The 13 Fish Hooks Caper: Vetrolin Detangles a Mystery

While I was traveling north through Oregon this August, I woke one morning to a crazy and confusing  situation.  The mystery was never really solved, but a product called "Vetrolin Detangler" saved Moonlight from injury.  It was so mysterious that I knew it would make a good story for the blog, so now that I have finally had time to write it, I sent it to the company as a testimony to this excellent product, and today I include a copy of the email to Farnam Products.  I'm never without a bottle of Vetrolin in the trailer tack room now, and have used it for years with great results.  My horses all have thick, coarse, easily matted tails and manes.  Vetrolin has always been my product of choice because it simply makes grooming those thick tails a no-brainer.  In fact, the worse the tail condition is, the more fun it is to see how well Vetrolin works.

Here's the story of a morning I'll never forget:

Dear Farnam product manager:

I just wanted to tell you an amazing story about your product, Vetrolin detangler.  I am the Equine Nomad, with a goal to ride 200 miles in every state.  I travel with four horses and usually tent camp in wilderness areas.  I have been on the road with my herd for 14 months now, having ridden more than 2000 miles thus far, in 6 states.

Recently I was camped overnight at a state campground in Oregon.  There was no shower at the horse facility, so I went over to use the facilities at the regular campground, leaving my 20 year old son in charge of the herd. 

As the location was quite remote, he did as we often do, and released the 3 geldings to graze, leaving the mare tied to "emotionally tether" the rest of the herd nearby.  When I got back, he had already gathered them up and they were tucked away each in their own sturdy log corral.

We bedded down just as darkness fell, but were awakened early to the sound of heavy equipment operators moving right through camp, building a road.  We decided to break camp and get on our way, as the environment had quickly become unappealing due to noise of diesel trucks and swearing working men.

Not my favorite animal to see in the wild...especially at 700 am!

I tied each horse in turn near their morning feed buckets, but when it came to my beautiful white arabian, I heard a strange sound - like a clanking of keys every time he swished his tail.  What the heck?  I thought, and then saw a colorful flash of something in his tail....

13 lures - a fishy mystery!

You can imagine my dismay when I found his tail to be loaded with fishing lures!  Many!  and worse, they were all treble hooks, getting more tangled by the moment as he swished and swished his tail, smacking himself with those sharp points with every swat!  He was dancing around like a cat on a hot tin roof.  Poor guy!

Well, there was no doubt about it.  As nasty as the campsite was, we would not be pulling out until every hook was removed.  This was a formidable task, and getting worse with every clanging swish of the jangled mess of his tail.  I was worried about him, but also worried I'd catch myself on one of those hooks.  As an ER nurse, I've seen quite a few nasty fish hook injuries, and had no desire to experience it first hand.

I have been a long time user of the Farnam product, Vetrolin Detangler however, so when I saw that all those hooks were stuck beyond my wildest nightmare, my only hope was that Vetrolin could help.

I grabbed my bottle from the trailer tack room and squirted a little on the first hook.  Wonder of wonders!  That hook and then the next were released easily within a matter of minutes.  In fact there were a total of 13 fishhooks removed from Moonlight's tail in about 15 minutes.  

I was so pleased, I took photos afterward with the hooks, and with the vetrolin bottle.  I'm planning to copy this story to my blog with photos from that memorable morning if you're interested.

Thanks so much for making such a great product, and saving my horse's beautiful tail that day.  Instead of a major hassle, it was only a mystery that ended on a note of amazement and renewed confidence in your wonderful product.  All of my 4 horses have long thick manes and tails, and combing them out is never an issue with Vetrolin around.  

Even when things get a little fishy...

  

Thanks again!

Trish Wild, RN, PhD

The Equine Nomad

Look how the brush glides through his tail!

Vetrolin to the rescue!  So glad he didn't lose his tail!

The mystery of the 13 treble hooks was never solved, but the tail was saved....