Sockses Report

About 45 minutes after completing the 50 at Red Rock on Saturday, Roo and I were both in the middle of our suppers when I remembered that I'd forgotten to "wrap his legs" - i.e. put on his new sockses (they arrived on Thursday).

So I popped back to trailer, whipped out* the ziploc bag containing the Special Plastic Bag (comes with) and the Sockses and put them on. 

* (from the very small storage space required to store them)

The good thing about the Special Plastic Bag is that when you take off the Gloves-that-went-through-the-cow-swamp, you cover the mucky hooves completely so you don't get goop all over yourself and the new sockses. ...well, OK, I did get some on me, but the sockses stayed clean.

The back sockses are easiest to put on - mostly because the back leg measurements are larger, yet the hooves are smaller. I ended up sort of wadding them up and sliding them over the bag-encased-hoof, then yanking up the wad to the top of his leg and smoothing it down. The front legs were only slightly harder, with the smaller leg-tube/bigger hoof combination (the biggest problem was having to avert my eyes from the offensive not-terribly-attractive "green" colour*).

* (the "green" colour would be fine if Roo wore earth tones. However, he does not.)

Funder-pic from the finish

I deliberately didn't walk him that evening (he was on his Spring Tie, however). The temperatures weren't freezing but it was chilly. Around 4:30 a.m. he woke me up banging around, so I got up and gave him a mush and checked his legs. Looking good. 

The following morning one of the front sockses had slipped down slightly (an inch or so) so I adjusted it, but the others were all where they were supposed to be. He had some light filling in the back legs and even lighter filling in the fronts. We walked around camp a couple of times before being put in the trailer and taken home. 

On the way home I had to stop at Starbucks to try and get rid of a nasty headache. And I had to stop to get NV-cheap diesel. And I had to stop at Cabela's to buy things because the last time I was there was a long time ago. And I had to stop at the Ag Station to fill out the quickie paperwork (more about that later). And I had to stop at the top of the canyon to make myself a sandwich because I was falling asleep.

So in all, it took me about five hours to get him home. 

He hopped off the trailer looking good, with almost no filling. Took out the Special Plastic Bag and removed them from his legs while he grazed in the orchard (had to get pft to hold him still because he kept wandering off) - legs look good and weren't warm the way they sometimes feel after being unwrapped.

My conclusion:

• Super easy to use - take five mins to put all four on, and five minutes to take them all off again
• Appreciate that you can check their legs while the sockses are on by feeling through the sock (or you can peel it up/down to inspect the leg)
• Don't overheat the legs
• When you take them off, you just stuff them back in the ziploc bag - no rewinding necessary

I'm not convinced they'd work so well with a horse that fills a lot after a ride. Be interesting to try them on Uno who is more prone to filling, but as far as offering light support, as well as massaging my guilty conscience, they did the job perfectly.

Monday morning, Roo's legs didn't look like they'd done anything. 

I'm a bit pathetically hobbly, though.

* * *

The Ag Station experience was interesting. I quizzed a bunch of people extensively beforehand about what was required, and was reassured it was all OK (despite dithering on my part). And sure enough, I pulled up to the Ag Station 'gate' and the lady said:

"D'you have livestock?".

"One California horse," I said.

"OK, she said, I just need a health certificate or a Coggins, and fill out this information [hands me a slip of paper on which to write my truck-n-trailer licence plate numbers, my name, address, and a contact telephone number] and take it into the office."

The man in the office was nice as can be - transcribed my information into his big book (presumably this is so when there's a major outbreak of horse-leg-falling-off they'll be able to contact me to tell me about it), stamped my Coggins with his dated Ag Station stamp, handed me back my slip of paper "for next time" and off we went again. 

It was the "health certificate OR Coggins" that was the important part. Up until then, I'd decided that my days of popping over to NV to ride for the day were over. 

Good to know.