In which Leo attempts to give me a heart attack

Before getting to the Main Event that was the inspiration for the title of this post, a brief update - on Saturday, we discovered that in addition to the thrush, Leo has developed  scratches on both front legs.  It's particularly bad on the RF.  So, most likely it's an additional contributor to the lameness in that leg.  

I. Hate. Mud. So much. 

So  now he's getting treated for the scratches as well as the thrush, and he can go outside only if it's completely dry.  He's gone out for the afternoon the last few days, but rain is in our future so he may be stuck inside again tomorrow.  He's actually handling the stall rest pretty well, but I still feel bad for him.  Every time we turn him out it's adorable, and I have yet to catch it on video.  The scratches are responding to treatment, but it's slow going - if you have any tips, I'd love to hear them!

We wore tack the other day. It was exciting.

Today, I brought him in from the pasture to lunge/check for soundness before feeding.  Leo was his usual bright-eyed self and looked almost perfectly sound at the trot.  He still had the faintest of head bobs when tracking right, but it was definitely an improvement over the last time I had him on the lunge (I've mostly been hopping on bareback with a halter and reins and walking around the indoor lately).  We cut his bute dose in half today, so the fact that he was still showing improvement made me extremely happy.  

Shiny pony

I asked him to canter because I wanted to see how he looked, and he took a few steps and then tripped.  Not like, baby tripped, but full trip/went halfway down/scrambled back up kind of trip...and then he was hopping lame trying to stay off the RF, and when I got him to stop moving he stood with that leg dangling, refusing to put any weight on it.  Enter: heart attack.

Instantly I was feeling the leg for heat or swelling, talking to him in a mildly panicked voice the whole time, brain racing because oh my god my horse was three-legged-lame...and then about 30 seconds later he put his foot down and started walking, completely sound.  I took him off the lunge and led him to the washrack, treated the scratches, checked all four legs obsessively, and talked to my trainer (who had seen most of this).  We exchanged hopeful explanations - he scared himself, that leg's been sore for a few weeks now, etc. - and then I headed outside to call the vet.

Thankfully, the vet's thoughts mirrored our best-case-scenario explanations - when he tripped, he most likely caught himself in the back of the leg, where the scratches are, and it probably HURT.  We kept him in and checked the leg regularly for any signs of heat or swelling, none of which were found, and sweat wrapped it for the night just in case.  I went back to the arena and discovered that the footing where he tripped was particularly deep, which may have been the cause of his loss of balance.  If anything swells / heats up overnight, Dr. G will come out for blocks/x-rays/all of the things tomorrow, but if it stays normal (please, please stay normal), I'll continue the scratches treatment and hope that that clears up soon.

I really, really, really miss my horse.