Emma and I had to cancel because she was running late, which, if I hadn't had work, wouldn't have been a problem, but I had to go in at 2 and the lesson was for 12.
So I decided to just groom Amber and hand graze her and see if I could get her to trot a little in the round pen so I could check out her movement.
Immediately I realized that she had contracted the same disgusting fungus that many of the geldings have gotten...something on the clover in the pastures. Not harmful, but the horses salivate buckets. Literally, there are puddles in front of every stall where they just open their mouth and SLOP! Gross...
I hand grazed her for about 15 minutes. She is getting to be a rather large lady and I need to ask Bob to cut her grain a little. So not that she needed any grass...but I thought I'd give her a treat. Then I let her go in the round pen, where she proceeded to flop down in the sand and roll, then, as only she could, actually found a tidbit of grass on the edge of the roundpen to eat, because she's SO starved and all...
I made her trot both ways. To the right first. I got a little hopeful, because she looked pretty good. Then I turned her to the left...very off. Not three-legged lame, but there was head bobbing and she was tip-toeing again. Remember that back in February?
Obviously I'm stressing. I'm going to give it one more week of rest and then she's going to the vet if it hasn't cleared up.
For now, I'll be riding Pumpkin, the Halfinger mare that is Amber's arch enemy. Better not let Amber see me riding her. She's not much on sharing my attention...
How much grass is she getting? Could be a bit of laminitis. Some horses are very much affected by the new, green grass. (Clover included.)
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