Heat is back in Tris's heel, and he's on bute until further notice to keep him more comfortable. At this point, we are in a waiting game: within the next 2 weeks the farrier will fly up (he winters in Florida) and when I know the date I will get it off from work and call the vet. We'll have a big ol' budget-busting day of x-rays with the vet and the farrier both there to make sure alignments are ok, then trim from the x-rays, etc. I continue to hope that he will come sound with a trim, as his heels are so long and underrun and awful, and in the next trim or two the lower of the two abscess holes will come to the toe and some of the pressure will ease. I could be fooling myself. In my uglier moments I think that this will be it, that we might get him sound at the walk but not for riding, and I'll have to retire him. In my better moments, I feel confident that I'll be riding again this spring or summer.
In the meantime, it's been too blasted cold to visit. Tuesdays are stitch circle, so I don't go anyway, then yesterday I lost all willpower when the thermometer did not rise above 0. We are projected for a high of 2 degrees today, which means by the time I get to the barn it will be back below zero. He's snug in his blanket, the barn staff has proven to be outstanding about communication and would let me know immediately if something were wrong, so I have elected to stay home and warm.
I've picked up a few books about horses from the library, and will be reading those and watching horse movies to review here in lieu of actual content while Tris's soundness is still in a holding pattern.
Tris. :(
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