Everything Between 2/6 and 3/9

3/8: Bad pony rolling around in fresh sawdust with the bag leg down! Sigh. He obviously doesn't know he's hurt.

So the time Mikey has been healing has been very stressful and tiring and depressing so I haven't written. I've barely ridden! But Mikey is going back to OSU for an APS treatment on 3/11, but we're leaving tomorrow. 

The extra short story: Mikey's leg is healing beautifully. His soundness is the only question left. He's healed up without any infection or oozing after the one incision stopped draining.

The short story:

-2/9/15: Mikey's oozing incision was done oozing by Monday after surgery. Yay!

-2/11/15: Our vet flipped shit about his vet wrap covering the point of his hock, before she even saw the leg. She wanted it wrapped as a figure 8. We ignored her because he was being very good about laying down with the good leg on the bottom, so he wasn't rubbing the bad leg in poop, or laying on it in general. There's no reason to make that leg more flexible, and OSU was wrapping him with it completely covered by vet wrap. She sometimes goes off on tantrums. We deal with it because when you're having an emergency, she drops everything and comes out. Oh, she also forced me to take a 16" no bow wrap. A single no bow. Not a pair. Because a 14" wasn't tall enough... even though the 14" was overlapping the hock wrap. >:-(

-2/21/15: Mikey got his stitches out on day 19 after surgery instead of 14. He also tried to colic that day. We had wrapped him with the figure 8 wrap so the vet wouldn't flip shit, so he promptly laid down on the bad leg, got cast, got upset, and began to colic. All on a day that we were hosting a clinic, the pipes froze, the tractor wouldn't start, and the arena drag was buried. They stitches were delayed to this date because the one incision had just stopped draining, and then the temps dropped to a high of 1 degree, so we weren't about to undress him and make him stand on concrete to have stitches out... they weren't healing into him or loose or being pulled, so no reason to have them out. She said only wrap him for that night, then no more. My trainer and I also ignored that. The horse was open to the bone. We weren't about to let him lay down and rub freshly scabbed incisions into his bedding. Hello infection. So the hock wrap stayed on. He also started a series of three Legend IV injections (one every week for three weeks) and a series of ten(!!!!) Adequan injections (one injection that day, then six more every four days, then once a month until gone). After a couple other incidentals, my vet bill for this visit was $824. Talk about blowing through the money I set aside for his after care.

-The next week, he walked for five minutes on days that she changed the bandage. She wasn't about to let him colic again... we'd end up walking for hours if he did.

-2/28/15: Mikey is bucking and squealing in his stall for the second day in a row. So much for 'stall rest.'

-3/4/15: Mikey reached day 30! He's now allowed to walk 15 minutes every day.

-3/7/15: We stopped wrapping the hock. The scabs had healed nicely, and everything looked super. We're still wrapping the lower leg since he's been wrapped continuously for over a month. We also started the Back on Track Hock Wraps for a couple hours each day.

-3/7/15: My wonderful husband and father-in-law put a new jack on my trailer since the old one got stuck and almost couldn't lift the trailer off my truck when we got home from OSU in February. Thank goodness my husband's dad raised him to fix anything.


I'm still very nervous that Mikey will never be sound again. He rolled this weekend and had to get up with the bad leg underneath him, and he struggled. How will he ever be able to do even training level under saddle? Very depressing. I'd never sell him, or give him away. He'd have to be retired and I can't afford to keep a second horse. Buying one wouldn't be a problem, I'd hit up RRTP classifieds and find an OTTB right off the track. Leasing a horse might be an option, but nothing is appropriate at our barn. Everything is capable, but every horse has an eventing career in its future, not straight dressage. And everything is at training level dressage. Not to rag on that, but when I'm so close to my bronze, to have to start over would be very sad.


I only rode a handful of times in Feb, partly because of the distance to the barn, and partly because it was so cold. I rode one of my trainer's 3 year olds for one of my rides. Best 3 yr old ever, plus an OTTB to boot! Quiet, attentive, and a very good boy. It's been a long time since I sat on something that green!

