bad me!

River is a special boy.  Look what he did to his foot a few weeks ago:

Lovely, huh?  So I texted it to my super-awesome farrier asking what he thought.  Answer:  Probably going to need shoes.  Greaaaaaaaaat.  Thankfully, super-awesome farrier was going to Michigan or Wisconsin or something, so he was able to stop by on the way to check Princess out.  The verdict?

Aluminum bar shoes!  Yay!  I love spending hundreds of dollars on shoes for a horse I've barely ridden!

Princess being a princess, he was not very well behaved.  And to be fair to him, you can see how much bruising is on that sole (not the foot with the crack).  Poor guy was hurting bad.  Super-awesome farrier had to get out his training.... thing.... because Riv just wouldn't stand.  At some point, we had to say "okay, yes, we know it hurts, we're sorry, but you need to suck it up and let us do this so you can get better."

Not only does he do feet, he gives lessons on how to not be a total wimp about everything!

Here's another shot of his foot with the bruise.

I wrapped it with Animalintex for a week.  I didn't see an abscess break, but it may have come out through a nail hole.  Farrier was very certain there was an abscess in there somewhere.

I personalized his flymask:

And then he got a fly sheet because he's uber-sensitive to bugs.

(Note:  He's no longer allowed to wear the flysheet because he learned he could get through the electric fence while wearing it.)

 Here's a view of the crack with the shoe on:

So River is now sound.  He unfortunately lost a bit of weight while he was hurting so much, but that's picking up again.  I rode him today for the first time in a while.  We just walked for maybe 15 minutes, but he was a pretty good boy.  Hopefully some "work" will encourage him to eat well and gain weight...  I can hope, right?