It's a long way from his heart...

That's the old saying that ran through my head yesterday as I watched blood run across the bottom of Curly's hoof. And I'm glad I had heard it before or I might have panicked when I saw the red stuff come up as I was picking his back right.

I got a call from my friend T during the early afternoon - she was on her way to a local trail and wanted to meet me there. She would even bring both horses and everything, I just had to show up at the appointed hour! Well of course I couldn't pass up an offer like that!

It is my habit to pick hooves first thing....and thank goodness I did. During that last vet visit a couple of weeks ago the veterinarian had dug out a spot on Curly's hoof, thinking that it might lead to an infectious spot. That little hole has been tender ever since, but nothing has come out of it - until yesterday. I barely touched it with the hoof pick and blood started running. A good thing, really, because this may mean that whatever has been causing his on-again-off-again lameness might finally be released. (crossing my fingers now!)

The bad thing, though, was that I couldn't ride him out on the trail. So we loaded the horses back up and went back to the barn. Now here's a nice thing about being friends with someone who has a number of horses - I still got to go for a ride yesterday, just on a borrowed horse! It was my first ride on Chance. (I'll admit that I was nervous riding a new animal, but after a few pointers from A, I figured out how to communicate with Chance and we managed the ride just fine. I won't say I was relaxed during the trip, but I did enjoy it and even was able to anticipate what his actions would be by the end of our ride.)

So T, A and I saddled up and rode around the fields at the horse barn. I had been told that there were places to ride around our boarding barn but I never knew where. Well, now I do and E and I will have to take a little trip down those paths one day soon - she'll love it!

After the ride, I cleaned Curly's hoof, doused it with Betadine and then sealed it up with Kopertox. We leave for a week long trip today, so the barn manager will keep an eye on him, but we both think that he's going to be fine.