I rode her 3* event horse two more times since my last mention of him. He and I are slowly getting to know each other. I had joked with her about taking him to finish my bronze medal after he ran Rolex. She said go for it! So I might take Cool Decision, "Cody", the Rolex horse, down centerline to finish my bronze. I'd rather finish it on Mikey, but... I think he's going to need time, if he's even able to do 3rd level again.

I'm terrified of screwing Cody up, so I find I'm not as commanding as I should be on him, which of course will screw him up! He is very well schooled, and will do what you want, if you ask the question the right way. In a way, he's an extension of my trainer. For his whole life, he's only been ridden by her and a handful of other people, who have done at most hack him around. So he responds to being asked correctly. When you don't ask correctly, he doesn't guess at what you want, but he doesn't throw a tantrum either, he simply waits for you to ask properly, then promptly rewards you when you do ask correctly. She's letting me just ride him, not in lessons, and it's like I'm getting a free lesson. I have my trainer in my head, and I'm sitting on her horse, so I hear her in my head, I apply what she says, and he responds. With only 3 rides on Cody, I've almost broken my hanging left rein habit. Cody won't connect in the canter to the left because I'm too heavy with my left rein. Recall right hip to right hand, lots of thigh for a half halt, and releasing/soft inside rein, and he connects immediately. And lower leg. More lower leg support than I ever gave Mikey.

When I rode him last Sunday, I really got the feel of what she meant when she described him as a man's ride. Cody is very, very strong, and he's a cocky confident boy. I needed very strong thigh and core half halts to get the good response. My legs hurt for days after riding him! He's giving me quite the education though. When I lose connection, I tend to shorten my arm instead of encouraging more neck stretch to the bit. With him, when he shortens his neck, I feel it, and I know immediately shortening my arm won't work, and I'm able to push him forward and back to the bit. He's gotten me to soften my left hand. He's gotten me to pay a lot of attention to my hip and inside leg and my bend, and then ways to get it all back. He's also gotten me to get my flying changes more accurate and timed better. No more kick and hope. It's plan, get the timing right, and ask. If I botch it, I get a rump high change, if I don't, I get a smooth change.

She also said I can come ride him in the evening during the week whenever I'm out! :-)

He's by no means an easy ride, but he's as close to a school master as I'm going to get! I'm hoping to ride him in our farm's dressage show in June, and maybe take him to one or two USDF dressage shows and do 3rd, and maybe 4th level just to see. My trainer will be selling him after Rolex to pay for her farm, so if he can be ridden by an AA down centerline at a USDF show at his highest level of education, that's all points in his favor. I'll be trying to get to some shows early in the season before he sells. After he sells, Mikey will be the most advanced dressage horse in the barn, and if he's not sound... well then no more fun stuff for me! But everyone deserves to ride a horse at the top of their ability to ride, that knows a lot. It's very enlightening.

I'm going to ask for an actual lesson on him and see if she'll take a little video of me on him.

So here's a mass of pictures from the last month:

I may have gone overboard on the no bows and the cotton sheeting!

Nickels in his dog blanket. He gets around really well in it! 

Mikey's leg on 3/1.

Some awkward snuggling with Penny. Silly upside down snuggle puss!

I got domestic and made Danish Heirloom Cake. 

3/7: Let the rehab begin! 

Completely adorable.

OSU Visit: 2/6 Friday - Coming Home!

Friday morning was a whirlwind of packing and getting all of Mikey's stuff ready. The vet went over the stuff I would need to wrap Mikey, and I took home a first set of bandage change materials:

The stuff.

But we were finally off! Mikey loaded just fine and we were on our way. By the way, Columbus has a lot of pot holes. I pissed off someone by going so slowly through the city and back to the highway. He honked and flipped me the bird as soon as he could pass me. I wanted to scream at him that I had a horse who just had major surgery in my trailer, so F Off!

Trailer cam, going home!

The drive was long and I was getting tired halfway through. I was drained from the week. The weather didn't help, the back roads had been snow covered all week and I had to go the long way around to avoid a steep section of road... only to find a Fed Ex 18 wheeler parked in front of the barn driveway, delivering the dressage show arena!

Dressage arena delivery!

