Acceptance

Eventually I'll write a tribute post....

but for now.... I've pulled his shoes... he's "retired" and I'm okay with it. He's okay with it.

But oh how I miss him. I miss hanging out with him. Life has gotten so busy it's hard to hang out with my buddy when I'm not showing/competing/lessoning/riding him. Sigh... And that's not cool Life... not cool.

Today we went to Dr. Browns and he hung out while I worked. He's GOOFY!! I miss him.
We ultrasounded him today and I practiced on him. :) But... ultimately it appears that he has torn some of the muscles that insert on that third trochanter and they have calcified fairly significantly. So... he must have torn them fairly bad. Or mildy and then I kept working him??? Who knows. Point is.... he's retired and can do whatever he feels like doing now and that's all he has to do. I don't think it'll hurt him to play and do what he's up for, as long as I"m not pushing, or even really asking. Just allowing. Dr. Brown agreed. And he also said that given some time, he should recover more and more and while he may have a mechanical shortness because of scarring, he may not, and he should be sound. Unless there is some sciatica. In which case... we just play on the good days.

So.... we'll continue to keep him barefoot assuming he's happy enough. We'll continue to do our trail rides and enjoy each others company. If we only walk, so be it. If he wants to trot or canter, then we trot or canter. No expectations, just joy at being together.

And hopefully I can manage to get Life to cooperate and spend more time with him. He was cracking me up today. He was begging at the gate. A woman sat down and had a cracker and crinkled the wrapper. He was trying to put his nose through the gate BEGGING for food. And he didn't stop for at least 10 minutes. Then he spent the next 45 minutes licking the gate. And making faces. :)
Hee hee. Oh how I love him....