Yesterday, I went to the stable early (so early, that the horses weren't outside yet).
Hannah and I had plans on a sunny day in the woods with our wonderful horses. Instead I found my horse with a huge and swollen leg.

I am not sure what caused it, but I think it may come from several things.
-We started with new food last Tuesday
-She got her shoes off last Tuesday
-She was inside the whole night, and it might come from too little movement
-She might have been kicking after one of her neighbors (which she do often) and therefore injured herself.

This is the reasons I think it might come from. She didn't limp, so hopefully it was just lack of movement this time. The thing I don't like with it, is that it's only one leg (left foot back).


Since she had this swollen foot and didn't limp, I decided to long rein her instead.
Hannah joined us with the Pony.

It felt like she had fireworks stuck in her behind when we got to the place we use for long reining and riding, so I made her go around me several times before she started to relax a little more.
After some circles around me, I started walking her in a square. She was nice, but still a little edgy. Took some turns around the huge tractors and digging machines as well. I can tell you my horse sure isn't afraid of tractors!

After a while with tractors, this man who has a horse in the stable came, and I asked him if he wanted to try. He said sure, and took the reins.
At first it seems like he was all up to confuse and stress her (something I try not to do, since she's kind of a high-temper horse). He asked her to turn way to quickly and I could see she was a little stressed with him.
Suddenly he just stopped her and asked me to take the reins, so he could try something with her. My first thoughts was "Oh no, he's going to ruin my horse!". So I just stood there, and then I asked her to go on and between the machines again. Telling her she's a nice horse and stuff.

Well, the man came back, and it seems like he might have done some thoughts about how to treat her right, because this time he was really nice to her and behaved the way I like.
He also laid some poles on the ground, and made her go over them. He thought she was really good, and told her she was a good girl.


He also did some figure of eights over the poles, and she was doing the exact thing he asked for.
He was really happy about her, and so was I.

After I got her back, I did some "machine walking" and then left the place to go and cool her back leg down with water. The back leg didn't go down, not after 35 minutes with long reining, nor 10 minutes with cold water.
I put on some blue lotion after, and then let her out.


I am going to the stable late today to see how her leg is doing late in the day.
Hopefully it will be gone, or at least better...

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Comment by Barbara F. on April 20, 2009 at 11:19pm
My horse had that a while ago and it left as fast as it came. I think he must have banged it on something. I did lots of cold hosing, and it did go down after some walking. It took about three days to go away completely. Is there heat in the leg?

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