Still standing ...

after all the horrifying tornados this past week. WOW, what a MESS. Thank God we and the horses were all fine. Our county schools have been closed for the past 2 days. Kody's play for this evening was cancelled since the kids haven't practiced since Monday night, but is on for tomorrow and Sunday. I hacked bareback Tuesday, and had PLANNED to ride in the ring Wednesday, but the wind ... WOW, the wind. It was positively scary! Thursday, got the Muffin out to groom/tack up, and discovered some pretty significant swelling on his right hock. There was a spot that looked like it may have been a little puncture, and the area around the inside of the hock area was very swollen and had a definite hot spot. I went ahead and took him up to the ring and got on to walk; closed my eyes and concentrated on his gait; not lame. Picked up a trot ( which actually felt REALLY nice ), and again ... not lame. So, I lightly worked him for about 15 minutes, thinking that may help the swelling go down. I then cold hosed for 20 minutes, then painted with DMSO/cortisone. Today, it looks MUCH better. Virtually no swelling, and no heat, phew:) Went ahead and cold hosed again for 10 mins, and applied the DMSO mixture again, just in case. Hopefully Monday I can get back on track with some sort of a riding schedule.