Of vacation and lameness

It has been a very long time.  Even remembering all the things between then and now is not likely.  I spent two days volunteering at the Indiana Eventing Association Novice and Training 3 day and horse trial.  I had a nice jump school.  I went on my first long trial ride of the year and out of the group we were with Steady was the bravest.  So proud!  I went on a 9 day vacation to St. Augustine, FL and arrived back home at 7 am this morning.  Just in time to greet and feed the ponies then proceed to fall asleep until about noon.  The 3day and horse trial warrent their own post because I got to do very cool things and learned a bunch about 3 days.  The trail ride was lovely.  I went with 3 friends and when no one elses horses would go Steady bravely marched on.  He has come so far.  As the others struggled to navigate streams and jumped them. Steady boldy walked through.  Nothing really phased him.  Except of course when one friend decided to go out front and let her horse canter up a very long and large hill.  I prefer inclines and declines at a walk.  I am not opposed to an incline at a trot or canter but another horse cantering away up a hill is not something that this career race horse could handle.  I attemted to hold him back but quickly felt unsafe so I just let him go.  The gal in front put up a good effort but really with Steady there is no chance.  Even if she was an OTTB.  It was not a challenge for the old guy in the least and he was quite proud of himself when he reached the top first.

The day before we were to leave for Florida I went out to see Lily and quickly noticed she was head bobbing lame at the walk.  Yikes.  I poked, prodded and investigated to no avail.  There was no swelling, or heat in any legs.  All were lovely cold and tight.  Her hooves are black so with the sun shining I just could not tell if there was heat in her hooves or it was from the sun hitting them.  They all felt the same temperature.  So they were either all hot (boo) or one and I couldn't tell.  My initial thoughts went to founder (easy keeping pony so quite possible), or the best option abcess.  But could tell nothing.  It was her left front that was the offending foot.  Though the lameness was so severe that it made it hard to tell if there was soreness in any other areas.  Great, I have to leave town at the crack of dawn and I have a horse seriously lame.  I soaked her LF that night and waited to see what it looked like in the a.m.  I had a new girl caring for the animals and I had yet to test out her competency in caring for my animals.  I have had some bad experiences in the past and I get extremely nervous leaving town.  So the idea of leaving town with a known problem just made things worse.    I of course the started googling and by the time I was finished I was convinced of poor Lily's certain death.  Bad idea.
The morning of our departure Lily looked just as bad if not worse with still no visible signs.  BUT in the cool moring it made it obvious that there was definite heat in the LF hoof.  So I at least had the area narrowed down.  We had to leave so I nervously left my sweet pony in the hands of the new care taker. Caretaker soaked and wrapped it that evening.  She updated me every step of the way which made the biggest difference in the whole process.  She informed me that Lily was indeed worse and head to the ground bobbing the next morning.  Not really what you want to hear.  So I set up a date with the farrier for that day.  That alone takes some logistical planning.  My farrier is Amish and they don't answer their phones so I put a call in and waited.  Then I needed to work it out because Amish obviously don't drive so I needed the CT to drive to pick him up after she got off of work bring him to the house then take him home.  It all worked out and the farrier was able to find the offending spot that was soft and dead.  He dug it out a bit and hit a yucky spot(scientific name of course)

Next moring Lily was not noticebly better as I had hoped to hear and when CT was cleaning out the area it began pussing and bleeding.  So a call went into the vet.  He said to keep an eye on it for another 24 hours.  Thankfully the new Caretaker was simply amazing.  She cleaned, wrapped and did all the nitty gritty while also keeping me updated.  I can't imagine that I could have done a better job than she did with the whole thing.  After 24 hours she was slightly better!!!  It was really an up and down process but after about 4-5 days she finally started making consistent improvement.  Up to when I arrived today and she is sound at the walk and mostly sound at the trot!  It is one thing to deal with an ailing pet but from 1000 miles away was a new experience entirely and I don't care to do it again.  Though if I had to I couldn't have asked for better help.

to hopefully make up for lack of horse photos I leave you with a sandy corgi butt.

Vacation was wonderful.  St. Augustine is such a great place.  We have been there several times because my sister lives there.  I was completely spoiled once again by my amazing sister who got us a 2 bedroom condo on the beach for free.  She manages the condo complexes.  We spent our days going from beach, to nap, to pool, to eating amazing food.  With a little shopping, mani, pedi's and universal orlando thrown in here and there.  I was not ready to leave yesterday but of course I love coming home to my animals.  Hank the Corgi also made the trip with us and he added a little extra fun to the trip.