Quincy Dan's maladies

I've never had kids. I've had dogs, I even had a cat a couple times, and now I have a horse. Quincy Dan is my 5 year old golden child. Thanks to people who know way more about horses than I do (you know who you are), I know better than to actually TREAT him like a child (most of the time). Still. He had a trauma last Thanksgiving. I was at my mom's in Washington. Gina -- Quincy's and my current landlord and overall wise guardian to us both -- called me around 11 a.m. to tell me that Quincy's leg was stuck out behind him. Stuck. He was dragging it as he sort of walked on the other three legs. Imagine the patella in your knee slipping out and staying there. For the better part of 18 hours. That's what happened to Quincy. It's called "upper fixation of the patella" for anyone taking notes. Nobody could get his leg back into place, but not for lack of trying. I spent Thanksgiving hysterical, calling Gina every couple hours, in google research madness, and convinced that my horse would be lame forever. The vet had said that if the leg didn't pop back in, we were looking at emergency ligament-cutting surgery. My poor mother. I was inconsolable. I cut my trip short and paid the ridiculous change fee to fly back the next day on a 7 a.m. flight. By the grace of God, Quincy somehow put his own leg back into place sometime Thanksgiving night. So, when I got home around noon, he was walking, albeit stiffly. Goodbye bullet-proof horse. Hello rehab. With Gina's help, I began the process. It was going well. Good body work, exercises to build up the right muscles, good stuff. He was feeling good.

Then, I began to think about my very long, 10-day trip across country. The loading and unloading. I thought about Quincy's last trailer loading experience: 30 minutes at the beach where he was, um, "reluctant" to get in. So, I decide that we'll start practicing. Bottom line: we got in and out of the trailer about 10 times. It was at least two times too many. Too much for that hind end. Three days later, his leg got stuck again. Not as bad, and luckily we had a master cranio sacral teacher giving a workshop at the ranch, and she talked Gina through loosening him up enough to get his leg back where it should be. That same teacher gave Quincy a 2 1/2 hour cranio session the next day, which really helped him. That was three days ago.

Yesterday, I went out to turn him out, and his eyes were teary and swollen.

How the hell do you people with kids do it? Was it a virus? A reaction to cranio (which tends to loosen up sinuses)? Whatever. All I knew is that my horse was hurting and now seemed sick on top of it.

These days, I take most things in stride. I take things one at a time. But my horse? He gets hurt and I'm completely undone. He has the sniffles, and I'm convinced he's suffering some incurable disease.

And yet, even with the worry and the fretting, he's the one who makes me feel human. Sure, it's not a kid. But, for me, he may as well be. They say they're farm animals. Most of the time I get that. But when my beautiful boy is sick, I think it's tough to not anthropomorphize. I'll take that criticism.

Quincy is better today, btw. Let's all pray he's healthy and sound on departure day.

28 days until blast off.