Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I truly hope everyone has a nice warm place and a good meal to enjoy today, preferably with family and friends. I also hope you all have gone out and hugged your horses and treated them to some carrots and a nice warm grain mash. I know I did.

I've driven down the past 3 days to take care of Ernie and Stella. I don't care for the drive, but I do like seeing them and making sure they're all tucked up and with a nice pile of hay. I went out this morning after present-opening at my house and did stalls, water and hayed them, and fed Ernie lunch. His normal grain mash was laced with a few treats, including some apple slices, carrots and a few peppermints (nobody likes bad breath!) Stella also got her share of treats, all of which she gobbled up before stretching her neck over the stall partition and wiggling her lip at me for more. When she wasn't doing that, she was closely monitoring my every move in the hopes of getting more food.



I checked everyone's water (it's 12 degrees in Vermont right now, and hasn't gotten any warmer!) and threw them all a flake of hay. We get to gorge ourselves tonight, why shouldn't our furry friends get to enjoy the festivities, too?

I didn't get to ride much even though I've been down every day, but I did work Ernie just to get the stocking to go down in his legs. Usually, during the wintertime, the swelling in his lower hind legs isn't as bad. My guess is it's due to the cold. He's had it ever since the string of ligament injuries and while it doesn't hurt him, it is a little annoying. Always goes down with work. The other day was the same, without fail.





The right leg (above) is the one the sustained the injury. You can see how different the two legs are (even with the darkness in the picture above). The right fetlock is so much thicker with scar tissue and is riddled with windpuffs. The left isn't so bad.

The amazing thing is that the swelling hasn't returned all that much since then (and I think that was Thursday he got worked)...the cold has been enough to keep it down, and I've upped how much joint supplement he gets so he may be moving a little easier now.