The Nightmare Begins

On the last week of June, 2007, Tamara, my horse, sustained multiple lacerations on the inside of her right hind leg. We discovered the injuries late in the afternoon when bringing the horses in from pasture. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she had tangled herself in barbwire, but we don't have barbwire. I'm not even sure barbwire is legal to use it as fencing here in Germany. So the mystery began. How did she injure herself so badly?

Judging from the pattern of the lacerations (seven in all) both myself and the stable owner concluded that the only possible way this could have happened is while she was rolling. Tamara was shod and she has big feet. In fact, she has hoofs that would give a Clydesdale a good run for the money. Before riding her, or even turning her out, I'd have to go through this ritual of wrapping her legs with Velcro trainer boots and put overreach bells on her front hoofs. Yet despite all of the "armored" protection, she must have managed to scrape the inside of one leg with the shod opposite hoof!

The scary part is that we had no idea when the injuries occurred during the course of the day. There was no sign of lameness so we decided to clean and dress the woods and keep an eye on her. Bare in mind, Tamara was constantly getting lacerations like this, and I was constantly cleaning and dressing them to the point that it was almost routine. The only difference being that this time there was more than one or two cuts. Hind sight is always better than foresight. I should have called a Vet then and there.

Three days later, all appeared to be ok, so my wife and I left for Italy on a planned two week holiday. The stable owner and one of my sons would continue taking care of Tamara's wounds, and regular cell phone updates assured me that everything was fine.

Upon returning from holidays, I examined Tamara's wounds to find they had healed nicely, and on the first full day back from Italy, I went for a long ride without one single hitch. The next day I turned her out early in the morning and went about my business as I always do on non riding days.

In the afternoon we went out to bring the horses in and that's when I discovered Tamara, laying on her side, prone, in obvious pain, and a hock the size of an overinflated balloon. To be continued...