Horse Jail: An Update on Pig and A Probationary Hearing

#stalllyfe

I think everyone cringes at the thought of a fantastically fit thoroughbred being put on immediate stall rest, especially one who has enjoyed 24/7 turnout for the last 5 years. While I share those cringing sentiments, I went into this process fairly unconcerned about how Pig would respond to stall rest. Why?

1. He's a pretty chill dude. Seriously. He might be a mighty ex-stakes-horse with breeding leading back to the Queen of England, but honestly he's pretty laid back. His hellishly hot moments are usually reserved for temper tantrums and being confused under saddle. On a typical day, I trust him "off-leash" more than my dogs. He's content grazing on grass or napping in the corner, and can be left almost indefinitely in cross ties.

People would kill for this view. The horse doesn't even notice it...

2. I work hard to maintain his good manners. I think allowing an animal to be untrained or develop bad habits just sets the animal up for failure and confusion. Even though Pig is mannerly, he has his occasional moments of snark. When those moments break through, I make sure to remind him to be polite.

3. He's an ex-racehorse. He knows stalls. He is comfortable them. He lived the first 6 years of his life almost entirely in stalls. He doesn't bang on stall doors, or expect to get out. He will stall walk, but given enough hay he'll usually settle into stall life rather quickly.

Despite these positive indicators, I've been dealing with a higher horse than normal over the last few weeks. While he's remained good in the stall (no banging, minimal screaming, neat-ish stall), he's started to become impatient with his short stints of hand grazing. The last couple of days he's been "spooked" and tried rearing and striking. 

"Why I would never! Probably..."

Thank gooodness I've put the fear of god into him, and he dropped meekly back to the ground with a quick growl from me!

Luckily the rest of stall rest has been pretty uneventful. We had the vet out to recheck, and I'll write more about that soon. In other news, I broke my nose and have been using someone's meds to try to make it feel better...

Turns out Surpass is actually the same % of drug as the human medication. It's also so much better than ibuprofen! Instant relief!

And so, here we are. Chugging along on stall rest. I haven't been totally idle, though. I'll try to get some updates out on my activities, too.

Pretty Maryland Farm is pretty...