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.

Reconditioning

E had her first riding lesson in months yesterday but about 20 minutes into it we decided that Curly was just too pooped to continue. The boy is way out of shape! Prior to the lesson, E had spent approximately 15 minutes in the round pen with him, doing some ground work and making sure he was ready to attend to her. And then he had about a 30 minute break...but he still just wasn't feeling up to doing much more than a walk after that first 20 of the actual lesson.

It's very obvious that he's had a relaxing past 6 months of doing nothing but being pretty while he healed from his various injuries! And he hadn't been in top shape when we gave him the time off to begin with.

Reconditioning is a top priority now.

Good thing the trail ride on Friday will be done at a sedate walk. :-)