Whitecross Stables - What I've Been Up To

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Nov 30, 2009, 3:38am

Whitecross Stables :: Out Of Character :: Chat :: What I've Been Up To

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The Original Matthew
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What I've Been Up To
« Thread Started on Aug 25, 2007, 3:01am »

It's been a year, since I stepped down from my position as admin of the old WCS to fufil a "real" life. You've probably all read the words I'd written when I closed the old site in Matt's "Collecting Memoirs" thread. I meant everything I said; sure, I was a bit curt, but it was true. I had a real life I needed to get to. There were things going on that needed my full attention. I felt like when I came to admin WCS, I was running away from my responsibilities in the real world; I knew I needed to face what was happening. I needed all my focus to be on what was going on, and I couldn't do that while still admining WCS. So, here is my story...what have I been up to since September, 2006?

Well, the start of the whole story begins before I ever left. I brought my new horse, Smokey, home days before I closed the sight. He is the reason the original WCS shut down; but it's not his fault.

Let me tell you about Smokey. He's a 2002 grey American Quarter Horse gelding. We purchased him believing he was sound and in fit health, and that he would make a fine hunter/jumper one day. I admit, we allowed ourselves to get caught up in Smokey's big brown eyes and loving personality, and "excused" the fact that he was nearly two hundred pounds underweight, with hooves that hadn't been trimmed in ten weeks, and a mane that stood on end and a tail that reached his hocks at the longest point. The owner, however, did say he had "never been lame a day in his life", and that his feet only looked that way because her farrier was on vacation. He was underweight because she "could not afford suppliments". I loved Smokey, even with his faults, and in my eyes, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect horse.

The day after we brought him home, we took Smokey up to the arena where I took lessons and began riding him. My lesson lasted about...ten minutes, tops. Because the minute I began walking Smokey around the arena, we realized something wasn't right. He was lame. He could hardly walk comfortably due to his hideously neglected hooves. We thought it would be ok, once we got his hooves trimmed. We were wrong. A few days later, our farrier came out to trim Smokey's hooves, and even placed shoes on his front feet...but when we took him to the arena, he was even worse. At the trot, we noticed that, when tracking right, we was obviously lame on his left fore. Extensive observation by me, my mom, my sister and my riding instructor could bring up no obvious reason for the lameness. I broke down in tears, right there. Seeing my poor boy, suffering like that, was more than I wanted to handle.

We scheduled our veterinarian to come out and do a lameness examination on Smokey's left fore. It was several hours that the veterinarian was out at our house examining Smokey, and by the end of it, he had no logical explination for the lameness. He pointed out that the angle of the left front hoof was different than the other legs, and that the left fore was not entirely straight; facts that had evaded our knowledge at the time of purchase. When the veterinarian began mentioning such less obvious - and more serious - ailments such as navicular, I broke into tears again. Finally, the vet suggested we take Smokey to a local university to see if those vets could diagnose the problem; because "if they can't find it, no one will."

This was around the time I closed the original WCS. I was so caught up in what was happening to Smokey, and how suddenly my perfect horse had become such a medical mystery...I had to focus on him, now. I couldn't take the time for Whitecross any longer.

We took Smokey down to the university early in the morning to begin the tests. When we arrived, the vets wasted no time in doing a physical evaluation of Smokey's conformation, pointing out several things our vet had not mentioned. They went on with the obvservations, which included lunging and trotting Smokey back and forth on a straightaway. After all these observations - which concluded nothing - they did flexion tests which, much to the vets' dismay, showed nothing as well; Smokey's limp was exactly the same, no matter which joint was strained. Finally, they offered to do some nerve blocks on Smokey's joints. We left for lunch and returned a few hours later to more baffled vets; they noticed a 20% improvement, maximum, when any given joint was numbed with the nerve blocks.

After all these tests came back without obvious, conclusive results, we made the decision to leave Smokey at the university vet clinic for ten days, so that more tests could be done, including x rays and radiology treatment (yes, my horse was radioactive o.0). I will never forget the look of confusion in Smokey's eyes as we left him that day at the university...the way he watched us go, so confused...afraid we were leaving him...

*to be continued*

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The Original Matthew
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Re: What I've Been Up To
« Reply #1 on Sept 4, 2007, 9:10pm »

Sorry I havnt updated this in, well, forever. I'm really not any less busy now than I was before

I need to make this long story shorter and cut to the chase.

After the vets did a huge serious of exams on Smokey's left fore, they were unable to diagnose any definante sorce of the problem. They told us to put him on stall rest and pray for the best.

Six weeks later, we took Smokey out for the first time...and he looked genuinly better! We were all thrilled as we watched him get better and better as his muscle tone grew back and his lameness got less and less obvious. We thought we were through paying vet bills for the moment.

Then, about a month ago, a bear came through our neighborhood while we were out of town and spooked Smokey into running through a fence. It took six stitches to close the laceration in his right foreleg, and again, Smo was put on stall rest; this time, for two weeks.

We thought we were really, truely done laying Smokey up after that.

Finally, just yesterday, at my lesson, Smokey pulled up lame again in his right hind. When he put that hoof down to take a stride, he put it down at an angle; then, his hock would "pop" back into place, re-aligning the leg. We think this is due to a ligament that is too long or too short, but an equine pediatrist is coming out on September 10th to diagnose the issue correctly.

September 10th is my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

If the ligament is too long, the most logical option would be to do surgery to clip the ligament shorter. This would mean another 6+ weeks of stall rest for Smokey.

My life is really hectic right now (my first day of high school was today, also) and I really don't have time to commit myself to an RPG very much at the moment. I appologize. I will check in time to time, though, to see how things are doing.

I will keep you posted on Smo's progress, in case anyone wants to know.

God Bless~
The Original Matt

« Last Edit: Sept 4, 2007, 9:11pm by The Original Matthew »

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