Pick one, damnit

So, now Ernie is not lame. Now Stella is lame.

W.T.*

Seriously. Ernie went from three-legged, end of the world lame to almost 100% sound in 3 days. Now, he's in a psycho-fruitcake state where he's hyper-alert to everything and trotting around like he's 2.

And now Stella is a very odd sort of off. Not the same obvious, very painful off Ernie was, but definitely has a distinct hitch when she moves off her RF.

This is the foot that she tends to point. I've chalked this up to habit: she has none of the symptoms of navicular nor is she appearing laminitic. She doesn't test positive with hoof testers, she's not hot or swollen anywhere, but when she moves the reach through her shoulder and the stride itself is not as free or floaty as it usually is. Donnie didn't see it today when I was working her, but I knew something was off. On the crossties, she refused equal out her weight on both front feet: she kept most of the weight on her LF and would let her foot *almost* float above the ground. There was little weight on the heel, and most of the time the leg was either very far out in front, off wide, or behind the other. A few times she stood with her foot cocked, as a resting horse would cock a hind foot.

What to do, I don't know. I have a feeling it may be muscular tightness in the shoulder somewhere, so I may have to do some picking and massage her to see if I can find something. She doesn't have ANY symptoms of a coffin bone issue. The only thing I found on her leg was a very distinct, hard lump on the outside of the cannon bone, and it was cold and formed. Not too worried about it.

Honestly, in my head all I was thinking was "YOU'RE 4, DAMNIT. WHYWHYWHY!?!?"