Resting along

I would’ve said chugging along but we’re not even doing anything so is it really chugging? lol Also, I’d like to thank everyone so much for sending us good thoughts and get wells! I really appreciate it!

Amber is doing well. I was able to take her sutures out pretty well and easily. Only one on her knee was a little tough and it bled a bit so I bandaged it up for 2 days just to be sure. It looks really good now and unless anything changes I’m leaving the bandage off but just with lots of silver spray since that seems to help keep flies at bay. Her stifle ones were pretty easy to get out – the inside one is still puckered – it doesn’t appear swollen or sensitive to the touch. I think it was just the way the sutures were that caused the skin to pucker a bit but that too has a lot of silver spray on it.

She scared us a little bit one morning around 4 am – we’re thinking she tried laying down on her right side and just had trouble getting up. Pretty similar to how I think she hurt her left leg in the first place but she didn’t seem any worse for the wear. Coincidentally, the next night/morning we could tell she was back to sleeping on her left side because of all the shavings on her. Girl really loves her soft bedding and I can’t blame her lol.

Her left hind is still just a little swollen around her fetlock mostly. It really doesn’t feel hot, and I think it’s also because she’s stalled and so the leg is stocking up. Since the swelling seemed a little bigger Tuesday night than the others, I bandaged it again with the combi wrap and a relatively tight polo to see if that helps. While the rope makeshift-stall guard has loosened with her being eager to scratch on something, she remains okay with being stalled. She hasn’t become destructive so I’m glad of that. But I know both she and I will be happier once she can access her run come Sunday, and I think once she has that area the swelling will go down again. She’ll have a bigger place to sleep, a softer place to lay down and snooze, and some space to wander a bit.

Whisper has been doing well. We’ve had some good rides with lots of good progress. She just needs confidence in the fact that she can turn away from the rail on the right lead, and that it’s much easier when one is utilizing the butt lol. She really doesn’t WANT to use her butt but what is new right? We all work to get those hind legs engaged! Either way she has been really good, and we’ve been testing her fitness by having her canter a lot. Most of the work that we need to finesse now is at the canter, so now that she’s gotten fitter I can now actually ask her to do things longer and carefully go just that little extra. She always gets lots of breaks and pats, and she’s not sure this loping thing is really needed, but I’m super pleased with how her brain has been coming along through this. She’s getting a lot more confident in me again too that while I’ll push her out of her comfort zone a lot more than I have been, I’ll always be there to try to help her out and give her praise, and I’ll never ask for something I haven’t previously built upon. Little steps, and a lot more state of mind than physical, but I’m just so pleased that she’s not even getting anticipatory about things. She’s waiting for me to ask her for a gait or gait change, and I’m just glad she’s responding so well.

Other than really starting to get further with Whisper for our fall/winter show series, it’s been quiet (as usual) and pretty boring (as usual) as Amber heals and I’m busy with non-horsey things (as usual) so it’s been interesting juggling all of this. You’d think once your horse is down for the count for a while you would have more free time – not in my case lol. But dachshund snuggles are always the best, so here’s some pics of Choco to end this post lol.