He had to back up so we could sneak in the drive, and then my trainer backed my trailer right up to the door of the barn so Mikey would back off the trailer and onto the concrete isle, and then walk forward and turn right into his temporary stall. A little pony was evicted to Mikey's bigger stall in the back, and Mikey got a small stall up front where he could hang his head out all day and look outside, and hopefully not spin circles!

Mom and I finally got home, and we were happy to be home!

OSU Visit: 2/5 Thursday - Stem Cell Injection

My phone got all jacked up Thursday morning, so I missed the call for the stem cell treatment, so I missed seeing his leg unwrapped and how they were wrapping it. By this point they were finally wrapping both lower legs as both had fluid building up from him not moving.

I did get a call about my truck, and they said the rear line had been spliced by a past owner instead of being fixed properly. We knew the lines were rusty when we bought the truck, the question was how rusty. They needed to be changed anyway, and we were planning on doing that in the next year. We opted to have them replace all the brake lines (front and rear) with stainless lines. They said they would have to hand bend the lines, and it might not be done by the end of the day, but it would be done by noon Friday.

We went to the vet hospital and heard from the vet that everything went very well with the stem cell injection. She said that one incision was still leaking and they were worried about infection and wanted me to consider leaving him there for another week. They were fine with him going home or staying.

Much happier today, licking the wall after a mint.

 We brought Mikey a 3lb bag of carrots and he was very happy, and so the staff kept giving him carrots every time they checked on him.

I talked to my trainer, explained they wanted him to stay for a week at least and why, and we both agreed he should come home. My trainer was a vet tech for 8 or 10 years and keeps a meticulous barn, neither of us were concerned about infection. We made arrangements for what Mikey would need when he got home, so my mom and I were off to the local tack shop for shopping therapy!

I bought this wee little dog blanket for Nickels. It was on super sale!

Mikey had a good haul for the day. My wallet is extra empty.

Standing wraps, a wall treat to keep him busy, Back on Track No Bows, a new lead rope because he's had the same lead rope for almost 10 years, stall guards so he can hang his head out for the next 40-50 days, and some cheaper wrapping supplies. I also ordered Back on Track Hock Wraps from Smartpak.

We got a call from the Chevy dealership around 5pm that my truck was done. We had decided that if it wasn't done by 10 Friday morning, we weren't going to go home Friday because we'd be unloading in the dark. Unloading a horse that doesn't want to walk in the dark by backing him off the trailer didn't sound like a good idea.

We went to get the truck and thanked the dealership profusely. The person we were working with said that he told the mechanic that the truck was an emergency and he had til the end of the day to finish it. The bill was large, but better than we expected because nothing broke unexpectedly as they took apart the components and changed the lines.

We let the vet hospital know we would be taking Mikey home Friday, and went back to the hotel to pack.

Some pictures of Mikey in that evening:

Adorable boy :-)

OSU Visit: 2/4 Wednesday - Recovery Day 2 & Brake Failure Day

Apparently I didn't take many pictures on Wednesday, and none were post worthy!

We stopped by the vet hospital to see Mikey in the morning and I got him to move via mint offering. And by move I mean, awkwardly three legged sideways hop that almost looked like he was going to fall down and break a hip. Apparently he can walk, but moves awkwardly at first. They walk him to the treadmill room every day to change his bandage.

It was like, 40 degrees that day, so Mom and I decided to go to the Columbus Zoo for a few hours in the afternoon. We were on our way there when I got an error message on my truck dash that said "Service Brake System". I checked for error codes, nothing. I found the nearest Chevy dealer on my phone, and off we went.

When we got there, the building was empty, the parking lot was empty, and everything was just abandoned. Great. By this point I realized that when I stopped at traffic lights, after ten seconds or so, my truck would slide through the brake and creep forward.

I remembered that we passed a Ford dealership on our way to the Chevy dealership, so I went back there. I explained we were out of town, the truck brakes seemed to be going, I was supposed to take my horse home the next day, and he had had surgery two days before. They weren't willing to work on my truck because it wasn't a Ford. I didn't understand, they sell used cars. Not every used car is a Ford. Fix my brakes. Instead they sent me a quarter mile up the street to another Chevy dealer.

