Our Turn

Well, shoot.

Everyone else has lame or hurt horses so B felt like he had to play.

Fingers crossed its nothing, or something simple but I'm bringing the vet out anyways to be safe. He was LITERALLY just here yesterday for a very sad reason, but I'm mad I missed him!

Backing up though.

Last week B's eye started to leak clear fluid, and I actually thought nothing of it except that maybe with the pollen count his eye was getting irritated with the large pastures and long turnout times. My allergies have been terrible, so I just chalked it up to that at that point in time. Probing produced no soreness and he seemed fine otherwise.

Minus the weirdness of suddenly having issues turning right.

Hmmm.

I haven't ridden since the show (Saturday) due to stuff and things, but still came out to give pets and cookies and it was the same, no change. So when I came out yesterday to ride, I was quite surprised to see thicker discharge and a slightly swollen bump under his eye.

Weird.

I called the head groom over, and Supertrainer (aka BO) to verify this WAS new and I wasn't insane. They agreed, very new. We poked at him though and nothing seemed to bother him. Odd.

I asked if he was off his feed or acting strange and they said nope, he cleans up everything per usual at his usual speed.

Horses, Y U no talk?

So I tacked up, planning to just hack around anyways to try out my new half pad (way too big) and girth (perfect). I also was incredibly sore from weightlifting and didn't think I could do much but plod around on the trails anyways. Figured it would do us both good to just get out and walk around/loosen our muscles.

WAHHH too big. Time to trade in!

Of course though, a MILLION things were happening during my ride. Power washing, construction, turn-out, horses galloping in fields and mega horse flies because its still 90 fucking degrees here, UGH!

Translation; recipe for no good ride

I knew we had it coming, its been nothing but rainbows and cupcakes for weeks. We were due for a bad one, which is expected every now and again.

However, he was weirdly off. Like, in the head.

Shaking it more than usual, EXTRA sensitive and literally could not. would not. turn right.

Okay bud, I hear ya.

Amongst the galloping horses (literally, they did not stop for hours, WTF) though, he was losing his shit and I just wanted to end our very short ride at the walk, on a good note (aka not snorting, prancing, head shaking sideways). I really truly just wanted to walk around, but he was struggling to keep his shit together.

When that was impossible, I gave up after a grand total of 20 minutes mounted, with B lathered in sweat. I shit you not, we just walked, he was just that wound up about something.

Why though

Again, I probed his face, and nothing.

But yet, he was not acting right. His face didn't look right and the discharge from the eye was funky. Nothing from the nose, but he did cough and yawn too, in a struggling manner so I'm like, oh shit.

So I called the vet.

He's a literal saint of a man, dealing with all of us and our incredible accident/injury prone OTTBs and their cray owners who have him on speed dial. He should be coming out today or Monday, so I'm playing it safe, giving B the rest of the week off.

*I* can see a difference in his face, BO and HG could too, so I know I'm not dreaming. The pics do not do justice though.

Can you see the difference?

Big ole lump

Can you see the difference now?

Ugh, hoping its not something awful...I've heard horror stories about sinus infections, teeth issues,  surgeries etc and my mind is whirling even though he seems mostly normal, despite the wound up ride. Hoping whatever it is we catch it early....worried