Pat - 

I found one key is to get the foot as clean as possible before soaking. I picked the hoof, scraped as much off the hoof as possible, and then rinsed it. I next used Dawn or Ivory dish washing soap to scrub the hoof with a nylon brush. Rinse and repeat until it's as clean as you can get. For the first month, I was soaking twice a week, then I tapered down to once a week. I have a large Warmblood, and gallon size Hefty storage bags weren't quite large enough to get high enough up to let me get a good seal with duct tape. I used the 2.5 gallon size and it just made for an easier experience. I then put his foot in some kind of boot with a pad. I initially used the blue Davis boots with a pad in the bottom, and they worked fine, but getting them on and off is a challenge. I found the Hoof Sock from SmartPak to work the best. All I needed was something to hold the solution in the bag without the bag getting torn for the soak. Lipton stood in the wash stall with those boots since I was soaking for 20 minutes. If I had to put him in a stall for a longer soak, I don't think the Hoof Sock would have worked as well, as he moves around more in the stall, even with hay in front of him. You could also try the duct taping the bottom of the bags to try to prevent tearing, or find used IV bags. Once I got the bag on the hoof and the hoof in the boot, I'd pour in the White Lightning+White Vinegar (2 oz of each per foot), fold over the excess bag, and duct tape it closed to let the gas doing its work.

I really dreaded the soaking process when I was soaking for 45+ minutes. After I learned that 20 minutes was sufficient AND I had figured out a workable solution with the Hoof Socks, the soaking process is no longer horrible. It helps to have two people - one person doing the work and another to hand you stuff. 

The farrier at Grand Circuit, Taylor, is a wealth of information. I found him to be very personable and willing to share his knowledge. He didn't think that washing the foot before soaking was needed, but he also said that you repeat the soak until the mixture was pretty clean after the soak. I figured it was cheaper to put a bit of elbow grease into preparing the foot ahead of time than to resoak the hoof.

I also used the White Lightning gel between soaks. I would drizzle the gel on some gauze and shove it up into the holes in Lipton's feet (he had terrible hoof wall separation, we ultimately ended up resecting). Because I was wrapping the hoof in VetWrap followed by a bit of Elasticon to hold the VetWrap in place under the EasyBoot Clouds, the gauze would sit up in there until the next day when I would take off the boots. I had some issues with the Clouds rubbing, so the VetWrap/Elasticon solution was a way to prevent heel rubs.

I went the route of Clouds and soaking for over five months. I was still struggling with the trim aspect, so I think some of our progress was hindered by long toes and perhaps I should have considered resection earlier. I have a new professional on board, so we are going a different route for now. However, I am continuing to soak Lipton's hind feet with White Lightning, although his hind feet are not my problem hooves. They do have some room for improvement, though, and I suspect Lipton will always have a predisposition towards this issue, so I view soaking as one step to try to stave off any future episodes.

If you would like to connect off-line, I've asked to be added to the Member list. Hopefully my email will show up in the next update.
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Krystal
September 2017
Gum Spring, VA
Case History: https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/files/Krystal%20and%20Lipton 
Photo Album: https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/album?id=10128