Grounded

I went to the barn Wednesday last week all happy and excited thinking that Katai would finally be comfortable and ready for a nice stretchy workout. Unfortunately that was not the case. Based on the timeline I constructed in my head, after a major internal freak out that my pony was never going to be sound, I think that this is what happened.  

January 22^nd – Pony gets a massage where someone pokes at her back and makes it angry (which will eventually be a good thing)

February 2^nd – Pony gets her hooves trimmed and chiropractic. More poking at her back, plus her right shoulder, plus her left hind so now lots of angry (will also eventually be a good thing)

February 3^rd – Hand walking day, pony is footsore on concrete from her trim (normal) and stiff

February 4^th – Hand walking day, pony is footsore on concrete from her trim (normal) and stiff

February 5^th – Hand walking day, pony is footsore on concrete from her trim (normal) – Five ladies from the barn are watching Katai be footsore on concrete which makes me feel like a bad horse owner. I go to the local farm supply store and buy Magic cushion, put diaper/duct tape booties on all four feet and feel better because I did something about it. Still stiff

February 6^th – I don’t go to the barn to give Katai a chance to heal

February 7^th – Pony looks pretty dang sound. Barn worker had removed the remainders of booties (thank goodness for amazing barn workers) so I rode her at a walk for 15-20 minutes. Less stiff!!

February 8^th – Pony had the day off

February 9^th – Pony is dead lame on concrete (not normal). I feel like a bad horse owner and wrap both front feet in booties (her normal sore feet). On the drive home I remember that on the 7^th barn worker told me that Katai was doing a lot of bucking and bouncing in turnout. On the hard, frozen ground it doesn’t surprise me that she bruised her feet. Less stiff and her back feels great!

February 10^th – Hoping that the magic cushion worked again I drove out to the barn hopeful that I’d be able to ride at a walk again. Nope, pony is dead lame on concrete again. I checked to make sure that it’s her feet (it is, as soon as she’s in the cushy arena footing she’s fine and on the more firm arena footing she’s tender) and feel like an idiot because it’s clearly her back feet. I wrap her back feet this time in magic cushion booties and cross my fingers.

Fast forward to today and unfortunately although she's been getting better she's still been sore. Yesterday I hauled ass to get to the barn by 4:00, leaving work early and dealing with rush hour traffic, to meet my trimmer to look her over. After agreeing with my prognosis (she was as surprised as me that it was Katai's back feet) the trimmer fitted her for boots. I'm going to go ahead and just get her boots for all four so that I don't have to deal with this again, hopefully, anytime soon.

It sounds like the boots should be here next week sometime while I'm out of town and I'm not holding out much hope that Katai will be ride-able this week before I leave. Depending on how she is feeling on Friday and Saturday I may still see if L can ride her but if not, I'll just have to hope that one week of consistent riding will be enough before I ride in the clinic on 3/7 and 3/8.