Saturday, June 7, 2014

Gina's fat leg

I went down to the barn yesterday with every intention of longeing Gina. I gave her Wednesday and Thursday off, as she felt a little tired when we jumped on Tuesday. She greeted me in the pasture, walking up and snuffling for cookies.

And then I noticed her left hind leg.


It's super fat! I brought her in to poke and prod it. The leg is swollen and hard, with no visible injury or trauma to it. (Just fly bites and a few little scratches she'd had Tuesday- presumably from sticks or twigs that jut out of the undergrowth near the pond.) It has very little heat. I threw her in the round pen and watched her trot for a few minutes- she's totally sound. She grazed placidly while I handled her leg and didn't behave as if it hurt.

I cold hosed it for 10 minutes (during which she continually stomped flies with a front leg, splattering me and the side of the barn with mud) and applied some liniment and kicked her back to the pasture.

I don't know what's wrong with the leg. It's been very rainy all week; maybe she slipped in the mud? Perhaps she bumped it on something? Who knows. I'll be back out this afternoon to check on her before cheering on California Chrome at the Belmont; in the meantime, I guess Princess Pony is on an extended vacation!

1 comment:

Beka Burke said...

I hate mystery puffiness! Don't they know that they aren't allowed to injure themselves unless we're watching, and then it should only be a little, tiny scratch? I freak out whenever Archie has anything swollen.

Here's hoping that it's already healed!

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