End of 2022

Ben gave me a great end of year present... New year's eve... We took him for a nice walk around the neighborhood. I didn't put the chain on because he'd worked that morning and it was warm. But I should've because he was up and in my space. When we got back we came in through the pasture in the front by the barn. I decided to let him go for a few minutes to dance and prance and then go in for dinner. But he didn't realize the horses were right there in the barn and RAN in a totally panicked way. For about a minute. I was trying to catch him the whole time, but couldn't catch him until he paused, tried to start running again, and then was three legged lame on a front leg. 

We walked in with him barely toe touching on that right front. I stopped by his buddies stall so he could touch noses and calm down. Then I inspected. Shoe was still in place, hadn't turned that and stepped on a clip. No swelling or crepitus or source of pain in the leg. Let me put it through a range of motion. Put him in his stall and he limped around 3 legged but then went right to eating. His vet told me to give 2g of bute and keep checking for swelling. She couldn't get out to see him that night though. He would eat some and then circle and fling his head in pain, I felt so awful. 

Talked to my BFF and we tried to decide if he should go on a trailer to the hospital to get rads. She reminded me to check for digital pulse - bounding in that foot. Ended up getting a vet I used to use to come out on emergency to shoot rads. I paid her extra, I was so grateful she came on a holiday for a non client. No fracture, thank goodness. Negative to hoof testers as well, one theory before that was he'd slammed a rock deep in the sand and given himself a terrible bruise. He was even a bit better while the vet was there, would put the whole foot on the ground. There was a gas track on that foot, but could've been from the abscess in June. 

Overnight he got progressively more comfortable. In the morning he was walking but slightly lame at the walk. Had laid down though and would rest the hind foot on the same side and let me pick out the other front foot. 

This morning he took a couple of slightly off steps on hard ground at the trot. Not at all off in the soft dirt of the arena. 

So in the span of 36 hours I have gone from: 

• He's broken a bone and has to be euthanized tonight
• No fracture but a terrible career ending soft tissue injury
• Maybe he can be a dressage horse and just never jump
• Maybe he'll be okay and go back to work???

I definitely could've lived without this whole roller coaster, as I'm sure he could've too. He was so sad Saturday night. The GY's have been amazing, they brought me out a jacket, food, and water that night and chatted to keep me company. I think we took several years off JT's life as well as I kept her updated Saturday night. 

Today and tomorrow we're tack walking. Wednesday he gets new shoes with pads all around, and we'll have his farrier hoof test him again. Current going theory is there was an abscess brewing and he shoved gas around into some sensitive lamina while acting a fool. 

#whytho #fuckinghorses