So Rapture decided that he would like to make himself permanently lame. Maybe it’s because he’s so spoiled any time he has an injury. Regardless of the reason, he got in big trouble yesterday morning for trying to start a fight with a horse that is bigger than him during his turnout.
Now, just to clarify I really don’t recommend that you turn your horse out when they have a suspensory injury because they can potentially hurt themselves if overexerted. However, my horse is typically such a giant baby and soooo lazy that he will simply roll and then stand in a corner if turned out by himself. I have to turn both boys out together or else they will only stand there and stare at me. Even when turned out together, they both go straight for a dirt bath, then visit the horses by the rail and then wander around, groom each other and sniff whatever poop they can find until breakfast time when they meet me at the gate to go back home.
I’ve been putting standing wraps on Rapture as much as possible (as long as I will be there to change them within 12 hours) and it has REALLY helped with the swelling! So we’ve stuck with our routine of morning turnout, then a standing wrap during breakfast and then changing it at dinner time. Occasionally we will go for a cold rinse if there is much heat, but there really hasn’t been since the swelling has decreased. So, I was off of work for a day so he went 24 hours without a standing wrap. Suddenly, his leg is swollen again.
Aurgh!!!
As I fetched them for their morning turnout, I neglected to notice that there was a new horse in the row (well, he’s not new, he’s been there before but not in a while) and Rapture wasted no time pointing it out as soon as we got in the arena. He was anxious to get his halter off, which is odd because he’s usually very patient. Then, he sped over to the rail and put on his best “I’m the boss around here” act with his neck curved as they sniffed noses. The horse he was investigating is a 17-18hh Warmblood who is about 5 or 6 years old. They sniffed and snorted, and the Warmblood, Bill, gave Rapture a playful nip. That’s when everything hit the fan. Rapture began his hoarse fight-screaming and threatened Bill by attempting to paw the rail…with his swollen leg.
I yelled at him, which distracted him enough to get him to walk away for a second, check in with Gemini and look as if he had given up. He stood there and stared at me for a long moment, as if to say, “What, mom, I’m just playing…” I fell for it rather naively and walked away to get the hose so they would have some water. Directly after my back was turned, that little brat sauntered back over to Bill and started angrily pawing/half rearing and trying to pick a fight with the giant horse.
I yelled at him again but he ignored me, of course. I ran and grabbed his halter, slipped through the fence and whistled for him. He looked at me, walked about four steps toward me, stared, then flipped his head in the air and proceeded to trot circles around me. If you don’t know what the head flip means, let me explain it to you the way it was explained to me, because we saw this a lot with the Arabians I used to work with. When a horse flips their head in that circular rolling flip thing, it’s pretty much like flipping you the bird.
So, Rapture pretty much gave me a big, “Haha, f*** you!!”
Flustered, I tried to at least block him from running everywhere until he would stand. After a nerve racking few minutes, he let me catch him. His punishment was having to walk around with me while I did the morning chores and occasionally stand tied to random things. I’m taking this to mean he isn’t very uncomfortable because he sure is itching to move around since he spent the whole morning nearly running me over.
On a completely unrelated note, my mini-me is totally adorable…
fulltilthorses 