The Queen is not Queening

Cinder is a drama queen. She is a redheaded mare after all. She let's you know her opinion on things, especially if its a negative opinion or if she's hurting. So it came as a total surprise when she blew an abscess last week. 

I didn't get my phone out quick enough for the full on mare glare, but I'm sure you can guess her opinion on having her foot soaked

The past few weeks Cinder has been feeling about 98% sound, with just an occasional off step on the right hind. No heat, no swelling, no reaction to palpation. We though it was just a remnant of her issues this summer, and maybe the joint injections were still not taking full effect. The off steps would go away once she warmed up and was really moving out, so we weren't too worried about it. Part of the reason we decided to show her was to work her more and see if the lameness got worse, but that didn't really happen. 

That lovely little line at the top of her hoof was the culprit 

Thursday while I was tacking up for my lesson I noticed she had a slightly puffy right hind. No heat, and no reaction to palpation, but she did have a fresh scrape on the leg. We figured she probably whacked herself in turnout and since she is one to swell at the drop of a hat, it wasn't anything major. Trainer M had me walk for 20mins and the swelling went down so we did a light lesson and she felt fine.

Cinder gets a trainer ride on Fridays, and when M pulled her out, she had a lot of gunk on that right hind hoof. M poked and prodded and "a big ass abscess" blew out the top of the hoof.  M told me with how big the abscess seemed to be, she would have expected Cinder to be way more dramatic and in pain than she was showing. When she had her fist abscess at two and half, she acted like her leg was falling off, so I agreed with M. The drama queen was not drama queening. 

I had to hold up a front leg so she would stand full in the water

Since Cin was still as sound as she had been, M had me ride in my Saturday lesson. We just walk-trotted, but Cinder felt the best she had in a long time. We think the abscess had been brewing for a while and that was what was causing the occasional off step. Hopefully that's the case and she continues to feel sounder.