Recently, East Tennessee has experienced quite a bit of rain. Where there's rain there is often rain rot and thrush. These two lovely conditions affect different parts of the horse but can be equally annoying. We'll start with the rain rot.
For those unfamiliar with rain rot, it is a bacteria that lives in the skin of horses and causes little scabs over a broad area. The scabs will come out with tufts of hair. Sometimes it affects a small area, sometimes all over... Chief is especially prone to rain rot, he's just a sensitive guy. So I am forever trying to get rid of it so I have tried a lot of different products to cure it. MSM is a favorite of many, I tired that, apparently Chief is allergic to it (see...sensitive). So then I tried some Cowboy Magic products as a friend swore by them. Yeah, didn't do much. Then I heard about a great cheap alternative... Pine Power. Yes, it is a floor cleaner found at your local grocery store. Please note, this is not Pine Sol, but Pine Power. You take a cap full, put it in a bucket with some water and sponge it on. I like to rub it into the coat really well in the affected area. Then, you leave it on, and just sweat scape them down. This solution is gentle enough to use every day and gets rid of the rain rot quickly. And best of all its super cheap since you only use a cap full at a time. Try it out the next time you run into some rain rot.
That brings us to thrush. Thrush is another bacteria that grows in areas of your horses hoof that doesn't get a lot of air. This happens especially when its wet because the all the mud gets shoved into the hoof and no air gets to the hoof. This is exacerbated if your horse wears shoes. The shoe helps hold all the mud and manure next to the hoof and then of course creates thrush. This smelly black spot on your horses foot can be easily cured with one of my favorite products, Kopertox. It is a green stinky, sticky product itself, but it helps immensely. I prefer it in its aerosol form so it is less messy, it is a little more expensive this way, but is totally worth it. Farnam also makes a clear gel but it really doesn't work as well at least in my little humble opinion.
So next time the rain won't go away, if your horse develops some lovely rain rot or thrush, try these products out and see if they help for you. In the mean time, Chief and I will keep dodging rain storms and ride on the nice days in between.
Nice post :)
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