The sign of a happy woman

This weekend Rick gave the okay to start hand-walking Russell again. But after stacking six tons of local grass hay in the barn yesterday afternoon/evening and doing chores, my knees were too achy to face it. Rick told me to get on, and he watched how Russell moved. The verdict? He is moving normally, so I can RIDE Russell for his short daily constitutional!

Onward and forward (at a slow walk, loose rein :-)

I've grown accustomed to his face...

Wednesday Rick ultrasounded Russell to see how he is healing. He showed me the normal right tuber coxae images he took right after Russell's injury, and then showed me how his left looks now. The fracture is easy to see even for me, but also visible is some calcification in the void. It is healing. Of course, I assumed as much by how comfortable Russell is acting. When I take him out to hand-graze him I am really hand-walking him, because I criss-cross the pasture looking for and pulling up thistles. He moves freely and comfortably, and seems none the worse later for the activity.

Rick continues to think it likely that Russell will be able to be someone's trail horse when all is said and done. Whose, I don't know. My head says, "Not mine. I can't use 'just a trail horse,' because I can't go on trail rides. With Brian here and not wanting to ride, I am restricted to our home arena. That's perfect for schooling, but boring if you can't do more than walk and jog around and around." But my heart hears Higgins' voice, and I can't deny how much I like this horse. This horse. "I've grown accustomed to his face...."

Multi-tasking

Hand-grazing Russell:

Pulling thistles:

Enjoying beauty:

Recovery road

This afternoon Rick wanted to get the other three horses out on pasture for a little while before the rain starts again tonight, so I haltered Russell to keep him from moving around too much and led him out for some grazing as well.
Things were tense at first; he was being a bit of a horse kite until he realized he wasn't going to be separated from his buddies and he was going to get to stuff his face. No evidence of discomfort, even though I cut his banamine dose in half again this morning. If he stays comfortable at the 250 lb. dose, we'll wean him off completely in a few days. I think that's pretty fantastic, considering it's been less than two weeks since his wreck.

Happy horse, happy owner. Praise God for answered prayers! :-)

Progress report

Russell continues to be stable on (reduced) twice-daily banamine and a morning dose of GastroGard for safe measure. By last weekend we had opened access to his covered paddock again; it has a threshold and step-down, so we didn't want him attempting that when he was still unstable. The swelling in both hind legs is gone, and he feels good enough now that when he sees me coming with the tubes of medication, he heads for his paddock to avoid me. :-) His gait in the left hind leg is slightly different; he's learned to compensate for the muscles attached to the broken portion of his tuber coxae. You can also see a subtle difference between his two "hips" if you know where to look; evidence of the broken bone. But it's not the noticeable "dropped hip" you see when the entire TC has fractured off.

Yesterday morning while doing chores I noticed a new development; he had developed a fluid pocket that looked at first glance like a second sheath!

Rick said it's probably a seroma; no big deal. His body will resorb the fluid eventually.