Shame on me

Poor Flecky.... his wound ended up being MUCH deeper than I thought... and the poor guy is falling apart!!

Kip came Monday morning to put Flecks shoe back on. Poor pony... Kip accidentally quicked him and Fleck held his foot up high and waved it around so we would know. Kip replaced the nail but Fleck was still tender for a bit. Between his cut on the front and the hot nail, he limped off like a 90 year old horse. And while shoeing him, it became apparent that Fleck's little "scratch" was actually a laceration. Ooops...  Only even more oops because I still didn't really do anything about it. I mean, I was keeping it clean and putting goo on it, but I still didn't realize the extent of it. And luckily, because he does have such sensitive skin, I had started him on antibiotics already.

Anyways, I gave him a few hours to recover from the hot nail and then took him for a ride. I was hoping to do some dressage work so we did our ten minutes or warm up and then I asked him to trot. Uh oh... Super lame pony! I couldn't figure out if it was from the hot nail or the laceration. Or both! So we went back to the walk and did our homework from Kelly at the walk. I tried another trot and still lame and then I wanted to do just one canter from the walk to reinforce the "you can go into the left rein and still pick up the canter". And Fleck was game for it, but.. two strides into the canter, he broke to the walk. He said "that hurt! Mommy". So we went back to the walk for a bit and then a short hack. He was happy and sound at the walk, so... we did.

Then after our ride I went to really looking at his wound. YIKES!!!! That really was way deeper than I thought.... Poor guy... Ugh.. So I cleaned it out and put goo on it. No wonder he was lame.

He got a few more days off and I was cleaning and wrapping and gooing galore! Finally on Sunday I had had enough and had to get back on him. I hopped on in the pasture bareback and bridle/halterless and tried to "stacy westfall" it... Ha!! Yeah, not so much. We went in circles. Hee hee. Come on Fleck! I thought we were making progress on seat aids! Apparently not as much as I thought. But he did seem sound at the trot. So I put him in the trailer and hauled him to Ashland. We had a fun relaxing walk hack with Cash and Judy and Fleck felt great. Him and I were both happy to get out. And at the end of the ride I did a few quick circles at the trot and there was only the ever so occasional off step!! YAY!! We even did a quick canter since I couldn't resist. Whoo hooo. The wound still looks pretty bad but he's feeling better, so I'm happy!

Now to just get it to heal before AECs. Seems like it's a trend for us to go to the AEC's with open wounds... his fourth of July laceration.... this..  Although man.. seeing the two photos together.. it actually looks worse, but I think that's just the granulation tissue looking odd. It looks healthier at least. Ordered some equiade to help with the proud flesh that is sure to start up.

Oh, and then while on our first trail ride he developed a big lump from a bug bite. Well, four days later that big lump is now swollen about 5 times the size. Then he got another tick bite on the other side of his neck and that swelled up. Jeeesh... like I said, he's falling apart!

Poor princess.....

Snuggles will make him feel better right?!