The road to recovery we always hope is a short jog down a smooth, well groomed path. I have been very lucky (knock on wood) that in the course of owning my pony, he has not had many major injuries. He IS accident prone, but normally a few stitches or a couple days of rest (which he gets ample enough as it is) do the trick. We have had the oddball emergency vet visits, but overall, I cannot complain, nor do I.
This last injury (the cut on his leg and the cut to the bottom of his foot with the resulting abscess) has probably been the most major injury in the aspect of it affecting anything (mainly the use of my pony!). These last 8 weeks have just sucked. I kept wondering if the injury was worse than we thought and why the healing was not going any faster. The initial recovery time was supposed to be no more than 4 weeks. When there isn't any visible progress and your horse is still limping around the field, you definitely begin to wonder if anything else is going on. I tried not to worry and despite having complete trust in my vet (and horse caretaker), I did worry. At week seven, when nothing seemed to be making progress, I really started worrying - would I ever have a sound horse? I almost convinced myself there was something worse going on.
I am cautiously happy, however, because it appears that Sniper's foot has finally healed! After a hoof trim and some time for his feet to harden up and the sores from his foot being wrapped heal, I can go ahead and ride him again. :)
So what have I learned from this experience:
To not tempt Murphy with the "I have nevers". Just weeks prior, I made the mistake of telling a fellow barn mate that I had never before dealt with an abscess with Snipes. I KNOW better than to make those sort of statements!
I reaffirmed that I board at the best place ever. And that the barn owner gives more to her boarders than we could ever imagine.
I completely verified that my horse is mouthy and a beaver and a stubborn brat and a sweetheart. He dealt, while not in the best way, with getting shoes put on his ouchy foot from an unfamiliar person in a very unfamiliar place (garage) on a very windy, rainy day. He destroyed a fair number of foot wrappings and Easy Boots. But by the end - how many horses allow someone to doctor their foot with no halter on?
And while riding one of the barn owner's horses last weekend, my first time in the saddle in nearly two months, and listening to my instructor tell about other students' horse's injuries... Well, I'll just leave that one alone!
*knocks on wood just for good measure*
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