Farrier comes to see Filly

I went to the yard at around 3pm for Rick to tell me that the farrier was coming at 4:30pm to see Filly. Time to prepare her !
I took her to the indoor school just to make sure that she was not going to be to feisty when he arrived. She gets VERY bored in the box and then the mouthing and fidgeting start. I was very happy to notice that she was barely lame at all as we walked to the school and circling her so I could study her hind legs also showed no lameness. Maybe we could have a proper play session.
I started with lots of stick to me with backups. They went fairly well but occasionally I had to windmill the end of the rope in front of her nose as I backed. I was not trying to hit her, but if she failed to backup with me she in effect moved into the rope. This was very effective and soon she was backing well with no rope whirling at all. Note I do not aim to hit her with this technique, and she has every opportunity to back out of the way, but IF she decides to oppose me then there are consequences. This is very different to hitting a horse as punishment, a concept they don't understand anyway and only gratifies the human.
Having reestablished rapport and leadership we moved onto some figure 8 with a pole between the cones to give her another obstacle to avoid and keep her thinking. Again this was very good and needed at most phase 2 pressure to get the pattern fluid.
We did have another nice roll with lots of rubbing all over. She seems to really enjoy this now.
To prepare specifically for the farrier I did a lot of playing with the very low mounting block, getting her to put her feet on it and then stand still. Not great but it enabled me to discourage more mouthing as her hoof was under my control.
All too soon the farrier appeared to take a look at her. We gave her a hay net and she stayed nice and still as the shoe and hoof putty were removed. The farrier then announced that she had a really bad infection that had gone under the sole of the hoof so he started paring some of it away to release the black muck. (Remember I had found some of this a few days ago). During this investigation he noticed an infection filled hole going up into the hoof. Using a blunted nail the infection was dug out. This did cause her move away a bit in pain, but then I guess you would if someone was pushing a nail under your toenail. Back in position he investigated the depth of the hole and found it to be about 1/2 inch. He was worried that it might get deep enough to infect the pedal bone, which in turn would infect the navicular. If this would happen then it could be all over for Filly.
He left the shoe off and gave instruction for salt baths and poultice twice a day to try and draw the infection out. Rick, Ritchie and I did this procedure immediately. The first attempt at a salt bath was obviously very sore and she spilled most of it. The second however was very good and she happily stood in the bath for 5 minutes. Applying the poultice was also without drama.
I have to be at the yard by 9am tomorrow to do another session with Rick.
Currently Ritchie and I sitting at home worried and getting quietly drunk, all the earlier optimism gone.