Twists of fate
After working for two years in Australia, work then took me back to New Zealand. Lucy was sold to a lovely teenager who rode her beautifully and I started looking for a new horse. After a few months I found little Perdy (another chestnut mare, off the track) but again another laid back and very sweet character. I took her shoes off, brought her boots, found an expert trimmer and started to rehabilitate her feet and her sore body when disaster struck. One horrible evening about four months after I’d brought her, I found her in the paddock with an oozing and swollen wound to her fetlock. We washed it and got the vet out, but after two weeks of antibiotics, the swelling hadn’t gone down, although the wound itself was healing well.
I regret now not taking her straight to the equine hospital at that point but the local vet was happy to keep dosing her with antibiotics, and wasn’t as concerned as I was about the swelling. But as time went on and things didn’t improve I eventually decided to call the equine hospital for myself for a second opinion. They told me to bring her up to them, so I did. I never forget taking poor Perdy into the x-ray room, whilst they were unwrapping the wings of a wild albatross they’d just been xraying. We were standing about 4 feet away from this amazing, big and rather pee’d off bird. Perdy kept her eye on the bird, and her head very close to me. 99% of horses would have made a fuss, but she just took it in her stride and stood calmly whilst we waited our turn.
The results of the xray couldn’t have been worse, infection had got into and was ruining the surface of her fetlock joint. Joints are very hard to rehabilitate, because you cant get antibiotics into them and the damage had been done anyway. The vets told me that Perdy didn’t have a future as a working horse, and carrying foals would put too much weight onto a deteriorating joint. I bought her home, and kept up the antibiotics, but the leg was just getting stiffer. So with winter coming, I had to face facts and in the end I took the horrible decision to have her put down, I’m still gutted to this day….and feel that I let her down by listening to the local vet, rather than getting her up to the Equine Hospital when there may have been the chance to operate on and clean out the joint.
Anyhow, the weird upside of this sorry tale whilst I was getting over losing Perdy I was asked by work to go back to the UK to study. With no horse to consider, the decision was pretty easy. And maybe things happen for a reason, because whilst I was back in the UK, I met (and fell in love with) my (now) wonderful husband. That meant staying in the UK and the opportunity to change careers. So losing Perdy put me on the path to training as a podiatrist. A silver lining that I could only see in hindsight. Thankyou Perds, I still miss you tho.
