Annagain
Well-Known Member
Took Arch the vet last night. Luckily the vet's yard is only about 1/2 a mile from us so easy to get to despite being late out of work and stuck in awful traffic. Loaded him up, and off we went. Vet was dealing with someone else so left him on the trailer for a bit and spent 5 minutes watching some acquaintances from the yard across the road who had hired the arena and then got him off to take his boots off. People in the arena left and we had a brief chat on the way out. This was long enough for Archie to believe they were best mates so he got a bit twitchy when he realised he was on his own. He pulled back, and broke the bailing twine so I grabbed him and tied him to the other side.
I thought it would be wise to go and close the gate just in case. I was half way to the gate when all of a sudden I heard a big twanging noise and this giant white thing went flying past me, out onto the road and disappeared off into the distance. I had no chance of catching up with him and knew he'd head for home so I ran back, jumped in my car to go and get him. I was just praying he'd manage to avoid the cars. Luckily, that bit of road is quite straight so they would have seen him coming, I was just hoping they'd be able to stop in time as they go so fast on it. I knew once he was off the main road and onto our lane he'd be safe so I was very relieved when I pulled out of the vet's to see him over the hedge trotting nonchalantly up the hill.
The people from the yard across the road were fab. Two were still mounted so went after him, the other two got in their car and followed too. As I approached the yard one of them had caught him and he was grazing on the verge quite happily. I didn't know whether to hug him or hit him. He wasn't best pleased at being stuck straight back on the trailer.
Got back to the vet, *shut the gate*, got him off and started our appointment. Trotted him up, and then vet wanted to lunge him on the hard surface in the car park. Every single time he was facing the gate he'd tank off towards it, dragging me behind him. I thought he was going to jump it at one point. We did manage to lunge for long enough to see he's actually lame on both front feet, not the back as I thought. He was totally sound in a straight line and on a soft surface so vet said he's ok to go to camp next week. He's had wedges on his front feet for years due to dodgy foot conformation but we removed them in October to treat an abcess and he seemed to be doing ok without them so we left them off. It seems that wasn't the best move so he's going to have them back on asap and he has a course of bute.
Quite relieved it's the recurrence of an old problem rather than something new. I still can't believe he behaved like he did. I haven't seen him this morning as I was in work early but my friend texted to say he's much brighter already, has had a huge roll and was trying to play with all the other horses so I suppose all's well that ends well.
I thought it would be wise to go and close the gate just in case. I was half way to the gate when all of a sudden I heard a big twanging noise and this giant white thing went flying past me, out onto the road and disappeared off into the distance. I had no chance of catching up with him and knew he'd head for home so I ran back, jumped in my car to go and get him. I was just praying he'd manage to avoid the cars. Luckily, that bit of road is quite straight so they would have seen him coming, I was just hoping they'd be able to stop in time as they go so fast on it. I knew once he was off the main road and onto our lane he'd be safe so I was very relieved when I pulled out of the vet's to see him over the hedge trotting nonchalantly up the hill.
The people from the yard across the road were fab. Two were still mounted so went after him, the other two got in their car and followed too. As I approached the yard one of them had caught him and he was grazing on the verge quite happily. I didn't know whether to hug him or hit him. He wasn't best pleased at being stuck straight back on the trailer.
Got back to the vet, *shut the gate*, got him off and started our appointment. Trotted him up, and then vet wanted to lunge him on the hard surface in the car park. Every single time he was facing the gate he'd tank off towards it, dragging me behind him. I thought he was going to jump it at one point. We did manage to lunge for long enough to see he's actually lame on both front feet, not the back as I thought. He was totally sound in a straight line and on a soft surface so vet said he's ok to go to camp next week. He's had wedges on his front feet for years due to dodgy foot conformation but we removed them in October to treat an abcess and he seemed to be doing ok without them so we left them off. It seems that wasn't the best move so he's going to have them back on asap and he has a course of bute.
Quite relieved it's the recurrence of an old problem rather than something new. I still can't believe he behaved like he did. I haven't seen him this morning as I was in work early but my friend texted to say he's much brighter already, has had a huge roll and was trying to play with all the other horses so I suppose all's well that ends well.
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