I was due to take Rosco to Frickley to compete in the BE100 class, but when we were getting him ready in the morning we noticed a swelling around his fetlock. After a check and walk around he didn’t seem to be tender, or lame, but it was too much of a risk to compete him and unfortunately we had to withdraw. Although it was not an emergency our vet Jenny said she would pop by on Saturday afternoon to check him out. Jenny decided it would be safer to do an ultrasound scan in a few days, but that we should ice him 3-4 times a day.
Rosco has had lots of practice with injuries and he certainly makes the perfect patient calmly standing in a bucket of ice.
Following a day of ice the swelling had completely gone and Rosco’s leg had returned to normal. Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead with the scan – the results showed he had a minor swelling of his superficial digital flexor tendon. Under Jenny’s advice we’re giving him 4 weeks box rest and have withdrawn him from Allerton Park and Askham Bryan events. We will get him re-scanned after the 4 week period and hopefully we will get the okay to start riding again. Jenny was reasonably confident that it was just a minor pull but we’re being ultra cautious with Rosco.
During his rest period, I’ve been experimenting with icing and cooling techniques and decided that the Lemieux Pro Ice Boots are great but the ice gel packs only last 15 minutes. So replacing them with a 1kg bag of frozen peas you can get over 30 minutes of cold therapy. Even more scientific is that Co-Op peas are much better than other brands as they don’t seem to clump together and mould better around his leg – icing 2 horses 4 times a day certainly keeps me busy.
At the same time we rescanned Walter and his injury is a bit more of a concern, he has hole in his suspensory branch ligament. We’re starting shockwave treatment soon and he’s also on box rest so keeping Rosco company, Jenny hasn’t ruled out taking Walter to Badminton next year but it’s going to depend very much on how his injury heals.
As I haven’t been able to ride Rosco or Walter I have had some time on my hands. I have been hacking out Little Mo, she was our first horse and at 22 she is still a very keen and enthusiastic on a hack and shows no sign of slowing down, it is always nice to get on the oldies.
