… pre-enter all three of your competition horses in the same Competitive Trail Ride, and watch the fun begin.
Ace has been struggling with stone bruising and abscesses in his front feet since completing the very rocky Ride Between The Rivers a few weeks ago without being padded. (I get it, PowersThatBe, I get it! I will not make THAT error again.)
There is something truly disconcerting about a horse that becomes fairly suddenly three legged lame. Every sensible and experienced bone in your body tells you that this is an abscess, a painful pressure vessel in the foot, which despite its crippling effects, is far from the horse’s heart, and will resolve itself by bursting.
But every fiber in your being, at least if you are the Queen of Worry like me, is wondering about all the other catastrophic injuries it could be — a torn ligament, a fracture in the foot or fetlock.
So I would alternately comfort myself with the fact that this was, OF COURSE, an abscess, while secretly lying awake at night trying to recall the soft tissue structure of the lower leg apparatus and which ligament (torn or shredded, of course) would cause a three-legged lameness.
Ace, in the past two and a half weeks, has given me three episodes of such angst. A left front heel bulb abscess, followed by a right front sole abscess, and just in the last 36 hours, the blessed sigh of horse-owner relief when after two days of gimping around on his left front foot, unwilling to touch the heel to the ground, a huge blowout at the left front heel bulb.
I have been poking and prodding and squeezing and testing, and watching with a measured appraisal, every single reaction of a horse who has affectionately earned the barn name of “Twitchy.”
I have unearthed the 500ml ringers solution bag that we use as a soaking boot and plugged in the barn hot water heater for the first time in many months.
I have spent lots of quality time with my nose two inches from a horse’s hoof trying to determine the extent of the bruising and if, indeed, this will be the last abscess.
I have re-acquainted myself with the joy of making a duct tape boot.
I have talked to both the vet and the farrier and been re-assured by both that it HAS TO BE an abscess and to step away from the edge of the cliff/bottle of vodka/xanax.
I have re-stocked my feed room “medicine and assorted powders and goops” cabinet with animalintex pads and more ichthammol.
All of this has resulted in the fact that Ace will not be going to next weekend’s VT 100 Mile CTR. He needs some more R&R time and if I were a betting girl, I would bet that there are still a few bruises working their way out of this front feet.
I have been generously offered (i.e. stolen) my husband’s horse, Sarge (“Second Wind Soldier”) for the 100 mile ride. With the exception of being a finicky eater, he is our most straight-forward competition horse, so I am looking forward to simply enjoying the ride.
Denny Emerson is still riding Ned. He called the other night so we could talk about logistics, and arrival times and tack, and I had to laugh when he asked me “how much weight Ned was accustomed to carrying.” (Perhaps he was concerned that I am a tiny sprite of a girl.) I reassured him that Ned could easily carry him and might, in fact, enjoy the slightly decreased ballast.
So I have been cleaning tack and calculating the number of bales of hay to bring and soaking Ace and washing saddle pads and spare girths (in case something rubs, chafes, etc.) and wrapping Ace, etc.
I’m so very looking forward to hitting the road Wednesday morning and immersing myself in nothing but horses and friends for a few days.
Ace is under strict orders not to limp!