Dawn continues to sort things out in the herd. Yesterday she came in with a scrape on the front of her left front cannon bone (glancing kick?) that wasn't much of an issue. Today when I was grooming I could see two dusty hoofprints, one on the underside of her left barrel and the other on her left stifle. It didn't even break the skin, but she clearly was double-barreled by someone. I was there at bring in and Dawn was hanging well away from the horses at the gate, and one of the dominant mares would threaten her every time she moved close. The good news is there's no swelling or heat so far, and Dawn is completely sound at the walk. But she's off at the trot, so we didn't do much lungeing, just a bit at the walk in both directions.
I was very proud of her - I rode her for the first time in over two and a half months, in a new place, and she was perfect. Her excellent behavior started right at the beginning - she stood like a rock on a loose rein by the mounting block and waited for me to get settled. We did some nice walking work for about 15 minutes - lots of circles and turns, exploring all parts of the arena, and she was completely sound throughout and clearly comfortable walking. There were two other horses working in there and she was good for that as well. It was great - good Dawn! I gave Dawn a gram of Bute to help with the soreness in her stifle, and with some luck she'll feel better in a day or so and we can start adding a bit of trot to our work as she gets back into shape. I'm keeping fingers crossed that she'll stay out of trouble in the pasture so we don't have new injuries to cope with.
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