A Light at the End of the Tunnel for Frankenhorse

Mia's first turnout on Aug. 5.

Getting ready to go to WEG has a way of totally consuming your time, but I didn’t want to leave for France without giving you all an update on Frankenhorse. In my last update, Mia finally received clearance to start hand walking, and Dr. Wade Wisner of Green Glen Equine Hospital gave the word to start two hours of daily turnout on Aug. 5. We used the smallest paddock we have and gave her Ace, and aside from a couple passes of trotting back and forth, she settled right in to graze.

She’s since graduated to a slightly larger paddock and is out all day. She is still on Reserpine and will be for the next month or so, and that definitely helps keeps her quiet in the field. She seems very content to talk to her friends over the fence and munch on hay in the sunshine. Dr. Wisner has given the go ahead to start some light lunging this week — when I’m away at WEG, of course — and then she can start walking under saddle again toward the end of the month.

First roll in a field since the injury.

Being gone at WEG and then away on vacation in September will stymy her rehab schedule a little, but she should be well on her way to walking the wonderful conditioning hills we have at Stonewood Farms by the third or fourth week of September. That puts us a bit ahead of schedule from what Dr. Wisner originally estimated, and that’s in large part because Mia hasn’t taken a lame step yet. Every time she has trotted in her field, she’s looked perfectly sound.

Of course, there’s still a long way to go. The wound has now almost totally closed up — as you’ll see in the photo gallery below — but there is a lot of scar tissue left on the muscle. My wonderful equine massage therapist Darlene Latshaw worked on her yesterday, and we’ll keep slowly working on getting the shoulder back to normal, or at least as much as it can be. We expect there will ultimately be a dimple in the muscle, which is fine with me as long as she is sound.

click for a larger view

Mia is also still getting her weekly SpectraVET Therapeutic Laser treatments, and I can’t thank Peter and Molly Jenkins enough for letting me borrow the unit. Thank you to everyone who has followed along with Mia’s journey. By the next time I update, she’ll be lunging and about to start work under saddle. #teammia

The Frankenhorse Chronicles:

June 27: How My OTTB Decided to Spend the Summer as Frankenhorse

June 30: The Eventer’s Five Stages of Grief

June 30: Adventures in Catastrophic Wound Care

July 7: Frankenhorse Goes Commando and Other Wound Care Tales

July 10: Christmas Comes Early for Frankenhorse

July 21: Frankenhorse Gets Her First Taste of Freedom

July 30: Frankenhorse Still Remembers How to Buck