I would like to print a retraction

In my first post, I believe I said Woods wasn’t very stoic.  In the spirit of honest journalism and in fairness to Woody, I must correct this falsehood.

When I got to the barn yesterday my friend told me that Woody was almost three legged when she brought him in that morning.  She picked out his foot and found a rock lodged in cleft of his frog.  I figured he’d be a little sore, and went out to the field to get him.  Now you tell me, how is this NOT the sweetest thing?

The cat was trying to serve as a distraction to keep Heather-squared and Ram away from us.  She failed in the long run… I had to let Woody go when all three cam stalking up and I really didn’t want to be in the midst of a melee.

So I finally collected The President of the AV club, and took his limping nuzzling self into the barn.  Luckily my (amazing) farrier was coming out that day anyway, so I figure if it was a bruise or even an abscess at least our timing was good.

And here is where the retraction comes in.  If Woody isn’t a stoic solid boy, I don’t know who is.  On the first day I met Woody he took a few REALLY off steps.  We figured he had stung himself and would work out of it.  Sure enough when I went to pick him up the next day he was sound and walking evenly.  Well, as is documented by these pictures, Woody had(s) an abscess that is almost as big as the entire sole of his foot (which my farrier informs me will eventually fall off… nice). 

Not only was Woody a total gentleman while Billy was poking and prodding and digging, but when it came tome to put the shoe (with pad) on, Woody was a total gentleman .  He twitched on the first hammer stroke, then put his head in my chest and stood rock solid.  Even Billy was impressed, and that’s not an easy feat.

A little prodding

A little poking

A little digging

And Voila!  A little bleeding.

Billy did his magic and Woody appreciated it.  We both decided he’d probably be off for about a week, and called it a day.  We also decided that Mr. Gimpy shouldn’t be put in a situation where he would have to make the horrible decision to

1. Run away on his three good legs or
2. Be eaten by The Heathers n’ Ram

So we left him in for the night.  My beau (who when at Tractor supply bought Woody TWO bags of treats because he “wasn’t sure which one Woody would like”) helped me tuck him in for the evening.

This morning I went out after taking my ridiculous dog Newman in to get his hairs cut.  I was greeted with a subdued whinny and a very ouchy stumble to the stall door.  Luckily My friend has a small (40×40ish) paddock where she’s going to let me keep him until he’s ready to run for his life again.  There is a LOVELY stallion at the Farm (A son of Fleetwood Mac) and while the electric keeps him from actually discussing topics of great importance with Woody, he does seem pleased to have someone nearby to lord over.

Here’s Woody in his special Classroom, He seems pretty happy with it:

Here’s a short video of “His Lameness” 

And Maybe, just MAYYYYBE you said to yourself when looking at those pictures “Self, is it me or does that OTTB has freshly shorn ear-holes.”  Well, if you did, you’re right.  I brought out my REAL clippers (Ozzy’s Bane as I have named them) and since he was so good with the crappy (but super quiet) ”fisher-price my first clippers” I turned on him the other day, I thought I’d start getting him used to something a little more substantial.

I like to start out slowly with young guys, and my plan was just to turn them on and get them as close as I would tolerate while he stood quietly.  Yeah, Woody leaned into them and let me clip the inside and outside of his ears.  I also touched up his bridle path a bit more, but whoever clipped it last apparently was planning on taking him to an Arab show, so there’s about 3 inches that has some growing out to do.

Why There’s no Hair in them there ears!!! 

While I was very impressed, you can see that Woody is all Whatevs.  He doesn’t understand what the cookies were all about, but he was happy to get them (He liked both types of treats Matt bought him by the way, he’s a smart kid)

So for the next week, Woody and I will continue with the beautification and getting to know you process.  I don’t know what he could possible do to make me any more prematurely smitten.  He’s just what I needed.