Gogo's New Career

Well.

I guess I have to have a little humor about this whole ordeal.

Gogo has a new career.

What is it?



Yep. It's true.


Sunday afternoon's feeling-a-little-weird progressed later that evening into full out, dead hopping lame on the right hind when I went out to check her that evening. Even with 1000lbs of Banamine in her, she was way lame. Way, way lame. And I just knew. I knew.

Yesterday afternoon, I trailered her back up to Dr. C's, knowing that the news was going to be bad, but unsure of the severity. Sure enough, when we jogged her out, she was about 2.5/5 lame on the right hind. Ultrasound showed that she had reinjured the same area on her SDFT, and also had fiber disruption below it, lower than it ever was. Dr. C's advice? Turn her out for a year or two and see what happens then.

So.

I guess that's that.

Honestly, if she can't stay sound even in medium work, then it's better for me to know now than to try and put her back into heavier training and have her breakdown then. If she puts one foot wrong while out for a light toodle and ends up hurt, then there's no way she can hold up to eventing, or jumping of any sort for that matter. Her injury isn't serious by any means, but the fact that it is recurring no matter what we do doesn't bode well for the future. I do think that she'll be a nice trail horse down the road, and maybe can do some dressage, but we're talking years away from now. For the foreseeable future, she's a lawnmower and a pasture puff.

But you know. It's all right. She's still alive, and healthy, and good. We could probably go at this aggressively once again, but to what end? I can't lock her in a stall for another year for no reason. I just can't do that to her. She means far too much to me, and it's no longer fair to her.

Who knows? It's probably my fault, I'm sure I did something wrong somewhere along the way. But I tried my hardest for her. I did everything I could, everything I knew how to do. I fretted over ever step she took, iced and coldhosed her after every hard work, wrapped and poulticed and babied her every moment of the day. I kept her only on good footing, wasn't working her hard, wasn't asking anything unreasonable of her, wasn't trying to push for anything. She had the best of everything - best footing, treadmill, my hawkeye on her all the time. And she still didn't stay sound. So that's that.


Only one person asked if I was going to get rid of her. Psh... of course she's not going anywhere. I'd rather have her as a fat, hairy, waddling pasture puff burning her way through a steady pile of hay than not have her at all. She's my family, and she's not going anywhere. Who knows? Like I said, maybe in a few years she can get back to some light work. I owe so much to her. She's the reason I moved to New England in the first place. She's the reason I got into natural hoof care. She's everything to me.


Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the Eventing-A-Gogo blog, which is a little bit sad. Clearly Gogo's not going anywhere, so she's still going to be the focus of my writing, even though there probably won't be many interesting adventures in the foreseeable future. Maybe as I get into hoofcare, I'll be writing about that more. And of course, there's the great possibility that I'll be adding another project horse to my little family somewhere down the line. We're all still heading to North Carolina, so who knows what might be in store for all of us down there?



Oh Gogo. No matter what, you're still the best, and I will always love you.