It is winter, it is raining, it is windy and the mud is once again all over my feet. That means that there is a risk of the horses getting mould on their legs. Which can be a huge problem, especially at my place, where a lot of the horses walk around freely in a heat active stable, and therefor do not really get indoors to dry.
I clearly remember last year’s mud, and the eight horses that had mug on their legs at the same time. Jeez, the 3-4 hours of daily shaving and cutting their hair, thorough washing to scrape off the mould, thorough drying, and last but not least, I had to rub them in all sorts of cream. Yeah, I felt that in my back real quick.
Luckily, I found a better solution.
I had a horse in training, that had small wounds all over its body. The vet gave me a pain reliving ointment called ‘socatil’ that I had to rub on the little wounds, but only a thin layer. The ointment was made for pigs, with diarrhea, and is given orally. However, the vet had good experience with the ointment, and had used it on wounds before.
When the same horse later got mould on his legs, I tried using the same ointment, and the next day the mould was gone. Ever since then, I have used ‘socatil’ to treat mould and with good results. No more, washing thoroughly. Now I just brush and clean the leg, scrape of the worst crusts, and rub the whole leg in the ointment. In only a matter of days the mould is strongly reduced or completely gone. This ointment works by creating a dry waterproof layer around the leg.
So even if the horse is out in the wet mud, the ointment will still dry out the mold.