Sore little tootsies

Nothing like a vet visit to use up all my annual leave. I made the most of my morning off by riding Coolie, who was a good boy (after I gave him food!) before Henry and I headed off to visit the vet.

For once the lights on the drive there were in my favour and I had a run of greens! We were early with our good drive in and Henry unloaded quietly and spent some time not grazing, just sniffing the ground like a weirdo (with a beardo!) while we waited for the vet.

Beardy weirdy!

The vet and I had a chat about what had been happening and he examined Henry's legs, I trotted him out and he was lunged. Definitely sore on the near fore, way worse on a circle. The vet could find a digital pulse and said he thought it would be an easy fix.

Henry was quite reactive to the hoof testers and we took his shoe off to reveal an abscess. The vet dug it out a bit to Henry's horror, and we were sent home with instructions to come back in a few days to check the progress and he can have his shoe back on come the weekend. 

So I now have a horse who is very crippled because he only has 3 shoes on, as soon as he stepped into the paddock he started mincing along. Poor boy! Luckily he will be right as rain and it was nothing worse. 

I was pretty pleased with how well Henry handled the vet experience, he was patient, calm, and well behaved, even when getting his sore bits poked and prodded. He walked into the scary barn giving exactly 0 fucks, and Coolie always snorts and hesitates going in there!