At the end of last week, I went to put on DaVinci's muzzle and noticed he flinched. I noted it, but in that unconscious way. The next day was the horses day off the grass, so I went to take off his muzzle. This time he reacted almost violently as I reached toward his ears. UH OH RED FLAG!!!
My poor boy was so sore at, as best I could tell, the base of his right ear along the back. It took a little bit of time to get him to let me take a look. There was no obvious sign of injury, no abrasions or bumps, but he was telegraphing pain. I pulled out the Calendula and coated the base of his ear. He relaxed some and I could see slight swelling as I compared both ears, but nothing else. We could only guess that maybe Roscoe pulled to roughly on his muzzle. Over the next 3 days we did not even put a fly mask on him, to see if his ear would start feeling better. Of course that meant no riding either.
Each day his level of flinch decreased to the point that it was more a protective measure rather than pain filled.
Finally on Thursday, we felt he was healed enough to try his bridle. I made sure to put the right ear in first. He did pretty good and we had a great long and low bareback ride on the hills. I think he was ready to get back to work.
Around the base of his right ear some rough flaky texture developed. Maybe he got stung by some bug and caused the swelling. Who can say? Own horses long enough and you figure out that sometimes there are no answers to what happens to them. I am glad that his ear-y problem seems to have resolved it self.
His cute Garfield ears are perfect on DaVinci, but not when in pain.
Onto the next unknown :)
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