rest, not risk

So what's the deal with this mystery issue that cropped up in Charlie's leg, prompting us to scratch from jumping at Full Moon last week, and bow out entirely from Loch Moy this coming weekend?

Well. Haha. I'm gonna tell ya. The keenest observers may have noticed the Full Moon Spring Thing write-up included "splint" in the label / tag section that I use for organizing my posts.

Because fuck my life, right?

handsome pony <3 fugly, gnarly legs :(

So. Yea. Charlie popped another splint. It was originally masquerading as a small insignificant wound that had a bit of swelling under it.

He's got these little scrapes all over his legs that look pretty similar to the scrapes he has on his neck. Which I believe are related to my observations of him craning over the pasture fence to eat what must be the tastiest fucking brambles that ever grew haha.

trying to act like he doesn't soak up all this extra attention like the neediest of sponges lol

We poked and prodded and palpated it anyway, just to be really really really sure it wasn't actually bugging him. But it was never hot, never sore, and he was never lame. Plus the swelling was kinda squishy and localized to the area of the small wound. Seemed like a safe enough conclusion that that's all it was.

Alas, as I already noted, by Sunday morning the issue showed itself for what it was: a splint. Blargh. The leg was all swollen up and down both inside and outside (tho still notably cool and not reactive to palpation), with a bit of a localized bump. Thus my decision to not jump him.

that face tho, omg. a face of self satisfaction? smugness? or trying to make sure i still love him even when he keeps on wrecking hisself???

It went down with wrapping on the trailer, and was down even further after our dressage ride. So possibly some of the fill was attributable to being stalled over night. Plus on Monday every last iota of swelling was completely gone - with just the tiniest little splint bump at the site of the injury.

bone remodeling from surgery on L. itsy bitsy newcomer splint on R. gnarly knobby horror show fetlocks alllllll the way around haha (tho they x-ray clean, go figure)

And again: No heat. No sensitivity. And no lameness. Actually the new splint is smaller than the bone remodeling in his other leg post-surgery. Which... yea that other leg is UGLY haha.

All the same, tho, I've decided to be a little extra..... extra in handling this latest ding.

so many expressions.... so many anthropomorphic attributions haha

He's still getting turnout, but has gotten a reprieve from all riding. Plus the whole icing / bute / wrapping rigmarole every night. Ooooh, and Surpass the generic version of Surpass.

Because I just want to be 1,000% confident that this thing heals fully, rather than risking setting off another chain of events wherein six months from now we're still dealing with aggravations to the injury. That's a lesson I hope to only learn once.

generic version of surpass. this stuff smells funny. but actually seems to absorb better/faster than normal surpass.

I want to be riding Charlie later this spring. Later this summer. And definitely this fall. Plus. Ya know. Years to come <3 So hopefully, by not riding him right now, we've got better odds for having more fun later.

Theoretically, of course haha. Because let's be real. There will always be some other issue waiting to crop up for the King of the Dings, right?