The June Horse Update (Summer)

Carrie's restarted Boomer as I mentioned. 

I'm still helping out with photos...

...and moral support. 

We had a new person enter the scene, too.

Taylor posted online that she was looking to get back into riding. Carrie reached out and the two talked. Then Taylor came out to try out Boomer (while Carrie watched to evaluate her).

Taylor (and Carrie) liked what they saw and hashed out a plan. Taylor would come a couple of times to a week to ride Boomer. It was a win-win situation. Taylor had a horse she can ride for free. We had someone to help work Boomer back into shape for free (I'm always a proponent of widening Carrie's social circle, too!).

It was working well. Between the diet and the exercise, Boomer lost a little chonk and Carrie was more confident with him under saddle.

The plan hit a snag, though. Boomer went lame on the 22nd. I spotted it. He took work to make walk when it was meal time and he's a food motivated guy. He seemed to be favoring one of his front legs heavily, too, so I texted Carrie. She was at work and based on my description she asked for some video clips.

Carrie didn't like what she saw. She called the vet, told her boss she couldn't stay, and came straight home. A three-legged horse isn't enjoying things, but a three-legged fat horse has even less fun.

Nothing was clear, but everyone's best guess was an abscess. We had a week of almost constant rain the week before and Moron Horse kept peeing in his shelter (and he peed a lake). 

Boomer was put on stall rest and made an extra mess of things for weeks.  

Nobody could ride Boomer, so Taylor stopped coming in the interim. Carrie went into treatment mode and started soaking Boomer's hoof regularly.

He was good about it all things considered (Some horses can be real brats).

Apparently, diapers are one of the best things for wrapping a hoof while trying to get an abscess to drain.

I left to go to BLAST while Boomer was still being treated and that caused a lot of stress (More on that later). The abscess never popped in a spectacular or obvious way. The vet wondered aloud if it was a migrating abscess. The only way to know for sure would be to order a bunch of new tests that cost cash and the treatment plan wouldn't change even if it got identified, so we stayed the course. 

Carrie wondered if we'd lost Taylor as an exercise rider, for a while. Taylor came out once while Boomer was still out of commission. I can tell you now that it worked out (as of halfway through July), but we were wondering for a bit.

Boomer loomed large most of the month. Everypony else was doing well. 

I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere else on the blog, but Jess bought Felix from us back in April.

Fifi went for $1. The main changes were that Jess wanted to changed Felix's name to Spud and she contributes a little extra each month for his board (He's a super low maintenance guy and Jess already pays for Indy, so Carrie gave her a minimum rate). 

Carrie had been hoping to find a home for Felix/Spud down the road. Indy's an old man and Carrie hoped that one day Spud might become a good option for Jess. Jess loved the idea and jumped on it right away! She's been spending baby time with Spud whenever she's dropped by since.