abcess questions / my new saddle / no guns here!!!

[Kimberly Price <PLOUGH1@ix.netcom.com>]

Mystery has been in a dry stall 3 weeks now while his dug out abcess
heals.  I've ridden him a mile or so to get some grass and try out a
saddle...no lameness, no heat, no swelling, I'm ready to put him back in
pasture (and believe me, he is ready too!!!!).

I plan to pack the hoof with cotton/guaze and medicine and have the
shoer put a padded shoe on both his feet to even them up (this is the
back right that is holy), put EZ boots on over the shoes and turn him
out.  I won't check on him for a few days after.  Are there any flaws to
this plan I don't foresee?  Is there any way to test the hoof to ensure
he is ready to go back to pasture?  I'm assuming the hole is filling in
from the inside out, but this is a first for me!

Also, I think I found the saddle I will keep.  It is a Courbette
Marshall "special" tendancy dressage.  I really like it (for a whole
mile, wow) and just have to be sure it fits him well.  Thanks again
everyone for all your saddle responses.  I've been so busy at work I
have not finished catagorizing them all, etc and havn't mailed them out
but will, sometime, in this next century!!!

Thanks again everyone!  Anyone going to the Mustang Classic 3/21 in San
Jose?

Kimberly (riding the fine arab Lucas and then considering Mystery looks
like a draft horse!)
& Mystery the Morab ("I'm a big boy so give me lots of treats, long slow
rides, and buy an arab!")
Pt.Reyes, CA

oh, found this from an old quote of Sitting Bull, 1876
  "If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have
made me so in the first place.  He put in your heart certain wishes and
plans, and in my heart he put other different desires.  Each man is good
in His sight.   It is not necessary for eagles to be crows."

I know, not endurance related, just the quote for the day from one who
knew how to live with nature, not against.