Bloody Shoulder Arabian

[Magnumsmom@aol.com]

... or why I'm writing this and not riding right now.  :)

The thought that Blue could turn out to be a "bloody
shoulder" as he greys has crossed my mind now and
then, but I certainly didn't want it to happen this way.

I'd entered the Oakland Hills ride, but the Tuesday morning
before the ride I saw what none of us ever want to see...
I went out to the pasture to bring Blue in and he was 3
legged lame.  Fortunately, by the 3rd or 4th hop he
started putting weight on his left front leg and I stopped
screaming at him to "Ho!" and instead lead him to his pen
and called the vet.  He'd been kicked in the left shoulder
and had a puncture wound.  He had a lot of pain and bruising,
but his shoulder is sound *thank goodness!*.  2 weeks later 
we are still trying to get the wound to calm down.

After treating him that morning, he demonstrated his
3 legged "hop" for my vet's partner.  It was pretty pathetic.
We started him on 2 bute a day to help deal with the pain
and swelling.  The next morning he trotted sound on that
shoulder.  I was amazed.  What it told us was there is no
fracture or permanent damage, but more importantly what
it told me was how much pain a couple bute can cover.  It
really hit home to me how important our Zero drug policy is.

- Kat Myers
in No. Cal. with Magnum the TB ex-racer (temporarily pressed
back into service)
and Mr Maajistic... resident endurance weasel