well that didn't take long

So I guess the cool thing about buying a second horse bc the first is lame.... is that, now you own TWO lame horses!! Yayyyy!!!! Congratulations!!! Lol.....

"911 pls help they are trying to kill me!" - saddest red mare

Mondeuse developed a pretty significant case of Fat Leg Syndrome this weekend. Doesn't appear to be related to any new trauma or injury... But more so related to her condition and existing trauma (from a fence encounter before I met her) and skin funk etc. 

"tf is this wrap, i wanted you to fix it not put a bandaid on it!" -- pushiest red mare

The swelling kinda came out of nowhere, but got big fast. She came in from turnout with a noticeable lack of definition. But by the time I got to fussing over her after finishing chores, the leg was even bigger. I buted, cold hosed, and wrapped it up tight -- all very important milestones in building out that care partnership I guess -- and hoped for the best in the morning. 

hooooly mother of dog that's a big leg
legit looks like the giant turkey leg you can get at Ren Fest LOL, there's some meat on that bone!

The wrap did jack squat, tho, and the leg continued to grow in size --- particularly higher up the limb -- by morning when I arrived to drop feed. So, eh, let's go nuclear, yes? We put in an "emergency" call to get an appt that day. Not really "emergent," except, well, we need drugs today so pls come. Plus a second horse at the farm had a puncture so, yea. Split that farm call fee!

UGH at least she's shiny?

I'm keeping this post in chronological order, so even tho you can probably surmise the outcome of the visit, I'm going to put a pin in that and talk about what we did in the meantime!

other than feeling like an overstuffed sausage on it, she's actually sound

The short and long version: Hand walking!!! And also, Hand grazing!!!! For an hour!!!!!!

so yea, she went thru a fence some time before i met her. this is all likely related. or maybe she's just extra susceptible bc the crud and compromised tissue. regardless it's a lot tho omg.

I guess this was Doozy's answer to all my idle musings last week about not knowing when to push for under saddle milestones vs other types of learning adventures lol. 

hand-walki-grazies to the rescue, tho! well, lolz, after we put in the call for the emergency vet visit

Like, she could have just used her words and said, "Actually, that's enough of the indoor, thanks!" and we'd all have been cool with it lol. 

after a while of hand grazing in new and interesting places, we did ventured onto new-to-Dooz paths

But, eh, we can take a hint. So I took this opportunity to spend our time waiting for the vet by introducing Mondeuse to new paths around the farm -- esp getting up to the jump ring.

including to the jump ring!

Guys.... It's been so long since you've seen me and Charlie do anything in this ring, but it's really not looking too hot right now. Shabby is probably the right word. But... It's what we got, so... eh. 

including sniffing and rattling all our ramshackle equipment 
(and grazing on the ring grass UGH)

Anyway, Dooz doesn't know any better, except that she definitely thought arriving into the arena was a weird progression from the nice little bridle paths. So she got a little more up and marching once we were in there, and was a little surprised by some equipment around the rail, etc... But basically accepted that it was safe to interact with all this new stuff. 

walked thru poles bc they were there and she was down....

We didn't spend a whole lot of time up there, just a lap or so in each direction, plus a wander betwixt and between everything, then back home to the barn. 

then back home again, over the same little stream that had stopped us in our tracks earlier LOL, obvi fine now

It was pretty apparent that while the leg was significantly uncomfortable in being like... grossly swollen.... there wasn't really any sort of mechanical lameness. So, silver linings?

and then post vet call... dealing with Doxy pills.
pro tip: powder lol..... christ my brain still hurts from counting out 45pills for 2x daily doses.... and so far, no i've only ground up one dose but we're hoping she will accept the rest whole mixed into feed....

Anyway. The vet pretty much reaffirmed what we thought. The horse has trash for an immune system right now, after years of the track chemical lifestyle. She's particularly susceptible to this type of inflammatory infection right now, but it's not clear if it'll be a "normal" thing.

after all these years wrapping charlie, doozy still has firsts for me: my first sweat wrap

We'll treat with Doxy for now, to see if that makes a dent, plus furazone sweat wraps and plenty of bute. Not gonna lie - it's crazy that after all Charlie's careful and intentional education of my equestrian first aid knowledge, Doozy has me doing my first actual sweat wrap.

not my first time with this stuff, tho, except i basically only ever use it when explicitly directed by a vet....

Just further proof that... Ya know. We never really get to choose our lessons, I guess. 

not gonna lie, this kinda sucks for her :(

But. Eh. Doozy should be fine. Probably. The swelling is expected to be slow to resolve, and perhaps one of those things that could crop up again. 

We'll deal with it tho. She's such a cool horse, it's obvi not ideal to have a significant wellness issue so early, but it gives us room to grow the trust bank. We'll see where it goes from here! 

Charlie colicked the first week I owned him, so maybe I should have expected something to happen. I mean --- have you had something happen with a new horse? Or... is that just me? Lol...