Hellooo 2017

Bestie and I had a little good bye to 2016 and hello to 2017 moment on New Year's Eve afternoon last weekend (that I am just getting around to posting). Things have been going well at the barn. She's happy there and hanging companionably with the other mares. I haven't ridden since early December due to a variety of reasons - weather, business, a cold, lack of initiative, forgetfulness about alerting the ring owner prior to a ride ... whatever. I usually walk her down the road on my visits, unless it's absolutely too blustery.

The inflamed follicle business has definitely slacked off, thank goodness, but she did have a big one on her face that I discovered last week. We'd had a nice laid back hour of grooming and hand grazing, and right as I was about to walk her back to the barn to pick out her feet, I spotted a bleeding spot on her jawline. Yikes, nothing like blood to get your heart pounding. A couple of days later, Laurie pointed out another small one on Bestie's jawline.

The photo below shows the two spots on her jaw; hard to actually see them clearly because her coat is so amazingly thick and long this year (much more so than during all those years in Vermont). The lower one was positively ugly. She had apparently rubbed it raw and it was about an inch long and a half inch in diameter. Conferring with Laurie and Amanda at the barn, I decided to keep it clean and treated with ointment for a few days to see if it would clear up. Laurie helped with cleaning and treatment on days I couldn't be there. The smaller spot was pretty typical, just oozing a little waxy oil, so I cleaned it and dabbed it with TriCare ointment. 

When I came back to the barn after two days, and two days of treat the spots, I was relieved to see that the big spot had crusted over. It is still kind of rough and raised, like a scab would be, so hopefully it heals over smoothly soon. And hopefully these will be the last spots. The poor thing. When I groomed her a couple days ago I took off my gloves and really ran my hands over every inch of her, looking for more spots. She probably feels like I'm always picking and rubbing at her, but she stands quietly and tolerates it. Such a good girl.