Called Morrie's

Jimmy will be going to Morrie Waud Equine Center for his surgery. I mailed the CD of X-rays in this morning & hopefully they will get them by Saturday & call me once they've been reviewed. I put three $.42 stamps on there... so hopefully it's a speedy delivery! I wasn't sure how much postage is now, or how much I should put on a CD, so I just put three on there.

I talked with a friend last night & she said her track horses had this surgery in the past & they always gave each horse at least 6 months before putting them back into a program because the surgery is so invasive.

When I talked to the surgeon that will be doing Jimmy's surgery yesterday, Dr. Goodin (I love that name), he said recovery time is typically 1 month stall rest, then 1 month stall rest + hand walking + 1 more month restricted turn out before they can "go back to work". I hope it's more along the lines of what Dr. Goodin said, but only time will tell. I will give Jimmy as long as he needs.

HOWEVER: that said... Let's live hypothetically for a few minutes. Say The surgeon calls to review Jimmy's x-rays Monday, and says they can't fit him in until May 30th. We schedule it, a month from now. Now let's say Jimmy recovers at the longer length...6 months post-surgery until ridability. That puts us into November, at a barn with no indoor and terrible, frozen footing in the out door, which essentially means no riding Jimmy until NEXT SPRING if he doesn't heal quickly from surgery. BUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT, like I said. I will be giving him as long as possible, and praying that this is a smooth and swift process. I don't mind paying off the surgery for months and months... but waiting for him to heal for over a year just breaks my heart.

On the "break my heart" note... today I found the original e-mail I received from the woman who originally rescued Jimmy. Here it is:

"So glad to hear he is doing good. We did rescue him along with his three 1/2 brother and sisters. We did not get to see his mother and not sure what breed she was, but the mother did not die. His father was a sorrel and white paint. The man we got him from was disabled and could not care for them and his wife had just left him. I am not a rescue but I do love horses. I saw the add in the paper and went to pick out one. When I got there I had to take all four because they looked so bad and starved. They were kept in a stall and there was no food that I could see. We kept a colt, my mom has one of the fillies and we keep in touch with the owners of the other filly. They are all doing good with their training. I do have a picture of him when we got him, he had never been touched. I will find the picture this week and send it to you. It is so neet to see him. Please send more pictures or e-mail them."

Pretty amazing. Friend of mine also suggested that these chips in his fetlocks are due to malnutrition at a young age. If this e-mail doesn't admit that, then I don't know what does. Pretty amazing.