I am still recovering from the flu so I haven't kept the list up on this development. We had ice over the weekend, with very hard, frozen ground, with a layer of ice on top - that started late Saturday. Sunday evening when Cary when out to feed, he called from the barn to say that Ima was lame. There's no sign of any cut or scrapes, and her knee was swollen. On my vet's advice, I've been giving her a little bute and keeping her in a stall - one of the stalls that has a tiny paddock attached, so she can walk a little bit. She's definitely getting better, so maybe we'll let her back out with a couple of horses by tomorrow, or at least by next weekend. The ice has melted by now (although we had another tiny ice storm in the interim), but of course, that leaves MUD in place of ice.
We've had a few of these little ailments over the years, where a horse wrenched something in the pasture because of ice or mud. We've been lucky that none have had serious long-term effects. I have only been outside to check on Ima once or twice per day since I've been so sick - Cary has been doing that, plus all the feeding. (He is a gem.) I don't know of anything I could do to prevent these little injuries, any more than I could help the scraped knees my daughter continually got on the playground when she was little. However, I sure wouldn't do anything to put one of my horses at additional risk to injury from extreme footings - Mother Nature seems to provide enough obstacles for us to deal with. I thought about Ice Tolts last weekend when I heard the national news people warning about the widespread icy roads that were affecting much of the country. They advised drivers to SLOW DOWN, use caution, and stay in unless necessary. That's basically the same advice I've always heard re: driving in icy conditions. I just shake my head when people refuse to see that riding horses at speed on ice is a good thing. Duh. Keep your fingers crossed that Ima is ok. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.9/1238 - Release Date: 1/22/2008 8:12 PM
