Abscess??

 So.... I've been super stressed with work and super busy. On Saturday I had to adjust two dogs at the house and then was able to go ride. But it was a little rainy out so I was debating. Kelli had already left so I decided to go before the rain hit really hard and rushed to meet Kelli. When I loaded Dan up I thought he looked iffy in the right hind and he was cocking it up. But... we loaded up anyways and headed to Ashland. Right as I got there it started raining heavily so we sat in the trailer for a minute. It passed quickly and we were able to get on and only deal with a damp mist. I got a few minutes of walking in and then picked up the trot. And Danny was dead lame!! Like seriously flat tire lame. What?!?! I got off and checked. It seemed like an abscess. So.... all that effort and getting wet for nothing. I'm not going to lie... I went home and pouted and took a nap. Sigh....

So then Monday night I tried lunging him quickly and he was still pretty funky looking, so I didn't do my lesson Tuesday. I was supposed to have a lesson with Kelly on Thursday, but... decided to cancel it too. Because, he hadn't blown an abscess so I figured he'd either be lame still, be sound and go lame halfway through, or it's not an abscess and I shouldn't be riding til I figured it out. And it was supposed to storm. 

So after I told Kelly I was cancelling.... I ended up getting a few minutes to sneak in a ride between patients, so I hopped at the chance. Peri and Kelli were just finishing their ride when I got there, so I hopped on. Peri watched me for a few minutes and he was sound at the trot, even in a circle. So yay!! Maybe he did blow an abscess! It smelt a little funky Monday night. 

We had a good ride. We hacked out and did some walking and trotting. Then we got up to the twix and tween trails and after crossing the creek, we picked up the trot again. And he was lame again!! What?!?! Not nearly as bad as Sat, but still pretty blatantly obvious. Sigh. So we walked back to the dam. And I tried trotting again to see if I could figure out for sure if it was the right hind. And.. .he was sound. ??? So we splashed in the lake a bit and then hit the woods. He was still sound and wanted to canter so we did. And then when we trotted again he was still sound. :) I cut my ride fairly short, for his sake and times sake, but did take him to the ring and lunged him so I could see. He was sound and even both directions but it looked like his pelvis was canted to the right. So... maybe he was protecting something. ???