Bad day, Better day, New day

Friday evening it seemed that Shorty had declined quite a bit. He seemed more neuro in his turns than I have seen in a long time. He was acting lazy which he is normally not, so I am usually very alerted when this happens - something is not right. All we did was walk that day and took video to send to the vet. My thought is that I had created more inflammation in his neck by asking him to flex his nose around each side several times the day before. We're going to stop doing that for now!

Saturday evening he seemed to feel much better! Complete 180 from the day before. I took videos of turns, walk, and canter since he seemed to be doing just fine (and very energetic), and sent all the videos from both days to the vet. The report is that he has improved neurologically, but now is showing soreness in his feet, specifically the heel, so we have to consider what is going on there again. He still has 2 degree wedge pads with bar shoes, and the extra work could have increased inflammation in his feet, but there is no sign of heat in his feet. Actually, he has never seemed to have heat or digital pulse in his feet this whole time.

Of course I am discouraged, but I still cannot fathom just getting "rid" of Shorty. I think I have found a situation that might make me very happy. I have a super athletic and talented 2 y/o pup who I have always wanted to try agility sports with. I think this is the time to try. I believe that in owning horses, the horse either does what you want it to do and you get what you want out of it, or you find it a new home where it will. I think Shorty is worth it to me to change my riding goals. I enjoy riding him for pleasure as he is just so nice to ride, safe, dependable, and if he has an off day, no big deal. I have never really been a casual horse owner, but I am going to try it. In exchange, I will use the money (probably less money actually) for obedience and agility courses, that I was intending to spend on lessons and showing horses. The best thing is, NO BOARD FOR DOGS! :)

I get to keep my horse and casually (vs. obsessively) work on improving and maintaining Shorty, and make new goals with my super athletic dog who is good to go!

I cannot stomach going through anything like this with ANY horse anytime soon. A new, exciting, unfamiliar, unknown horse, who might be perfectly fine upon purchase, could go break a leg or tear something in a blink of an eye during the first months of owning. While I am only able to have ONE horse to depend on right now, it makes me sick just thinking about dealing with this (or a slew of all kinds of other problems horses can possibly have) all over again and all the vet bills, ugh.

This has been a huge part of my welfare and my happiness for years - it has been my driving motivation and if Shorty is not right, I am not right. It has NOT been fun because I wanted it so badly. But I am honestly very excited to try this different direction with the dogs. I hear the agility world is filled with fellow horse people and teachers! How cool is that!? It could be a break for a while, a long time, or forever. Who knows. But who ever knows? I guess we'll have to see.