Sunday, February 15, 2015

Zora's Health Challenge - The Beginning

It started the first weekend of May, 2014. At least that is when it started for us. We're pretty sure it had been going on for a while, but we were completely unaware until that Saturday ride in May.

We had a nice, uneventful ride. We even saw one of my former co-workers and his family, which was just fantastic. His children were completely in awe of the horses, as children usually are. We left them and started back for home.

Going over the toll road bridge something surprising, frightening, and bewildering happened. Divna and I were behind John and Zora (as usual), when suddenly Zora's back end just dropped! The best way I can describe it is that she appeared to be instantly paralyzed. In true Zora fashion, she didn't stop walking! She was just dragging her back legs! It was horrible.......

John knew something had happened, but by the time he got her stopped and dismounted, she had drug herself at least six or seven steps. We were scared to death! We stood there on the toll road bridge, checked her out as best we could and finally decided all we could do was walk the remaining two miles home.



She actually left skidmarks on the road from her hoofs being scraped off onto the pavement.






She skinned up both back shins, the left one worse than the right. and rubbed her hoofs down a layer or two.




Needless to say we were freaked out. We gave her bute and treated the injuries as best we could. A call to the vet was made.....