Happy Birthday to me!

Thank you God for the birthday gifts!!! 

 

I had to get up early to meet the farrier, but we got all the horses done in time for me to thaw out a tiny bit, have a bowl of cereal, and get to the vet on time. We started with Dan and the hematoma was still there. But it did look bigger, so we're hoping that it's because it's getting shallower. Hopefully it's close to growing out. He was a bit fussy and leaning for Patrick today too, so I do think doing his pelvis and neck with sarrapin will help! We'll see! But also, back to the foot... there wasn't that big bulging of the white line that you typically see with keratoma's. Patrick pared out as much of the bruise as he felt comfortable and then packed it with copper sulfate and we put the frog support pad back on. 

 

Dan and I got to the vet clinic and we got to go inside the heated barn. It was toasty warm! Then we took him back out to trot him and he looked great behind, and honestly pretty good up front too! I showed the vet the photos we took with his shoe off and he pulled up his rads. He said that he wasn't convinced it was a keratoma and that he was a bit suspicious that he cracked a chunk of his cofifn bone off (which would have been the acute lameness) and then resorbed it before we took the x-rays (which makes sense because.. we originally thought abscess so we didn't do rads immediately), and thus.. the hematoma. And he's slowly been getting sounder on it, so.... while I don't love the fact that he basically broke off a chunk of his coffin bone.. you know... where he holds ALL his weight... I DO LOVE the fact that he doesn't have a keratoma and thus doesn't need surgery! WHOOO HOOO!! Thank you God for the answered prayers!!! Plus, his suspensories looked good but he said it was time to start stressing that right hind so that the fibers lined up a bit better. He still didn't have any swelling. Yay! So we got cleared to add in 5 minutes of trot each ride! The vet recommended that we don't do five straight minutes, but instead do 5 one minute increments. And ideally on straight lines and hard/firm ground. He mentioned that he might feel a bit wonky at first, but not to panic. So yay!!! Happy Birthday to me!

 

So of course, we headed straight to Ashland! It was cold! So cold still! I had on fleece lined leggings underneath my fleece lined pants, a fleece lined shirt, a thick patagonia knock off sweatshirt thing, and a jacket, my winter gloves, and hiking boots and I was still pretty cold! But riding bareback helped! 

 

We had a great ride. We hacked out to the XC field so he could snack on some good green grass! And the water complex was frozen! It looked like it was frozen solid, but it may have just been the top layer. But it was the entire complex! So we didn't get to water treadmill! We walked to the lake and it had a large sheet of ice over a good chunk of it. You can tell where the deep parts are! Dan wasn't interested in going in or getting a drink, so we headed on. I did our first trot across the dam and it ended up being a good timed thing as it took right at a minute. He was so good. Then we did a bit of walking, then trotted alongside the tree line in the walnut field. Then took another walk break. Then did another minute of trot in the hay field, and then we snacked a little bit. Then we went into the woods and did our last trot up the hill to the backside of Ashland in the woods. He spooked at some deer so we were 12 seconds short, so once we got down the hill and around the turn, we did another 12 seconds, which turned into 16 seconds. ;) ha ha. Then we walked the rest of the way home. 

   

Ahhhhh, it's amazing how much better I feel! But God wasn't done. He gifted me an amazing sunset too!! I'm so blessed! And it was great to get all the birthday messages on facebook. There were some really kind and thoughtful messages too. And Keri and the kids sent me a cute video singing happy birthday to me. And Mom drew happy birthday in the snow and sent me a photo. It was a darn good day. Thank you God for your blessings and love.