At what point in time do I question my ability to properly look after another living being...!? Considering the year I have had with Chester, I would say now, it is almost a daily occurrence. Most people I have spoken with - when I tell them the story of Chester's most recent injury - tell me 'Oh, well, sudden lameness is normally always an abscess.' And give me one of those 'Ican'tbelieveyoudidn'tknowthat' looks. Great. Thanks for making me feel like a good horse owner. There really is so much to learn and when you miss something that is so blatantly obvious (according the the general masses) your confidence in your ability to care for your living being...takes a hit.
Sigh. I guess the positive coming out of Chester's abscess is: He is a million times better today then he was a week ago and I now consider myself to be the best hoof pouliticer-vet-wrapper-duct-tape boot-maker East of Toronto.
He is still not 100%...the abscess burst sometime overnight on Friday...soooo, doesn't that equal immediate pressure relief and he should be a-one-good-to-go?! You would think. There is still some heat (no swelling anywhere) on his coronary band...but it is minimal. There is absolutely NO DRAINAGE anymore. So, why the hell is he still not 100%?! According to DVME: 'Keep poulticing for the next few days until the drainage tract fills in and heals over. He will be sore.' Well, he is definitely sore. I can tell you that much. I am hoping by Friday I won't have to poultice anymore and the drainage tractS (THERE ARE TWO ON EITHER SIDE OF HIS HEEL RIGHT WHERE HIS HEEL MEETS HIS CORONARY...fml) will close up.
Perhaps I have to practice my patience more. Which I should have told myself from the beginning of this whole fiasco...because really, when it all comes back around, this horse (from Day 1) has really tested my patience. I have owned Chester since October, 2009. That is 15 months. Out of the 15 months I have had him, he has been injured, unrideable or rehabbing from an injury for 8 of those months. My first EVER blog entry is bitter sweet. This is what I wrote as my goals for Chester and I on March 17, 2010:
Short Term Goal: 2 or 3 Entry level events, then Pre-Training in 2010, Bromont 3-Day Event Training Level, June 2011
Long Term Goal: Make Chester a confident and happy Prelim horse, complete a couple CCI*s
Stretch Goal: Intermediate (IF and that is a big IF I grow the necessary parts to be able to do that.)
Wow - Amazing how things can change so drastically in such a short amount of time Eh?!
Although we are starting at Pre-Training this May (Ha - I should say we are *hopefully* starting at Pre-Training in May), it would be nice to actually have something go according to plan with this horse....then again, what does everyone say about horses...? "Always make sure you have a Plan B, C, D and more then likely E."
Come ONNNNNN already Chester...we have goals to accomplish!! In the meantime, it is back to lessons in patience.
No comments:
Post a Comment