Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts

December 17, 2018

Fat Leg

I got out to the barn Saturday morning to find that Connor had a fat leg.  No definition on the medial side of the left fore from the bottom of the knee to the bottom of the fetlock.


I wouldn't say a fat leg is ever normal, but it's especially unusual for Connor, who just does not get hurt.  The same quality that caused him to fail as an XC horse (off the charts levels of self-preservation) also causes him to avoid injury situations, or at least that's my theory.  In 7 years, this is his first fat leg.

(Connor's entire injury list: August 2015 (minor scrape), July 2017 (random swelling at girth - bugs?), September 2017 (minor scrape), March 2018 (splint, no lameness)).


There's a small superficial abrasion, just hair taken off, which you can see (sort of) in the above photo.  It probably would've been something minor, but they've been in for two days due to rain, so I'm sure injury + standing around a lot more than usual = fat leg.

Still got them racehorse wrapping skills

He's not at all lame, but I could tell he was uncomfortable on the lunge line on Sunday morning, when it hadn't really changed from the day before.  It was subtle, he's so stoic, but I could tell from his facial expression and just a subtle change in the way he moved that he wasn't feeling his best. 

Side note, the Equisense's horse management features are awesome.  Usually I just use it to record his trims, but it will be good for historical injury reference too.

Fingers crossed that it goes down quickly and we can get back to riding, since I don't have any travel at all scheduled for the next two weeks!
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March 19, 2018

Splint?!

Any Welsh Cob owner is familiar with "is it hair or is it a splint?" all winter long. 

Pretty impossible to see anything under those feathers, so you get very used to running your hands down legs every day.
On Sunday, I didn't see anything, but when I ran my hand down his leg like usual, I felt something.

The world's tiniest splint
This is completely mystifying to me.  I didn't feel it the day before, or any other day, although I won't rule out missing something that small before his feathers started shedding out.  He's never taken a lame step.  It's hard and cold and doesn't palpate sore in the least.  Maybe it was caused by turnout shenanigans?

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter since he's not lame on it, but for a horse that never gets injured, it's surprising and makes me feel like I should have prevented it somehow - even though I know splints just happen.
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September 19, 2017

No Mares for Connor

My trainer moved her horses and gear to the new barn a few weeks ago.  You know when you introduce a new horse to a facility/field and everything is bananas for a little while?  

Take a group of three horses that hasn't changed in years,  add two (Connor and Z), wait a few months, subtract two (the two retirees that moved to another facility owned by the BOs), then move six new horses from their old barn to a new barn all at once.  IT. WAS. CRAZY.

Fellow boarder, me and my trainer looking on at the Labor Day cookout we had at the barn while our horses ran around like idiots.

This is how we found out my sweet, go-with-the-flow pony who is legendary for his ability to not give a damn who he's turned out with or where he's turned out cannot be turned out with mares.  They were fine in a mixed group of 4 geldings and 1 mare for several days, then all of a sudden he decided (16.2hh...) N was HIS, and the poor appendix they're turned out with was not allowed to get close to her (all the other geldings were cool though).

He ran the poor guy around and snaked his neck and pinned his ears and I've never seen him even so much as pin his ears at another horse before, so I was pretty stunned.

He's sexy and he knows it?

It was such a surprise to all of us that Connor of all horses would act like that, but some geldings are just like that.  So, single gender turnout for the little guy from now on!

But it took us a while to catch them all that day because they were galloping around the big field like carousel horses.  By the time we did ,Connor had earned himself a very deserved teeth scrape down his spine that's mostly healed by now, and thankfully was right in the center of my saddle's gullet so no time off.




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July 5, 2017

WW: It's Getting Smaller! And Show Prep



Socks: white.  Feathers. :(



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July 4, 2017

Hematoma

Well, I thought I'd be writing a different post today, but instead I'm writing about this:

Sweat scraper for scale

Sometime between Sunday evening and Monday evening, Connor developed a huge hematoma in the girth area behind his left elbow.  His very first injury of any kind, three days before the biggest show we've ever done.  Of course.


I went around and around with Mary trying to figure out what it could be.  No bug bite, no heat, did not palpate sore, no changes in tack or girth, my tack is cleaned or wiped down after every ride.  He's sound as could be, as evidenced by this:

A post shared by Jenifer Slabaugh (@j_alean) on

We finally decided it's likely a pressure sore from laying down, which we know he does often.  The stalls aren't bedded very deeply at the new barn, and the side of his left hoof almost perfectly lines up with the middle of the lump.

His hoof had slipped out of my hand here, but you can see what I mean.
So I cold hosed it, ran him around in the outdoor a bit, cold hosed it again, cleaned his stall and added a ton of sawdust (also leaving a note explaining and offering to pay for additional sawdust even though I know they won't let me pay extra, because I'm not going to be that boarder).  Hopefully it goes down quickly.  I would be devastated if this kept us from going to Pony Cup.


(The one awesome thing about this: I live close enough to cold hose him myself now!  It's the little things.)
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August 25, 2015

Quad-Annual Welsh Cob Injury Post

One of the reasons you should buy a Welsh Cob is that they make up for their purchase price in a lack of vet (and farrier, for that matter) bills over their lifetime.  I think it's the (at times annoyingly) strong sense of self-preservation.

Anyway, I've owned Connor almost four years and Sunday we had our first injury!  Feel free to punch me, because you can hardly call it that.

From pastern to stifle


It looks like...I have no idea.  I think the fence was involved, because there's white paint on the inside of the right hind hoof:

Maybe he slid underneath the fence all the way to his stifle?  I couldn't see any signs of a struggle in the paddock.  Remember, he's on solo turnout because otherwise he's impossible to catch, so whatever it was is self-inflicted.  He doesn't even share a fenceline with anyone.

One way or another, he's fine, he just scraped the skin with the exception of the one spot on his pastern, above.


CARNAGE!

The leg was swollen, so I cold hosed and put TriCare on it, then threw him on the lunge line to make absolutely sure he was sound before I got on him.


Uh....yep.  Survey says: sound.

When he got done with that, the leg was still warm but the swelling had gone down.  Success.

Not yet cool, but tight.

Thus concludes the quad-annual Welsh Cob injury post.  You may continue with your daily lives now.
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