Lameness & Dandelions

This was Jingle about 3 weeks ago, all saddled up after a good ride.

Now, after a little over two weeks, my horse is still lame. How exceptionally frustrating. Even more annoying is Jingle is only very slightly off on his front left. Some days he's maybe functioning at 95% of his capacity, whereas at his worst he was still functioning at around 85%.

A lame Jingle means a lot of driving to the barn to sit and watch and worry about my pony...

my oversized co-pilot generally tags along for these adventures.

What a believe started this whole lameness issue was me putting Jingle out to pasture. All winter he was out with mares during the day, and then stalled during the evening. Well, it turns out that when mares go into heat my very mild-mannered, polite gelding turns into a bit of a wannabe stallion. Uh-oh. So, he was banished to a tiny paddock during the day and hand-walked in at night. I had always planned to put Jingle outside for Spring and Summer, so the timing worked out well. Jingle went out with Brigitte's gelding, Mac, and all seemed well. The boys were getting along, the sun was shining, life was good... then, rain, a few weeks of it..

"I will roll in this puddle mahm, I will."

Well I suspect that all their super-funzies gallivanting created a situation where my horses leg slipped one way and his body slipped the other. Wahbam. Lame horse.

I put Jingle on a three day round of bute, it didn't seem to help. In the process he was an absolute ass-face when it came to tube-bute, but I happily discovered my horse could care less about added powder in his grain.

"What iz this? It smells like rockets and drugs"

"Meh, I'll eat it"

"Mac is so jealous of me and how pretty and special I am, laaadeedaa"

If there was any inflammation from a pulled muscle, bute didn't seem to help, nor did it even mask any of Jingle's offness. My farrier came out, found a slight pulse and some hoof tenderness, so we chased an abscess. Oh man, did I ever want it to be an abscess... easypeasylemonsqueezy.

I also discovered during this time that Walmart now has a large variety of fun coloured duct-tape. So Jingle got really fun bright turquoise vet-wrap and party cheetah duct-tape - hurray for my pony princess!

It wasn't an abscess, a week later my horse is no worse and no better than he was a week previous. The only thing that came from our jaunt down poultice-lane was me, a blubbering mess, getting my farrier to educate me on all the different hoof-related diseases and ailments after a boarder (stupidly) asked me "Are you sure it's an abscess, or has he foundered?" Cue smug "I know everything" look from her, cue Louisa calling her farrier in a total strung-out mess "OMG IS HIS COFFIN BONE ROTATED?!?!!?!?!?!" No. It's not. Coffin bone is good.

So, I sucked it up and called the vet, only to discover that the top lameness guys wont travel out "as far as my barn" (45 minutes... pretty sure the receptionist thinks my barn is a ranch in the mountains). The other vets were all booked straight for a week and a half, except for the two days I can't make it to the barn during the day. So, we have a vet appointment for Monday the 24.

In the mean-time, I had an osteopath out to look at my boy. No surprise he was tense and needed adjustments EVERYWHERE. She did notice that his withers were very misaligned and needed adjustment, his left elbow was also locked, and he had a lot of tension in his shoulder. All points lead to a messed up shoulder, and I was hoping that she was my cure. She worked on him for over an hour (something that really impressed me), and I sincerely hoped that he would be sound when I returned. He was moving better and seemed in better spirits after his adjustment. 

(Except for a slight episode where I left him to walk her to her car and he pulled back and went for a joy-gallop on the barn's front lawn... lovely.. this is my life)

Two days later... no beuno. 

fuck.

I don't have the money for this. I want my horse to be sound.

So, that's my Jingle-update.

Here's some really nice photos I took of him today in the dandelions. He loves dandelions, he'll eat them for hours and hours on end, avoiding the grass and just nibbling on the flowers. He is the most handsome. I love him. I just want him to get better. Sigh.