I got to the service center of that dealership, explained the brakes were going, out of town, horse had surgery at OSU, blah blah, emergency, can you fit me in today/tomorrow/this week? I was told, nope, nothing until next week. Try somewhere else. I asked, can you give me a phone number of a dealership near OSU? I wasn't about to keep driving a truck that was slowly losing it's brakes. They grudgingly gave me a phone number of yet another Chevy dealership. Thank goodness I was near a major city and they're all over the place.

The phone call went something like this:
Me: "I'm out of town, I lost my brakes, I have a horse at OSU for surgery and no way to get him home without the truck, and no way to get myself home either. This is an emergency. Can you fit my truck in sometime this week?"
Lady: "Well we might be able to get to it tomorrow."
Me: "Good enough for me, what's your address?"
Lady (whatever the address was) "Our service center closes at 6, will you be dropping it off after hours?" (it's about 3:30pm by now)
Me: "No, I'm coming by right now. I can't get anywhere else. Do you have a rental car available?"
Lady: "Well... I'm not sure. We might, but I think they're all gone."
Me: "I'm five hours from home, if you don't find a rental car I'm going to be sleeping in your showroom."

By this point in the day, I was frustrated and upset, and mom and I were mostly laughing so we didn't cry. Nothing else we could do.

To get to the dealership, I was that guy on the 70 mph highway going 45 mph with my blinkers on. I'm sorry. I got to my exit ramp, put my foot on the brake, and nothing happened. Talk about cold pits in your stomach. Pushed the brake down harder, finally got some stop.

By the time I got to the dealership, I had very little brake so I rolled my truck to a stop by running into a snow bank. I wasn't driving through the glass doors of the service center or hit one of the brand new cars.

We went in, they asked where's the truck, I pointed out the door and they said to bring it in, and I handed them the keys and said go for it. The brakes aren't so hot. The guy almost hit the glass door after pulling into the center.

They got me set up with a rental, a brand new Chevy Cruz with 3 miles on it. I think it wasn't a rental, and when I called and threatened to sleep in the showroom, it became a rental.

I apologize if anyone has a Chevy Cruz, but I hate that car. It's small, uncomfortable and I hate it. But it got us out of there.

As we were moving stuff to the crap car, some of the guys looked under the truck and waved us over. The rear brake lines were pouring all their fluid out onto the service center floor. They said they would have a mechanic look at it first thing in the morning and call us then.

We went back to the vet hospital after leaving the dealership and let them know that we couldn't take Mikey home Thursday like we planned, it would be Friday at the earliest. We stopped by to see Mikey and he was doing just fine, and being spoiled rotten by the staff. His 2lb bag of carrots was almost gone!

OSU Visit: 2/3 Tuesday - Recovery Day 1

Sorry this next post took so long, it's been a bit depressing lately.


The day after surgery Mikey was pretty miserable. That pretty much sums it up. He didn't care for the bandage on his leg, and refused to move. The students and techs tried to get him to move up to the front of his stall to eat his grain, hay and water, but he was determined to continue his bandage paralysis.

The look of misery.

I'm holding a mint trying to get him to move. He wasn't willing.

More misery.

Mom and I went back to the hotel and found some food before coming back in the evening. We brought a bag of carrots with us to keep on his stall since they were trying to making him move with treats. We came back to see this:

Spoiled rotten by the OSU staff.

His student caretaker had brought all his stuff to him, and he was much happier!

OSU Visit: 2/2 Monday - Surgery Day

**There are some pictures that some people might find disturbing. I took some pictures of the actual surgery, so just a heads up.**

We got up and had breakfast at McDonald's before going to the vet hospital. I mention it because we got to pay with love!

When we got there they had already sedated him and had him out for x-rays and an ultrasound. I panicked that I had missed saying bye to him because I never got a definite time in his surgery, just that he was first and only that day and they'd pick the time in the morning. I ran into a tech and she let me know where he was and that he was coming back before surgery.

I managed to snag a pic of him in his muzzle, but it was hard because the students were working on him and prepping him for surgery. He's got a happy guy sedated face. He wasn't so out of it- whenever he heard plastic crinkling, he was looking for mints!

