October 26, 2010 - It is said "Pride goeth before a fall"

Rory looked big when he was standing next to me today!

Rory went to the vet clinic today. His leg was even fatter and hotter on Monday morning after a night in with bute and Back on Track wrap.  The hot spots were in different places yet again.  I walked him for a good bit, briskly with some pauses to remind him of his manners.  Having spent the night inside he had more energy and a greater desire to return to the herd making him more distracted than usual.  He was pretty good once I realized why he wasn't quite as well behaved and got a little quicker at catching the warning signs of trouble.  After the walk I cold hosed his leg and put another poultice wrap on for the day.  I went back in the evening to remove the wrap and hose the leg again.  The swelling was greatly down, but the pastern was still swollen and had a hot spot on the inside towards the back.  I wrapped with the Back on Track no-bow again and turned him back out.

Another horse was going to the vet clinic on Tuesday (today) and I arranged to take Rory as well to save having the vet come out to the farm on Wednesday.  It was Rory's first time on a trailer in over two years (the last time was the breeder's show when he was two months old).  He walked up without any problem. Backed off a little crooked, but nice and easy.  Very well done considering it was the first time he'd backed off a trailer.

Rory was a little wiggly inside the examination area, but when we came out to do flexions and jog he was awesome. He trotted when I said trot, stayed with me, whoa'd when asked, allowed the vet to squinch his legs a couple of times... He was a STAR and I was bursting with pride in him!

Remember where I started - "Pride goeth..."

So then we had to wait while the other horse got looked at. The vet sent us off to graze while we waited. Rory didn't want to graze, so we walked, stood, walked some more, tried to graze again without any more luck. Anyway, the last time I tried to get him to graze he put his head down and grabbed a bit of grass, then squealed, kicked up his heels and bolted and I couldn't hold him. He ran. And ran. And ran some more. Off to the furthest paddocks, across a ditch. Down the side of the far paddocks, back (past me) and down the other side, vanishing into the woods... I set off after him. Before I got to the trees I spotted him running across behind the fields and turned around to run back and try to stop him in the narrower alley between fence and tree lines. This time I didn't bother with soothing words, but stood big and waved my arms at him. He broke to trot. Then came to a halt and waited for me to collect him. He's fine. And he was quite well behaved for the rest of our wait, most of which we spent walking back and forth to cool him out with the occasional halt, back up, do not get ahead of me reminder.

Ah well, pride goeth before a fall and all that He's been doing really well at home, but now I know not to trust him an inch away from home. At least not until he gets used to it.

And the fat leg? A minor sprain.  Not lymphangitis, not suspensory or tendon tears.

The funny, and kind of embarassing part is that while he was trotting and cantering about I was thinking "Geez he looks amazing!  I want to take a picture of that!"  and then had to keep saying very sternly "No, catch him before he does hurt himself!"  But boy, does he ever move nicely!