The ultrasound at 6 weeks showed normal healing in all of the areas but a little bit of scarring in the accessory gluteal. So.... we are increasing the walks, but still only walking. Still no real turn out and still drugged. But... at least it's all healing and hopefully this will reduce the scarring so that it doesn't create any problems. The current plan is 20 min hand walk daily plus 35 minutes walk rides daily plus turn out in the round pen at night as long as he's behaving. Every 2 weeks I can add 5 minutes onto the walks (either under tack or in hand). If I can't ride him then I need to at least put my heaviest saddle on him for a 35 minute hand walk.
Danny's cute when he's drunk.
So... that's the plan. And it's tough!!! It will most likely be a lot of hand walking at O'dark thirty and riding at O'dark thirty pm.
Only maybe we will do our best to avoid night time riding as it was a super stressful night tonight!! (Hopefully they won't all be this scary!).
*Hand walking at 0'dark thirty am*
Poor horse! I'm the worst mom ever! We had a pleasant trail ride for our 35 minutes and then I decided to let him graze for a bit in the XC field. Well, it got dark, which was fine. But then.... we heard this noise. It was pretty creepy! Dan got all tall and I thought, well, it'll go away. But no.. it kept happening, like every 30 seconds. I think it must have been the sprinklers???? Or deer snuffling at each other, but it was so consistent. Some angry bird?? Of course it was coming from the arenas, which we had to go past to get to the trailer. So I got off and Dan grew to about 18 plus hands. I managed to get him past the arenas and back to the trailer by half sining/half talking loudly to cover up the noise. But even I was getting a little freaked out. Unfortunately because it was dark I couldn't show him what it was to show him to not be scared. So I decided to untack him and quick and get him in the trailer and get home. I don't know what else I could have done, but this was clearly not the right choice. He was a little fussy during the drive home from what I could tell. When we got to the house and I pulled down the ramp the poor guy had apparently been having a panic attack the whole way home. He was lathered and dripping sweat and trembling visibly in every muscle in his body. Then he tried to turn around in the trailer 5 times, almost succeeding. I was so stressed about him and worried he was going to hurt himself that I started yelling at him because he was being awful in the trailer and I just wanted him to straighten up so I could get him off. Then I was afraid that he would come flying off and fall down the ramp, and I had parked in the driveway so I was afraid he'd really hurt himself. So yeah.. it was a mess. I finally managed to get him still enough long enough to pull down the butt bar and he came off without any mishap. I got him to his stall and gave him his reserpine and tried to let him chill but he was still petrified! I felt so bad! The poor guy. He ended up settling once I walked him around a bit and he realized there was no danger. Then I had to give him a warm rinse as he was so lathered up. Then he got to eat and I finally just turned him out because I was afraid he was going to jump the stall door. Luckily he settled in and was soon fine. But man I felt so bad.
So the next morning I put him and Fleck on the trailer. I figured I might not have time to ride Fleck but I wanted him there for moral support. When we got to Ashland and I opened the ramp, Dan was trembling again but not nearly as agitated. He unloaded and was tense so I took him and Fleck both for a little hand walk around the arenas. He finally settled and then we had a boring trail ride. Phew. I ended up just taking Fleck home and sneaking in a quick nap before working because I was so tired from the stress and lack of sleep. But I did feel better now that Dan wasn't traumatized for life.
We did get in our hand walk that evening too, although he was a little naughty.
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