Owies

So yesterday I went out and got River, brought him in. Thought about lungeing some, doing some groundwork. As I was bringing him in I noticed he seemed just a little bit--not 100%. He wasn't lame or anything, but it looked like he wasn't stretching out and marching along quite as he usually does.

In the barn, I shortly discovered what it was: A nice scrapy cut on the inside right hock. Ugh. It had swollen a bit but not badly, so I sprayed it with disinfectant stuff and gave him his yums and the day off.

Back out today, I thought I would ride a little bit, just walk, get my baseline for the October 2-Point Challenge. Umm, nope. Cut was looking okay, starting to scab over a bit, but the inside of the hock was still all swollen up like nobody's business and it obviously hurt, because he wouldn't let me touch it without kicking up. Sigh...cold hosed (much to his distaste) and went back and forth about leaving him in vs. turning him out, eventually turned out because I can't see it doing him any good to stay inside; the pasture's dry and Mr. Donkey the Troublemaker has an abscessed foot and is in a separate paddock.

Poor buddy. Will ice it tomorrow and see if it's looking any better; if not I might call and talk to the vet...if it's just a cut there's not much they can do as long as it's not infected, I just hope he didn't hurt some ligament or tendon in there...