Applying School to the Real World

I just finished my Equine Surgery and Sport Horse Medicine rotation last Friday. Saturday, I gleefully went out the barn, hopped on Lexie, and started our trot work, when I noticed it... a head bob. She was lame in the front. I had spent the last two weeks watching horses jog, trying to learn how to pick up a lameness and learning differentials for the varieties of soundness we saw.

For whatever reason, probably being tired or slacking on horse care, I had neglected to check her hooves and digital pulses before tacking up. I brought her in, and checked her hooves- hot. Poor thing had abscessed both front feet.

1 soak per foot, multiple boot changes, 2 blown abscesses, 2 pulled front shoes, and 4 new shoes later, Lexie is on the mend. She was still a little painful today, so she just got a groom and a gram of Bute before going back out.

As much as it's a bummer to not be able to ride Lexie at the moment, it is so cool to be able to apply things I learn in school to real life!

- K & C & L