Its been 6 long months. Six very long months since i was tossed off Jez and taken to the ER, Six very long months since Jez was diagnosed with a suspensory injury. Stall rest, limited turnout restricted movement, ultra sounds and shock waves but finally my beautiful wonderful girl has been cleared by the vet. What that means is shes healed, and can go back into work and back with the herd for regular turn out. Back into work thats easy, all it costs is money. I hired a trainer to work with her and restart her. Remind her shes a riding horse and be the first on on the wild beasts back. The turn out, thats more of a challenge. She needs to get back on grass so i had the bright idea to put her in a smaller field a few hours a day and build up to a full day. I’d let her get her yaya’s out and had hoped that she would run and buck but then see the grass and calm down. Yeah that didn’t happen. She was beside herself with excitement. Even though she had just had an hour long session with her new trainer which included lots of work and lunging at the walk trot and canter she still was a total maniac when i turned her out in the field. I expect some craziness this was beyond the pale. She did come to me when i called so i was able to bring her in so she didn’t hurt herself running around like an idiot and screaming her head off.
Day two… Ace. I aced her a good strong oral dose, let her marinate and then i lead her out to the smaller paddock and walked her around, letting her see everything, munch on what ever grass she wanted and let her see its just a field and nothing too exciting. She snorted and blew but didn’t freak out. Of course i had her on a lead. I’ll do that again today and for however long i have to until the field is no so longer exciting. I will also introduce McTavish the halflinger who is a great baby sitter to the field and walk her around with him wandering around in it. In the hopes that i can let her lose with McT keeping her company and keeping her calm. She was rehabbing for 6 months it was silly of me to think getting her out and back to normal wouldn’t take time and be a process on its own.
In any event, im so happy shes cleared. It brought so much happiness to me when after her check the vet and i let her run around the ring and she was so happy running, doing airs above the ground and yelling like ive never seen her do. She was free and i was in tears. I love Jezebel so much, she is my special girl and though i knew i was doing what was best for her it was hard on me keeping her restricted even though she took it like a champ. Shes an amazing horse with so much personality and potential. I’m looking forward to the next phase with her.