Relative Something

Yesterday morning, our horse handler from This Old Horse and the nutritionist from Purina visited to assess the horses’ diets. It has been one year and one month since the nutritionist’s last checkup.

She calculates the weight of the horses from a measurement around their girth using a proprietary Purina tape that shows the approximate weight associated with the number of inches. She also feels for their ribs and then assigns a score designating their overall condition.

The weight of two of the horses hasn’t changed and two have dropped a little but all of them scored well within the healthy guidelines.

She had no changes to recommend for the care and feeding we have been providing.

That’s a rewarding assessment to receive. In addition, it is always fun to hear people’s glowing opinions of Wintervale as a horse paradise. We’re definitely biased and agree emphatically with positive impressions but it is always reassuring to hear others verifying our sense of things.

After their visit, Cyndie and I headed to Tria Orthopedics in Stillwater for the two-week assessment of her two incisions. We were hoping for the removal of her stitches but just like a year ago, they decided to give it one more week for her skin to close more completely.

We did get to see the X-ray of her bones, post-surgery. Here is the before and after:

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It is easy to see the holes in her bones from the screws. With the plates and screws removed, Cyndie was already able to fit into a shoe and walked into the building for the appointment.

We are not bothered by needing to return in another week because it cuts any risk of complications from removing stitches too soon. At this point, the Athletic Trainer who looked at Cyndie’s ankle gave the healing scars a comforting level of approval.

Huzzah for healthy horses and healing incisions. We are basking in the happy vibrations of good results in both realms.

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