Before we begin this tale, meet my sweet, fuzzy goofball, Hollywood Red Dawn:
Now, let's get into it...
It was late October 2025. I was waiting for the report from the farrier to see if Hollywood had another abcess in his right front hoof. Or maybe it was the same one from September, and it just hadn't healed fully. But when they pulled him in from the field, it was clear that whatever ailed him was much more serious than a hoof abcess.
His lower leg was swollen, and he was severely lame. Debbie--remember her name because she's the barn manager and will be referred to often-- Anyway, she called me once the farrier left. The vet would be there for another horse that Thursday. Two days. A call to the vet, Kim, had my boy put into a stall until she got there.
He has yet to come out for more than a brief walk.
Kim came with her fancy equipment on the 22nd. She took x-rays. They showed no abnormalities. She broke out the ultrasound... And I learned how to tell the difference between healthy ligaments and injured ligaments in the striated black-and-white imagery on the screen.
After what seemed like a bottle of ultrasound gel and Hollywood dancing further and further to the left as he tried to escape the pressure of the probe, Kim gave a decided diagnosis.
Hollywood had strained both his lateral and medial branches of his suspensory ligament.
Now, let me explain what the "suspensory ligament" is to those reading who may not be horse people. This is the ligament that runs from the back of the knee down to the fetlock joint. About halfway down it splits into the medial (inside) and lateral (outside) branches. This one ligament--well four of them since a horse has four legs--is responsible for supporting the weight of the beast above.
An injury to this ligament is bad news for any horse. But with proper rest and care, and slow rehabilitation, it's not necessarily catastrophic. Hollywood's injury wasn't too bad, either. He hadn't torn the ligament at all, just strained it. But, for a horse that's been on a slow path of weight loss and was still a bit on the chonky side, the injury was a bit more dramatic than it may have been if he was at a healthier weight.
So we began our journey to recovery by simply keeping him in the stall and only pulling him out for deep cleaning his bedding or the occassional spot bath. He got his leg iced once daily and was taking pain meds.
One month later, on November 22nd, his meds were swicthed to an NSAID. We monitored how he tolerated being taken off the Bute (pain med), and we were happy with the progress. On November 25th, just 4 days on the NSAID, I sent a video to Kim showing a Hollywood walking beautifully sound. (I hope you can see that below.)
I will update this as I can. Next time I'll talk about the incident I believe started this whole mess. Then the event that pushed us off the cliff onto the shakey ledge we now walk as we climb this long and arduous mountain.
Thanks for reading!
