Yesterday I got out to the barn, and upon running my hand down one of Smitty’s delicate little legs immediately had a shock. His right hind was swollen and hot. Further investigation showed a really long scrape down the inside of the leg, about 8 inches long.

I threw him on the lunge and if I wanted to nit-pick, I would say he wasn’t stepping quite as under on that hind as the other, and was more sluggish to the right. But not obviously off. So I threw my ice boot on it and waited 30 minutes.

Annoyed with my standing just out of reach

After the half hour, I removed the ice packs, and applied surpass to the leg, avoiding the scrape itself. My hope is to go out again this evening and rinse and repeat the process, assuming it hasn’t gotten noticeably better.

It was bound to happen eventually, so here’s hoping Smitty’s first incident is just a small one.