Oooh Errrr Radar's foot

I was pushing a syringe full of hydrogen peroxide into Radar's heel yesterday and it was going somewhere, but I didn't know where. I was beginning to think that he must have an awfully big hole inside his foot if it was taking up that much peroxide, when it began to bubble out through the mud packed into the dome of his foot.

I scraped that out with a hoofpick and watched, and to my complete surprise it was going in at his heel and coming out of a teeny weeny, weeeeny hole in his bar about three inches away!  It was just wierd to watch it.

This morning it is a tiny hairline crack a couple of millimetres long that it is coming out of. I am guessing that he must have trodden on something and just penetrated far enough to get some stuff stuck in his foot at the bar, because it's  a very unusual place to get an abscess exit.

He is prone to abscesses and it's been normal for him to have one about every 9 months since I have had him. I have recently increased his copper supplement because he was almost black when I ought him and he is brown now, which is probably - given the mineral imbalances in our land and water - a sign that he is still copper deficient. That would probably account for why Ace's tail breaks off at the hock level too, because it affects hair quality.

I'm hoping that when we get Radar black again, that he will stop getting foot abscesses  and that Ace will grow a longer tail.

Radar has also managed to throw a pretty convincing splint, over an inch long, on the inside of his left fore, without ever being lame. My goodness he is one tough horse!

They have both put on a bit of weight with not being properly exercised for the last week, so I am off outside now to get that put right.

C