Recovery - Less than 2 Weeks

Back at the barn, stall rest lasted 2.5 days. Yes, you read it right two and one half days! Spyder was just plain miserable being confined to a stall even with other horses on reverse turnout in with him. He was pacing, ramming into his gate, using the walls to try to rub off his leg wraps, chewing wood, licking metal, and rearing when people would go by to say, "hey, get me out of here!" Day 2, I saw that his door was closed instead of the gate allowing him to reach out, and those are the reasons why. Oh, and he would go down/lay down/roll after rearing to get attention. So now what? This jail sentence was going to causes Spyder to get more hurt, colic, and potentially go crazy (more than he already was).


The first day of hand walking went just fine, but he could not stand still on the cross ties to get wrapped. He couldn't stand in his stall to get wrapped, even with hay. He decided not to eat hay and instead, just pace in his stall until someone did something making a mess of his hay. He was becoming a danger to himself and others that have to deal with him. Day 2 of hand walking, he decided to rear in the barn while on the lead. Well, that was a first! I decided to pretend like it didn't happen after punishment with the chain (yes, I resorted to the chain) so I wouldn't get myself worked up or scared that he'd do it again. It was day 2.5 (my lunch break) that I decided this was it. He wouldn't stop acting up, and it was time to put him out.

He hates me. Haha

He went out to the round pen, and don't you know, there were ponies in for weekly board while the owner was on vacation. They were all worked up and galloping in the field which got Spyder going. Rearing, squealing, trotting, tail up, fire breathing, STOP! He was going to hurt himself even more, but I thought maybe he just needed to get that out of his system. Since then, things have been a lot better. There haven't been stories of "your horse did this bad thing... or that..." I'm glad I haven't been hearing anything because I couldn't watch him let loose in the round pen or drive himself up a wall, literally. Sure, stall rest and hand walking are important, but his sanity, health, and safety of others is more important. I'll sacrifice a few extra months of board payments while not riding if he will keep his cool.

Back to the vet thing. The local vet seems to think something is missed. What if his shoulder is really hurt? What if I didn't ask enough questions or have them look into things more? Could it just be the check ligament?  What if he doesn't heal? What happens if I can't ride him? I'm trying to take things day by day, and the next ultrasound can't come soon enough. I want to see progress because I don't want to think about the worst. I feel awful, terrible. I haven't been dealing with this well, and I regret not doing right by him. But did I? I didn't know any better because I didn't have a diagnosis, and he wasn't always inflamed. I feel guilty, I feel sorry for myself (and Spyder, of course), and I feel scared. I did send everything over to another vet to take a look, but I haven't heard back from them. The local vet hasn't told me what to do otherwise, and I haven't heard from her since the questioning (which is 2 weeks today). I'm assuming no phone call was put in, and I'll continue down the path of rest and slowly work up exercise as I've been told.

In the mean time, I need to find saddle time. I have thought of lessons again just to keep moving and keep in the spirit since I'm out at the farm every day as it is. I did have the chance to do a trail ride on an Arabian with endurance experience, and that was a blast! If anyone has ideas/suggestions for staying in shape that doesn't involve riding (since the opportunities seem limited), let me know!