Maybe miracles do happen - or good things come to those who wait.

Do you know what this means?

It means a lot of things!! Before you get too excited, I guess I should bring you down a notch and tell you the bad news...


No, she's not 100% sound overall. 


BUT, don't stop being happy for me yet because she WAS sound enough at the walk for me to decide that damnit, I was not wasting this chance because who knows if it will last...and I was hopping on her. 


So, since I was dressed in shorts and a tank top, I figured it was probably more comfortable to go bareback...I briefly considered whether it would be safer, and then shrugged to myself and said, "Self, if she is feeling well enough to do something stupid, you can hang on for dear life, or bail...but ultimately, you'll probably be SO thrilled that she feels that good that you won't even be able to be mad at her. So...just go for it. After all, you still bounce...a little."


She was very good, despite being a little wary of what was going on (I think I have ridden her bareback *maybe* 5 times, counting this one...because she's not very comfy, and for a long time, I couldn't trust her without an "oh s@!%" strap). I brought her to the big 4-step mounting block, leaned over her, scratched her, and then put my leg over her and gently sat down. Offered her a mint so she'd look back and realize that despite the lack of saddle, she's done this before...and then we stood there for a couple of minutes while I scratched her and made a big fuss over her and chit-chatted with someone who had hopped off to adjust their saddle. We walked off with no tension, and did a few laps around the arena in each direction before calling it a day. 


I can't remember the last time 10 minutes made me feel so amazing. I feel like a kid with a new toy - I just can't stop smiling. I honestly don't care if I can't ever do anything other than walk on her again...I just want to be able to enjoy this aspect of partnership with my girl for a little while longer. And, I would love for her to be sound and fit enough to be able to do some short trail rides, too. So, I am feeling very hopeful that this supplement will continue to work its magic. 


But, one step at a time. 


Watching the videos back again, I don't think I jumped too soon at this chance, lol. I watched them forward and backward, and she looks really pretty darn good at the walk. I didn't see toe dragging, I saw a stride that is even on both sides, and is nearly perfectly stepping into the print of the front foot. More importantly, it didn't seem that she was in a big rush to get off the right hind. The trot is still showing a decent amount of lameness...some of which could be exacerbated by being on a circle...but I think compared to even a week or two ago, there is a pretty big difference. Take a look:

Either way, she looked sound enough to me to take a short little spin! She felt great while I was on her and she seemed to be having a great time just cruising around with me

The Healing Process - End of Week 5 (& Attack of the Chicken)

The steady progress is continuing. The antibiotics seem to have done their job. The heat from the left hind and right front that has been intermittent is, I think, completely gone. You can see she's a bit stocked up (which has always been normal after standing around), but overall, I think it looks really good. 

The cut-that-might-have-been-an-abscess looked great. It was completely scabbed over, and the scab was so secure I couldn't pick it off. Yay! I pulled a little, I scratched at it some, and got nothing. When I pushed on it, it squirted quite a bit of puss at me. Gross. So, I went and got some surgical scrub and water, and rinsed it and pushed on it until I got solidly red blood from it. Then I scrubbed it pretty good. This good sign of infection/healing seems to be all that is left. It isn't sore anymore at all. 

Left front.

Left front from the same angle as the photo taken on 03/06/11.

As for the left front...there is still some swelling toward the back, but as I mentioned, the heat is gone. And, from the front, it looks pretty normal! 


When I took her for a spin on the lunge line, she looked about 85-90% at the walk to the left, and about 90% or better to the right. Her right hind isn't stepping as short, she's not dragging the toe. The lameness seemed to be coming from the stifle again (unfortunately, I think we way have cancelled out any benefits of the injection with this whole episode happening two days after it). At the trot, she looked absolutely awful - but in a good way. I know. What? 


Even at the faster pace, it seemed the lameness was coming from high-up again, as opposed to being influenced by whatever stiffness and ouchiness she was feeling from those cuts on her lower leg. I think this is good, even though I really hate that she's so lame! 


Just for the record, she started her new joint supplement yesterday. 


When I brought her back to her stall, I stuffed her full of mints and spent some time scratching her and loving on her. I talked with the barn owner and one of the volunteers for a bit when they came over to see how she was doing. And then, when it was just me and the volunteer talking, the strangest thing happened. A chicken came over and started pecking at the scab on Promise's leg. I tried to shoo it, but I wasn't in the stall anymore, and by the time I got through the gate, the scab was gone, and all of a sudden, Promise was bleeding freely. 


Is this weird? Anybody have experience with chickens? lol


I guess it's a good thing, it enabled me to clean beneath the scab pretty thoroughly, and treat it with more Wonder Dust, etc. But I couldn't believe what I'd seen! My horse got attacked by a chicken!!


Anyway, I think overall, she's doing a million times better. I'm glad I got the extra round of antibiotics for her, and I'm secretly hoping for a small miracle with this new supplement. 

The Healing Process - End of Week 4

Photo taken 03/06/11

Photo taken 03/12/11 -- What a difference in that left front!

Well, there's good news and bad news, as seems to be the norm lately. The good news is, the left front is nearly normal. Although there is still some swelling, it is MUCH less visible. And the heat is barely there. Also good news is the right hind now looks like this:

The right fetlock was still a little bit swollen, as you can see above, when I brought her out and started cleaning it up. The left fetlock is also pretty swollen -- some of it is stockiness, and the rest is those pesky wind-puff things. But after cleaning it, and bringing her down to lunge her, and a bath...it looked like this:

Drying in the sun. She's so much shinier with a layer of winter-yak hair and dirt gone. :)

The rest of the good news is, she's moving a LOT better at the walk. Her fetlock seems to have full range of motion again, and she looked to have her full stride back. I let her play a little bit off the lunge line and she is feeling well enough to canter slowly of her own will, AND hop around and half-assed buck a little bit, too!! Oh, and the vet gave us 5 days worth of antibiotics, which she will start tonight.

