his majesty's royal dingdom

Yea, he's lame again.

No, it's probably not serious.

Yes, it's a different leg this time.

And no, I'm not amused.

all dressed up and nowhere to go

Backing up a little bit (again). Charlie's abscess blew out Sunday a week ago. And he got his feet done last Tuesday - a full trim and reset all around, replacing the right hind shoe that had been pulled for the abscess, and replacing the left hind shoe that Charlie lost in turnout.

we put him in a "stall" for time out while i jump crewed

By Wednesday evening, he was sound enough for me to hop on for a quick w-t-c ride followed by an easy hack through some fields. Thursday and Friday we schooled some more - nothing intense, and not super long, but good solid to-the-point flat work.

Charlie honestly felt pretty great too. I mean, I couldn't slow him down or steer him, but other than that he felt great. Like it would have been really easy to overdo it if I wasn't careful. I was careful tho and we kept things light and fluffy.

working him out a little bit under saddle first, trying to assess what was up

Saturday we came out dressed for the typical weekly jump lesson with trainer P, complete with our big-boy jump bridle. Tho I honestly wasn't really sure how much we would do, given the horse's recent time off from the nail + abscess (two weeks, not that I'm counting or anything....) and my worries about pushing the hoof before it was fully healed.

plenty of fine steps in there, but enough not-fine steps to bow out from a serious ride

It ended up not really mattering tho, bc after walking around for a while chatting with Brita and half joking about us not doing anything in the ride bc maybe Charlie would be crippled.... Well, we picked up a trot and yea Charlie was lame. Boooooo Charlie, boo.

And naturally Brita confirmed for me that it was the left hind too, as opposed to the right hind of recent nail impalement-turned-abscess fame.

i'm a meanie and made him trot some poles first tho (which he did perfectly fine)

Trainer P arrived in the arena soon after, and we jogged around a little bit for her. Charlie would mostly trot kinda ok, but very very tight. Almost (almost) just felt like his standard stiff weakness behind, except not quite. And he'd be going fine enough, but would then take like four really bad steps in a row.

he got steadily worse tho, sigh

We determined that I would skip any jumping, but maybe try to work him out a little bit on the flat. A little canter, which always improves his trot anyway, a few ground poles to ask him to push a bit more.... And again, he'd be fine but then not fine. And the "not fine" was progressively worsening.

so i just hopped off and parked him at a jump standard to hang out. he honestly seemed happy as a clam lol

Basically, seemed like we had ourselves a pretty classically ouchie hoof. And I mean, it *is* abscess weather out. Plus Charlie had spent a few days unintentionally barefoot on that hoof, and definitely made it sore from constantly resting the other abscessing hoof. So it's not really shocking that maybe his left hind is presenting as bruised or possibly also abscessing.

whoa somebody better go catch that wild loose runaway horse tho..... ugh charlie

It just kinda sucks tho. As it was, I figured I'd at least make myself useful up in the arena. So I hopped off Charlie, loosened his girth, and tucked away all his many loose straps, then parked him in a "stall" made of ground poles at one of the standards so I could help set fences and take video for my friends.

lesson mate C had to go wrangle the runaway lol

Wouldn't ya know Charlie basically stayed put too? He's such a ham, I swear. I'm convinced that he likes being part of the action, likes being up in that ring with all the horses. Especially when the jumping starts and everyone is hanging out in the center while one person jumps at a time.

bella did some wranglin too

He almost acts as if he's just taking a very long break haha. Just hangs out, watches the other horses go. Accepts whatever scratches and pets might come his way from passing grounds people. But otherwise just.... lounges around.

mostly tho, charlie just chilled

Tho naturally after standing around stationary for a while, he was suuuuuuper crippled. As evidenced in the earlier gif. Blargh. Except he walked back to the barn afterward just fine. And also walked out to the field yesterday morning just fine too when I checked on him.

he found my hairnet to be quite entertaining (helmet was hangin on other side of the standard)

In fact, it's entirely possible that it isn't even an abscess or hoof bruise. It's possibly even just some random fungus on a small inconsequential wound Charlie inflicted on himself by somehow (?!?) catching his left hind on the bucket his right hind was soaking in about two weeks ago. Because obviously Charlie would do a thing like that. And now that scab is looking sore and irritated by all the wet mud.

oh charlie. what are we gonna do with you buddy??

Who knows tho, ya know? Like, all I could muster after watching my horse come in from the field fine, walk up to the arena fine, and then quickly devolve into three legged lameness was.... a shrug. Idk. He's lame again. He'll probably be fine. Probably.

And at least this time I had already bowed out of our planned dressage show this past weekend bc he wasn't quite ready after the last abscess. So technically it doesn't count as another missed outing... or does it? Idk I'm losing track.

Charlie, for his part, certainly seems to enjoy playing the part of "pampered pasture pet." Hopefully he doesn't get too used to it tho! C'mon, buddy! We got stuff to do!!