Things I Would Never See

     I shaved the fur around Autumn's right hind stifle joint, trying to make it as smooth as possible for her  ultrasound recheck exam. Three months have passed since she was diagnosed with an injury to her medial meniscus in her stifle.  The injury presented itself as a limp at the trot and a swollen bulge over the joint. After a thorough examination with x-rays and an ultrasound the doctor said no riding and no strenuous exercise for the next few months until the next recheck.  At the time he opted not to preform any invasive procedures in order to see how much healing she could do on her own.  He did decide to start her on a regime of intravenous Legend to help stimulate the production of healthy joint fluid and to decrease inflammation and damage in the joint.
    Over the next three months, Autumn had her good days and bad.  After witnessing her in the pasture at feeding time not chasing down the rancher and ripping bales of hay off the back of his trailer and instead  waiting patiently for him to loop around to toss some hay at her hooves my heart stopped.  Autumn not running for food!?!  I knew she was in pain.  I then had to confine her to a small pen where she did not have to walk far for her water and food.  After a few weeks of rest in the small pen combined with her Legend injections working their magic she made it loud and clear that she was ready to go back out to pasture by literally dragging me to it by the end of her rope.  
     Since riding was out of the question we took a lot of walks around the ranch during her layoff.   Memories of when I first got her at 10 months old returned.  Too young to ride her back then, we discovered every trail we could find in the redwoods of Jackson Hill Ranch.  I forgot how fun it was just to be with her.  I love riding her but I sit so far up on her I feel a little out of reach with her.  I mean I can feel what she is doing and she listens to my cues but when I  walk next to her I feel more with her.  I can watch her blinking her brown eyes at curious little things around her.  She will nudge me along, sometimes taking me somewhere that she would like to go.  Being next to her, she is able to show me what she is thinking about.  It's nothing like I have swirling in my mind.  She will stop and listen to the wind washing through the pine boughs above.  She has stopped me in front of the crescent moon in the middle of the sky while dawn stretches awake its pink and peach glow behind the mountains.   

Autumn watches the moon wake up the morning.

She would stop to drink from the new winter flowed creeks.  She would eavesdrop on the cackling crow couple chatting to each other from across the tree strands and then wait to watch them fly to each other.  She has made me see things I would never see. 
    After two hours of re-examination, the doctor concluded that she had made quite a bit of progress.  She was not  as lame and the swelling had gone down quite a bit.  He gave us permission to start light riding and just gage it by how well she handles it.  When he gave us the good news I was surprised how totally excited I wasn't.  I was one hundred gazillion percent happy that she was healing and feeling better but there was a funny feeling when I thought about riding again.  I know that once I get back in the saddle I sort of get addicted to being on her back and tend to shrug off just walking along beside her.  I was afraid that I might miss all of those little moments she had been sharing with me in her life.  I was afraid I would miss her showing me all those things to remember.  I made a decision to make sure I allot time to ride and not ride her in the future.  But I have to admit....The first thing we did after that appointment was to go for a ride.


First ride back on top!





And we both thought it was great!

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Copyright (c) 2013 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com January 16, 2013