out like a lamb

Big news, guys! Friday is here!! Yay!! It's going to be a breezy, cool weekend here, with ground conditions still pretty well saturated from all the recent rain.... But spring is coming. I can feel it. Surely I'm not the only one counting down the days until we change the clocks, right??

lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting vet

Charlie, for his purposes, seems indifferent. Idk. He's still living up the pampered pasture pet dream lifestyle. Tho, once this week he actually jogged out well enough and had no heat in the hoof, so I figured I'd go ahead and either ride him til he went lame again, or declare him officially sound.

same story, different day leg

Turns out tho, yep, still lame. The intermittent nature of the lameness had me slightly bugged tho so I may or may not have parked the horse outside the office door waiting for the vet to finish with another call. Just in case, ya know?

Not like the vet was gonna do a full unscheduled work up at late o'clock after being at the barn all day already.... but I figured she could at least put the hoof testers on him or something.

ugh charlie. the struggle is so real.

And Charlie was very offended by the hoof testers haha.... Poor guy. He sat there waving his hoof around in the air, making the saddest of sad puppy dog eyes at the vet.... like, "How could you do that to me? I thought we were friends!"

So..... Yea. That hoof is real sore. And Charlie's still a real delicate princess.

"buckets r hard. idk. all feetz hurt anyways" - charlie, probably

I didn't think to ask the vet to test out the other hoof (ya know, that other one that was recently punctured by a nail....) but I'm honestly kinda paranoid that it's still sore too. Idk. Maybe Charlie's just being fussy. Or maybe he's actually a hot mess. Idk.

omg but look at this itsy bitsy little newborn lamb instead!!!

So I dunno. I really am not convinced that soaking these sore hooves actually does anything to help. I mean. Maybe it does. At least it doesn't hurt. Mostly it's a good opportunity for me to really lay eyes and hands all across the hooves to evaluate any problem spots or anything like that.

omg you'll have to forgive my dark blurry pictures but how freakin cute tho, right??

And wrapping the hoof in this weather seems like spitting in the wind. But. Ya know. I'm gonna go ahead and keep doing that too. Plus, naturally, I'm throwing basically everything else and the kitchen sink at his feet too. Blasting some thrush buster up in there just in case. Packing again and again with poultice and epsom salts bc the magic cushion I ordered still hasn't arrived.

It's something to do. Some way to feel like I'm actively helping the horse along in healing.

omg it's so playful tho

Plus ya know, he's still just a pleasant horse to be around and spend time with. Very personable and friendly. Which has been very welcome this week as an evening respite from long work days and looming deadlines.

charlie says "TGIF!!!!!!"

In any case, he was finally really crippled last night. Looking more like that classic three legged lameness that I've come to appreciate, as it might mean the abscess is about ready to pop (ew). Fingers crossed lol. So wish us luck on that front lol.

And hopefully y'all have more exciting plans this weekend than just sitting around staring at your horse's hooves!!