Stoned

I gave Cappy the following day, Sunday, off following our excursion. Monday afternoon found me rushing to the barn from work, eager to ride and start fixing some of our holes the show had shown.

I tacked up and led him out to the galloping field where a few fellow boarders were already riding. We walked around for a few minutes, then picked up a trot.

Off. He felt off. It was slight, but it was there. I jumped off and checked all of his hooves and legs in turn, although none had heat before hand, and I noticed nothing unusual when I picked his feet.

Fortunately, one of my fellow boarders was a vet, and she said she would take a look at him before she left.

Cappy, it turned out, had a stone bruise in his right front. The vet dug it out, I soaked him daily, and I waited for it to get better. I'd taken care off abscesses and wound tracts before, and knew you just keep the foot protected until it has a chance to heal. We figured he picked it up in the driveway at the event, and rode with it in the trailer the 2 hour ride home.

To this day, I alwyas pick hooves carefully before trailer rides, and have been known to crawl up in the trailer with them and pick again if I suspect ANYTHING.

Call me paranoid.

Days passed. He seemed mostly comfortable on it, but something else seemed to be going on. Two days later, when the vet passed by as we were hand-grazing, she mentioned he could use a few more groceries.

Remember the good weight, happy horse from the show less than 4 days earlier?

Yeah, he now looked like this:

He seemed to have dropped 80lbs of muscle in just days. His jumper bump was pronounced, you could see his hipbones... what the heck?

I wormed him the same day, even though he was not due for it yet. I increased his grain and his hay, bringing in some good alfalfa mix to supplement the barn's hay.  I worried.

One soft evening, I hopped up on him bareback while he grazed, and talked to a friend who was riding her horse around the front area. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with this strange horse, who was built funny, yet temperament wise seemed such a good match for me. Money was tight. All sorts of things swirled around in my mind. I still needed to find a decent job.


I decided that the winter was over and Cappy was going back to JS's for the warmer months, when an indoor didn't matter as much.

The evening we hauled him over, we unloaded him on the road because there was not enough dry area for my friend to turn the trailer around. Cap backed out onto the asphalt in darkness, car lights flashing by, completely calm and cool, undisturbed.

As his foot healed up, we started riding again. I started digging mini ditches, dragging brush to make jumps, and making mini post and rails out of sticks right next to the stream in the front field. He learned to figure it out and go. A friend came over to ride, and really enjoyed him. I got a job.

Things were finally looking up.

I sent in my entry for beginner novice at a horse trial over at the Indiana Horse Park,  planning to ride in a clinic with an outside eventer at Crazy But Lotta Fun Farm two weeks before.