Are you calling me an idiopath?!

Driving back and forth to the barn is rather exhausting; despite the fact I’m a little closer right now then usual. Somehow, when one is travelling three times a day to a place, suddenly even 15 minutes feels like a long time. I suppose in all, that’s an hour and a half of driving a day.

The results of all this driving and cold hosing? Dunno. I can’t honestly say I see much difference at all, despite the ice packs, cold hosing and poulticing. But it also isn’t looking any worse, and he doesn’t seem sore at a walk, he lifts all feet just fine, he doesn’t mind it being poked or prodded, and he isn’t standing funny. Yesterday, his right hind ankle didn’t seem to have much more heat then any others, so I’m beginning to wonder how much ‘heat’ is in my head.

Detecting heat, imo is VERY hard. The longer your hand is there, the hotter it gets by just body heat. I’ve compared ankles a few times, and really don’t know what to make of it.

I had him looked at, and without ultrasound (not many doing that in my area, and the costs just sky-rocket to get them in), the belief is that we’re looking at an “idiopathic tenosynovitis of the digital extensor tendon”. Yes, I had to write that down! That’s not a 100% guarantee that it’s what we’re looking at, it’s the best guess I’m going to get. Seems to fit with my gut feeling of something like a windpuff, ie. Fluid in a tendon sheath.

Injection is an option, however apparently it just makes it visually disappear for a bit and then it can just show up again. Seems kinda pointless and I’ve already shelled over enough $$ to the veterinary world for the moment.

So right now, I just need to keep icing, limiting his exercise (but apparently some movement is okay and keeps circulation to the area…which is good since I haven’t anywhere to restrict movement), as well as poulticing or sweating. Not bad marching orders really. He’ll be kept to walking until at least Friday, when he can be reevaluated for lameness at a trot. Which means no riding lesson this week. : ( And it also means no more riding around in our hard lumpy arena at home.

How many more days till the move? 28!

If nothing else, I’ve come to appreciate my partnership with Moon more then ever. He is, a total snuggle bug. And completely trust worthy.

Take yesterday for example. I spent ½ an hour holding icepacks to his legs while he grazed. The flies were buzzing, the other horses were charging around, and he just stood there chewing. Sometimes he’d take a step or two forward. He never used his hind legs to kick at the flies. He was just calm.

Then when I went to cold hose him, I again, didn’t have a lead line on him, and when I first sprayed him, he got scared and bolted. 5 steps. Then stopped and looked at me. “Whoa! What was that, Sand?!” he seemed to be asking, and waited for me to bring him back over to the hose. The second time, no longer surprised, he stood quietly while I hosed him down, not even having to hold him in anyway.

I’ve found myself climbing under his belly. Standing behind his bum. Doing all sorts of things that really illustrate to me how much I trust this guy. And with all the crazy things he’s let me do, I can see that he too trusts me. Whether it’s meeting spooky saddles or wearing all kinds of crazy things, swinging leads ropes and plastic bags all over him, he’s just a good solid dependable horse.

Now we just need to get him back to 100% so we can continue building our relationship in the saddle…

Oh, and one more thing to shop for…horse boots. Unfortunately the Size 3 Cavallo’s I borrowed don’t fit Moon once his feet have been trimmed (they didn’t fit before, but his flares sort of held them in place), so I need my own pair. I can’t seem to find any used (or used for less cost then new), so I’m thinking I’ll capitalize on Cavallo’s current sale and buy him a pair of red ones from them ($99 on sale, choice of red or purple leather). I really do think that the hoof boots helped him out in the arena, even though he didn’t really have any sole bruising.

Always something to spend money on right?

Oh, speaking of spending money…my BRAND NEW $30 no-bows were ripped and partially melted in the washing machine on the weekend. : ( Just two days after I bought them! They’re salvageable with some patching, but it still makes me sad.

And better yet, the clip that holds the battery and card cover closed on my digital camera closed broke off, and it no longer functions to take pictures without shouting errors at me. Add to that, because it happened while processing, it seems to have destroyed my camera card. And the most recent pictures I took on it.

Oye.

I also borrowed a friend’s medium-wide gullet plate to change my saddle over, since apparently this is the correct size for Moon…and when I compared it to the medium gullet of my Blackburn saddle…discovered they are the same size! Which means it’s not the gullet size that’s the problem, it’s likely that it keeps riding forward on him. But with the boots, the diagnosis and treatment of his recent injuries, the soon-to-be move to a more expensive facility, a $1000 tuition for a course I’m taking this fall, plus all the gas I’ve spent driving back and forth, I don’t think I’ll be able to get a new saddle or even a saddle fitting, anytime soon. : ( I’m hoping the sheepskin pad helps a bit, but next goal: Rick Payne saddle fit. Guess everyone in the family just won’t get Christmas gifts this year. : P

The only good news of the weekend is that my sheepskin saddle pad and shipping boots should be put in the mail this week. Hopefully. And the fact we’re 28 days from an indoor sand arena…