SOLO CRAFTS: What a week !!!!!!

Poor Rock!!!
Rock of the North is an ex-racehorse who had to be retired from racing some time again because of injury, he raced all over England, Scotland and Ireland where he retired. His Irish jockey Roney Wilson took care of Rock after his retirement but because of his many commitments sent him to me 2 years ago. When he arrived he had very rarely if ever been turned out in a field, now he spends most of his time out socialising with the other horses he also had very poor feet and I got to the point where the farrier could not keep the shoes on his because there was nothing to nail into, so after much deliberation I decided to take the shoes of permanently. He spent the first month very sore and it took a lot of TLC to build his confidence enough for him to go back out to the field, needless to say you would never know he ever had shoes on at all. Some people in the horsey world say thoroughbreds like Rock are an absolute pain in the BUT!!! they give you nothing but trouble, cost too much to keep and are generally nothing but trouble!!!!!!!!! well I personally think that they deserve to be treated the same way we treat (or should treat) all animals, that is with respect, they can't speak to tell us when they are in pain and unlike dogs, horses do not make a sound when they are in pain, you just have to go by your instinct or the obvious signs of distress.
Monday morning came and as usual I popped out to feed the horses, Rock was standing at the gate looking very sorry for himself, Hmm! he then proceeded to rub his head against my arm and would not leave me alone to feed the other horses, Hmm! the left side of his face was constantly in view then to my horror when he turned round he had the most horrendous swelling to his right eye............... He was trying to tell me something was wrong all this time, Poor Rock !!!! I quickly took him out the field and into his stable. Using a saline solution (sterilised water and salt) I bathed his eye, OMG! I was frantic, eyes worry me whether they are human or otherwise, I knew that I had to call the vet.
Kate arrived half an hour later and was shocked at how bad the swelling was, she injected dye into his eye to check there was no damage to the cornea and thankfully there was not, gave him an anti-inflammatery and steroid injection and told me to bathe it 4 times a day and hopefully the sweeling would go down. Tuesday morning it was worse !!!!! I called Kate out again, this time he had to be sedated, another double injection and more dye, Poor Rock!! now when a horse the size of 2 cows is sedated it is not easy to move him around, when Kate left he managed to trap me inside his stable as he was stuck across the entrance to his door, I had to stay there untill my husband David came from work with 3 burly men to move him, Poor Me ! I was frozen..... anyway Rock is now looking a lot better and has got his cheeky Irish spark back, looking for mints in my pocket and shouting for the girls out in the paddock, he will have to remain in his stable untill the swelling has completely gone down, knowing Rock that will not be too long now. Here's the pictures I took to send to the senior partner in the vet school of Rocks eye and how it looks now.

Monday morning

Friday night

What an improvement, thank goodness. Amazing what a little TLC can achieve, I only wish more people got the satisfaction I do when I look after the animals. Here's another of Rock when he is happiest, playing with his best buddy Solo, he also has a story of his own wich I will share with you some other time.