I did scare Mikey's assigned student though. He was supposed to put Mikey's neck catheter in but was too nervous to do it in front of me. I do understand that but I'm happy a non-nervous student did it. She was very nice, and explained to me what she was doing (even though I was standing on the other side of his neck because I can't watch that kind of thing, it gives me the willies), and what she was shooting into it (pre-surgery antibiotics).

The vet doing the surgery, Dr Alicia Bertone, came by to talk to me and pulled me away to show me the new x-rays. They are digital and much more clear than what my own vet took. They also painted a more grim picture. Mikey had slipped or been kicked in a way that he hyper extended the inside tendon and tore it (this part was news to us, they ultrasounded it while they had him out) and crushed the outside bone, creating at least 8 chips, if not more. It's already classified as an 'old' injury since it's a month old. Apparently that was enough time for some of the chips to float around and destroy cartilage and to move down to the lower joint. basically it'll make it more difficult to remove them, if they can be removed at all. The body may have already encased them which would make them impossible to find. The few she thought would be hard to find wouldn't cause him harm in the long run, especially if she was going to cause more damage finding them and getting them out. They seemed to have low densities in the x-ray and had a good chance and being properly encased and reabsorbed if she couldn't get them out.

She did say she wasn't comfortable with him going home the next day because it looked like the surgery could be more complicated, but we could if we still wanted to. Obviously we said he'd stay until Wednesday, that wasn't an issue.

You probably have to click on the pic and make it bigger to see it, but there's two chips circled in red.

All of those broken bits in the red circle are chips. There's a flat section that was broken off as well in the circle. All of those needed to come out.

They jogged him on pavement and flex tested him before sedating him and taking x-rays. He was mildly lame jogging, but completely crippled after the flex test. I am glad I missed that part.

I was able to go back and see him briefly before they truly sent me away to the viewing room while they took him to the drop room. They said it would be about a half hour from when they took him until the time they brought him in. They took him to the drop room around 10:25.

My mom and I were showed the upstairs and waited for him to come in. He came in pretty quickly and he was in the room by 10:50. I kind of wanted to see how the drop room worked but I'm sure that's something they purposely do not let the owner see.

Surgery room waiting for Mikey to come in.

And he's in! They're getting his bad leg tied up at the angle they want.

There were so many people! so many people there to help fix my horse. My OTTB who will never be a million dollar horse is anyone's eyes but mine. It was overwhelming that all these people were there to help my insignificant-to-everyone-but-me horse. It was very surreal that a decision I made brought all these people together.

Partway through the surgery a student came up to check on me and let me know how surgery was going. Some of this info is filled in below as appropriate, but most is from the incredibly awesome view I had. I think I responded to his surgery ok by being able to detach myself from it. I was fascinated. My mom couldn't even look down into the room, she got too upset seeing him like that.

I watched them scrub his hock down (it had already been shaved), and organize their equipment. He was on his back (as you can see from the above pic) and on a ventilator. They covered him up from shoulder to tail and wrapped a iodine soaked cling wrap around the hock.

Seeing him on his back unconscious wasn't that bad. His legs were held up, and I could see his belly moving from the ventilator before they covered him up. He looked like he was in a state of perpetual rolling instead of dead. After he was all covered up, it was just his head and neck, sheets, hock, more sheets. I couldn't even see most of the horse.

The first thing they did was drain the fluid in the joint. It was bloody and full of nasty things. First extra bad sign.

Cutting into his leg (or through the iodine wrap, not sure), right before draining fluid.

They brought out the scope and cool enough, the cable glows! I could see the screen (but not what was on it) and all the students crowded around behind the surgeon to see it. They came in from the inside. There was a red light in it, I could see it shining out from under the skin on the outside of the hock.

His surgeon checking the joint with the scope.

They were doing a lot of moving around. I noticed they brought in a sprayer of some kind, cut a slit in the outside of the joint, and were flushing the entire thing. They started pulling chips out at this point, from both sides of the hock. More flushing, not a lot of blood, and chip after chip after chip. So many. They were laying them out on a tool table.

