Today, I am grateful, because God had mercy on me and rekindled my spirits. I'm still sad... still functionally depressed I think, but... maybe there's some hope again. Not that Dan will jump or dressage again, but... that maybe, just maybe, he'll be sound enough to try new things... western dressage... more obstacles... or even just hit the trails again.
I did get an email back about the biomechanic taping and... she gave me some hope too. She suggested taping and then doing some poles to help strengthen. And I did tape him yesterday. He wasn't sure about it at first... but then he was licking and chewing... and while he wasn't necessarily resting his left hind, he was actually standing square more. So... win! Of course this morning (because it rained and was misting all night long) the tape was partially hanging off, so I went ahead and pulled it. I didn't want to cause more issues! And then it rained again all day, but tonight, I managed to get home slightly early so I headed out to the arena with a handful of treats and hay pellets and the halter. I caught Dan and we headed to the arena. I let him loose and tried to do some liberty work with him. I dropped the poles down to the ground (not alternating raised) and had him walk through them for treats. We did that multiple times and then we also wandered around the arena some. I had him straddle the single pole too. And then had him stop half over the pole and halt.. then walk forward again. I didn't do any sidepassing because I felt like that was going to be too much torque, especially since he wasn't taped again. I figured I would wait to retape when he was dryer. That tape ain't cheap! Plus I use so much!
We had fun and he didn't look like he was struggling at all over the pole. In fact, he looked kind of good. He trotted a tiny bit but he was behind me so I couldn't see. And from what I can tell, he's been standing much more square. Although admittedly I haven't been home much today. So... maybe, just maybe... he'll bounce back and it won't take another gabillion years. Which was nice.. and I'm grateful to God for the assistance in the small return of hope because... yesterday when I was picking up Funny's allergy meds... Dr. Barrow was there and said she hadn't forgotten about us, she just was still contemplating on what to do with him. She said she sort of felt like.... it wasn't worth injecting him again... just to give him time. And not be in a rush to recheck him. Which... fair, sort of where I had landed. I did ask if she thought that the fracture had happened when she kicked him and somehow just got aggravated or if she thought it happened more recently when he got worse again. She said she thought that Funny kicking him didn't cause the fracture but caused the pathology which set him up for an avulsion fracture later. Sigh... so... I had to remind myself that instead of 4 months into healing... I was likely only 1 month into healing... and then I cried the whole way home.
But... he made me smile today.
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