The bad news is, she's still pretty lame at the trot, and I still am not able to tell how much is the hind and how much is the front. While I think I'm pretty good usually at discerning the general area of lameness, this has presented quite a puzzle for me...and I'm certainly no lameness expert, lol. It is definitely LESS, but she seems to be doing this weird rocking horse thing every few strides at the trot. See below:

I'm hoping, between the antibiotics, and the new joint supplement starting shortly after she finishes those...that we'll have a small miracle in the form of a sound(er) pony. A girl can hope right?

On a bright note...here are some blackmail-worthy-hamming it up shots. :)

She was jealous that her legs were getting all the camera time, AGAIN. So, using my super cool Samsung camera with front LCD...I took some photos of us together. This one is the best!

The Healing Process - Week 3.5

I drove up to the barn last night after work to check on that awful looking cut below her fetlock. She was just finishing dinner when I arrived, so it was easy to examine her hind legs and feel for any heal or new/remaining swelling - without the even slightest possibility of her moving...leave her food?! NEVER!

Both legs felt normal, heat-wise. There is still some swelling around the right fetlock, which is to be expected, based on that cut. It looked a lot better (I forgot to take pictures, but will take some over the weekend, for the 4 week mark)...and it wasn't as deep. The proud flesh was much less and the unevenness it had to it on Sunday had filled in quite a bit...it seems to be healing pretty evenly now. It was definitely less ouchy than it had been on Sunday, too. When I scrubbed it, she only lifted it away from me when I picked at the scab. I wish I could say the whole thing had scabbed over, but no such luck. :(

Anyway, it was pretty easy to get clean and the rest of her leg looks much better, although the cut on the front of her leg did still bleed a bit, it looks to be healing reasonably well. Everything else is scabbed over or healed completely, and the hair has started to grow back. I keep forgetting to buy a tube of Preparation H to put on the hairless areas, to help it grow back black, but luckily, it seems to be doing that on its own, so it seems like there will be no lasting scars to it, once it's healed completely.

I applied wonder dust to both spots, and when the barn owner came over to chat, we checked out the front left together. I looked at it dead on from the front and the back. It seems like the swelling has gone down a bit, and although it was a little warm, the heat was definitely less than three days ago, too. I put some Absorbine gel on it, brushed her and looked her over and then let her out with her buddies. She seemed to be moving a little bit better through the fetlock, and was dragging the toe less, but we have a front moving through with rain and cooler temperatures, so she was stiffer through the hocks than usual.

I am looking forward to checking on her progress on Saturday. The fact that her leg was much less sore last night has me hoping in another week (or two) she might be sound. And, of course, I am thrilled at the possibility of her left front healing up, too. I never did get ahold of the vet this week for more antibiotics, but after seeing her last night, it seems whatever was going on in that leg is under control now. Hopefully there will be no more surprises!

I'll take more pictures over the weekend. It's been very helpful in documenting the progress of the healing. In the mean time, she is happy and cuddly and shedding like an absolute fiend. Here's to hoping for being healthy enough for dapples this summer!!

ETA: I added a joint supplement (click to see details) to her SmartPak a week or so ago, and the new shipment will arrive on Monday. So, middle of next week or so, she will start on it. Of all the products I looked at, even CortaFlx and the more well-known ones I've tried before, this seemed to be the best in terms of ingredients, specifically the amount of glucosamine and MSM and Vitamins A and E and Yucca. Plus the reviews were really great too. Since this has the convenience of my SmartPak shipment, and I won't have to try to make it to a special feed store that is 40 minutes north of the barn every month before they close at 5, she will stay on it permanently! If it works, of course. We'll give it 90 days or so. :)

A Day at the Races

This post is mostly to prove that the weekend wasn't all cuts and blood and proud flesh and lame pony hugging. I went to the track with my family on Saturday. Here are a few of the 200 shots I took...they should enlarge when you click on them, but I made the thumbnail small to save space. For some of them, I was legitimately trying to be "artsy" and for others, I was just trying to see what I could do with the camera and the macro lens. Many more to come. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Healing Process - End of Week 3

Promise's attitude has improved dramatically in the last week. She's still a little down, but not quite as down as she was a week ago. She's been going out every night with no incidents. Here are some updated photos of her healing...and a video at the end. She is still really lame, although she does seem to be *less* lame than a week ago, even at the trot. So, good news. :)

Before I started scrubbing. Looks a bit better, but had some heat in it again today. My guess would be because of that cut below the fetlock, which, if you look at my last post, was not nearly that open a week ago.

Back of her right heel. Looks much better.

Swelling on the left front appears the same, although the heat has been off and on for the last week.  

A front view of the left front swelling.

After the first round of scrubbing with surgical scrub, I could see some proud flesh in there.  It was obviously quite sore, so I didn't want to scrub hard enough to make it bleed...the barn owner went to the house to get me some hot water to make my job easier. 

We were sort of wondering if maybe she had an abscess or other infection in the leg that blew through this area. And, based on the reappearance of the heat in the leg today, I am seriously considering calling the vet in the morning for another round of antibiotics. It certainly can't hurt.

After scrubbing with hot water, it didn't bleed freely, but I did get some out of it. Good enough. She was very good about the whole thing, and only got yelled at when she started to angle the hoof out, rather than up and down, when she lifted it to get away from the discomfort. I rinsed it and dried it with a towel and then applied some Wonder Dust to it.

The front of her leg also had some proud flesh hiding again. This one did bleed freely with just a little bit of hot water touching it. Rinse, dry and Wonder Dust.