Sunday Morning In January

Big Art at left stuck on his lead rope in 15 degree weather post workout in the Astride paddock a couple of days ago. 60 degrees today and then buckets of rain coming in from California tomorrow.

Resumed tack work with Art last nigh, Marking it: January 25, after about 10 minutes riderless slow gallop work. We continue to be excited by this Seabiscuit lookalike.

With the other horse, the two year old Y, who I'll have to name in the next two days or else pay the Jockey Club for the privilege, the news was less well. I'd thought last night that Murphy's Law had struck again. Couple of days ago this horse was limping badly with apparent abscess on left front. But, I noted last post that I'd never had an abscess develop on frozen ground. A mystery.

Sure enough, after the requisite 48 hours passed to permit the abscess to migrate to where it could be located, when Nob removed the shoe last night the hoof testers showed soreness in every part of the sole and in particular on the frog. WTF was my thought process as my brain was putting two and two together. Soreness over the whole hoof is something other than an abscess. Given severeness of the limping I was fearing "coffin bone fracture".

The horse on Monday had had a brilliant little 3f sprint over the snow and grass. He must have hit a hard spot and pounded that hoof. Coffin bone fracture by the vet manual is 6 to 12 months off. Or, maybe just severe bruise. I was quite concerned. So, 2 grams bute, rubber boot with Epsom Salt paste, and barn confinement on soft ground.

Then, as I go out to feed this morning, after Y spent the night in the lower barn, whoops, I see Y through the window dash from one end of the barn to the other. What happened to the limp? And, looking at him, he's putting full weight on the leg. Wow. Conclude, either the Epsom paste had drained an abscess, or the bute resolved the swelling. Hopefully, false alarm on the fracture and we should know the outcome in a day or so.