I have my own horse. I have owned him for 2 years now, and leased him for six months prior to that. I am sure you are asking yourself why I am leasing a horse if I already own one. The answer is simple. My horse is retired now. He wasn’t always that way, just since March 13th of this year. It is really a sad story when I think about it. His name is Gennyral. Pronouced Jenny-Raal.
So my own horse, Gennyral, has a very bad tendon injury. Some day I will come and post all the details, but today is not the day. I have to wrap my horse every night. I have had to wrap my horse every night for the past 10 months. I can count the number of times I have not gone to the barn in the past 10 months on 2 hands. I am not complaining. It was 100% my choice to keep him alive. No one would have blamed me if I had just put him down. I am just trying to explain why I am so bummed out right now.
I talked to my vet last week and he said that most likely my horses tendon was done healing. This was as good as it was going to get. Because it was done he told me that it was okay to stop wrapping the leg. I nearly had a heart attack because it just seemed very sudden. I mean he is basically a normal horse at the moment. He lives in a stall. Goes out all day to play in a big field. Has a pony that goes out with him and loves to play with other horses across the fence. The only way that someone could tell he was still injured is the fact that he has sports medicine boots on his front legs. Most horses go out with no leg protection, especially at my barn, so he does look a little out of place. He runs and bucks and does airs above the ground and his leg seems to be fine.
The reason not wrapping him at night is such a big deal is because I HAVE to do it every night. Which means that my whole life is planned around the fact that I need to be at the barn between 3-5 pm. I have not been up to CT in over a year. I miss seeing my friends. I would love to go on vacation. But I would not feel comfortable going away with my horse in this condition. Hearing that his leg was as good as it was going to get though made me excited for the possibility that I could go back to being a normal horse owner and not one who has an iron umbilical cord between her and her horse.
I left the wraps off on Friday night and came back on Saturday morning to feed and turn out (I also work at the farm where he lives). The leg looked bigger so I got out the good old measuring tape. His leg had grown 2-4 cm 😦 The worst of the swelling was at the bottom. I was hoping that it might just be morning swelling so I turned him out and didn’t measure again until I went to bring in. It was still about 2 cm larger over all. It was a very sad moment for me. I had thought that my horse was finally out of the woods. That he was going to live and that my days of worry are over. Alas the stupid leg will not get better. I am going to keep wrapping him for at least a few more weeks now. I just want to be able to say, “Yes, my horse was very badly injured but he is fine now”. That is all. It is just so frustrating because I LOVE my horse and want him to be all better
A Horse and a Half 