They pulled in an x-ray machine and started taking pictures. I thought they were done, but then they started digging again. The slit on the outside of the joint was widened to something they could pry the skin open and check it visually. It looked like they were checking to make sure that they got them all.

They brought in a bright light and that pretty much ended my view of what they were doing. His surgeon is sitting in the chair, and his supervising vet (who is a resident learning surgery) is standing working on the joint from the other side.

This was when the student came up to check on me and said that they were looking for the last few chips. They were still missing a couple. But she said he was doing incredible under anesthesia and the anesthesiologists weren't worried about a thing. Everything at the front of the horse was very strong and in good shape.

I believe they were sewing him up at this point.

Eventually they did stop and sew him up. The same student came up to tell us what was up and took us to get Subway from downstairs. I didn't want to leave but it was almost 1:30 by that point. She said Dr Bertone would be up to see us soon. We got back just after they had wheeled him out and were prepping to take him to the recovery box. I could see them getting him ready to take off the wheeled table and onto a hoist to take to the recovery box.

All done except the clean up.

I found out after from Dr Bertone that the bloody debris filled fluid was the first problem. The next was when they turned him upside down, the chips has migrated from the outside of the hock to the back of the hock. When they opened him up they couldn't see any of them. She said usually at that point, some surgeons call it a day and deem them irretrievable and sew the horse back up. She decided to try the plantar method of getting them out, which worked for most of them. There were two that were proving difficult, one they eventually found, but the other they could see on the x-ray but just couldn't find. It is probably already encased but shouldn't cause him any pain or effect the joint's performance. I believe it's the higher chip in the first x-ray above. He was already under for a long time and she had to decide how long was too long and how much damage she would do if she tried to find it. So she pulled the plug and sewed him up. She said that hock will probably always be larger because it had already started encapsulating itself, and he'll always flex positive on that joint.

She still considered the surgery very successful. She said it was one of the most complicated joint surgeries she had ever done. We were so glad we had opted to take him to her instead of a local surgeon, who would have probably opened him up, said this is beyond my skill, and closed him back up and then the horse would have had to travel to OSU anyway and be put under a second time.

While she was talking to us she got a call that he had stood up in the recovery room. Yay! That was my biggest fear- that he'd break himself waking up. OSU has a great recovery team and from the sound of it, a low incident rate when horses wake up.

We then talked about where to go from there. I was crushed to hear he had a good prognosis, but all that meant was he had a 50-70% chance of being sound enough for competition. She said that without the surgery, he would have been permanently lame for the rest of his life, and in pain as the chips slowly became a problem. She said we had done the right thing by him.

I told her my goals for the two of us, Prix St George, and asked if there was anything we could do to help raise the odds. She said they just finished a study on stem cells and tendon repair that was incredibly promising and had a statistically significant difference in improving the joint. It was an option, but a $1000 one. She said he was a lovely horse to work with and she could tell he was an athletic, capable partner, and because of that she felt comfortable recommending the procedure to us. She said if he wasn't a competitive horse, and such a lovely horse, she wouldn't have recommended it, but because of the goals we have and the incredible success they've had with it in the past, she didn't think it would be a waste of money. We agreed right then to do that this week.

It takes a few days for them to culture the right cells in Kentucky, but they'll be here by 9am Thursday. They have to be injected very soon after delivery because they are live cells. She put the order in while she was talking to us.

I asked if there was anything we could do for the cartilage damage since they had so much experience with stem cells and research in that area. She suggested an APS treatment that they did a research study on last year, which also had incredible success. They had a dressage horse come through that had a mess going on in one of his joints, he got the stem cell and APS treatments and is now just fine, going along as if nothing had happened. I think I'm remembering the details right for that horse, I was getting overwhelmed. Either way, it sounded like it was a similar thing as Mikey, so with the two treatments, Mikey should have a good shot. No promises because no two horses or injuries are the same, but a good shot. It was either the stem cell treatment or APS, I just can't remember, but only around 70 horses had had that particular treatment.

All during his surgery, our house refinance people had been calling and emailing me. I was so angry at them - the refi isn't happening and I was arguing that our credit was more than good, everything checked out, why the hell not?? By the time his surgery was over and the surgeon had spoken with us, I had fire for blood and I think that kept me from crying over Mikey in surgery, might not have a complete recovery, he's safe and sound awake and back on his feet etc.

We were finally allowed to go down and see Mikey, and he was one miserable pony. I'd expect no less, he hadn't had anything to eat in a long time (by the time he got back to his stall and was allowed to eat it was almost 4:30, and he was muzzled at some point the previous night), and I'm sure that leg was hurting pretty good. They had given him IV bute earlier, but it either had worn off or wasn't enough. He had his muzzle off and hay in front of him, but he was pawing like mad and then biting/chewing on the rubber mat flooring. His supervising vet came and talked to us. She said he couldn't have more bute for a few hours (too much and he could have kidney damage, I think that's what she said), but she did say she'd sedate him a little since he was so upset. A few minutes later he slowed down on the pawing and became a little interested in his hay. She suggested we leave him alone for a while because he'd had so many hands on him that day that he probably wanted to be left alone. It was at that point she asked if I was ok, because I kind of looked like I was about to cry. She assured me that we had done right by him and that they would check on him in about 15 or 20 min to make sure he had quieted down.

She gave me his bone chips and we left to go tell the hotel we needed to stay until Thursday morning. We also switched hotel rooms to one with a fridge and microwave, at a cheaper price (20% OSU discount!). I don't remember where we ate dinner, or if we did. We went back around 9pm to see him and he was much more comfortable and munching on his hay. He was still doing feng shui with the straw in his stall though.

The chips.

OSU Visit: 2/1 Sunday - Waiting Day

Sunday was boring. We got up, ate leftover turkey sandwiches from Saturday, checked on Mikey, went shopping at Kroger and got gas, looked for Panda Express, left Panda Express because I couldn't fit my truck in any on street parking in Columbus, so we settled on a chicken finger place for lunch, hung around at the hotel and chilled the wine we got at Kroger, went back to see Mikey (I fetched his brushes and brushed him for a long time), then went back to Applebee's to start watching the superbowl. Thrilling day. Not so thrilling for Mikey, he got his muzzle on sometime that night so he was forced to stop eating, but not drinking.

I spent some time Sunday getting more pictures of his stall and the orthopedic wing. Mikey was the only orthopedic horse in the wing for most of the week. Later in the week some young thing came in... it was literally climbing up the walls. I walked by and it was rearing. I'm glad I have a well behaved boy! A rescue horse came in too- someone had pulled him out of a field and was trying to make him a pleasure horse. He had surgery on both front legs on Thursday. Poor guy looked miserable, but should be in less pain from now on.

The orthopedic wing also holds the school's blood donor horses when they come to donate blood. I asked about them- they rotate to the vet hospital from an off site farm for some amount of time every 3 months to donate blood. They are always geldings, and are rescue horses that would have been euthanized. There were 4 at the hospital while Mikey was there.

Mikey eating hay. I think I took this one to get a good look at the ceiling.

Panorama shot of Mikey's stall. The silver person door and the wood square door in the back corner go to a back isle that stores hay and straw. The metal grate at the bottom goes to a conveyor belt that takes manure and straw to a composter thing outside.

 

The back isle.

 The orthopedic wing and the entry room.

Oh! I did get to find out where he would most likely go to be laid down and see the room (but not go in since it is a sterile room). They'll put him in a padded standing stall that has a wall that will slowly squeeze him as he goes unconscious and falls down. It'll slow his fall and help ensure he doesn't hurt himself. They'll get him on the table there and wheel him in to the surgical room. There are details I'm glad I'm not thinking about until now... Like to lift an almost 1200 pound horse from the floor to a table probably included tying his legs together and hoisting him with a crane or something. Not a picture I wanted to think about.

Some cute pictures of Mikey while he was still a happy go lucky boy with no idea about the misery that is to come. He's a silly boy!

Mom and I got a bottle of wine, and drank it out of the hotel plastic cups. Cheers! We toasted to a good surgery for Mikey.

Next post, surgery day.