Not So Good

Oh man, oh man. Why, why, why do I so easily and freely give my heart to these animals who then have complete power to make devastate me? Dreams are so easily shattered and the pieces just dissolve and float away like the salt in my tears.

Riyah's surgery was this morning. They spent 40 minutes prepping her and the surgery lasted another 2 1/2 hours. I stayed and watched it all through the observation window. Dr. Cody called me in to see the screen before he finished up and gave me the bad news. Riyah has pretty significant damage to the cartilage in the joint even though he successfully removed the bone fragment, debris, and other gunk. The cartilage is eroded (actually it looked shredded to me); he thinks it was either injured somehow that day at the arena (hyper-extension type injury?) or it may have been going on for a while even before that. (Possibly due to the fact she was so malnourished during her first couple of years.) It's not good either way. Bone on bone is hard to fix.

Riyah will not have an endurance career after all. She may be ridable in 9-12 months, if her cartilage can fix itself. He told me that was a big if. Dr. Cody says realistically he gives her a 70% chance of being brood mare sound only. We talked about stem cell therapy and platelet rich plasma pros and cons. Extremely expensive and not scientifically proven to make a difference, but an option if I want it.

Anyway, by the time I left I was reeling from the blow. I had big dreams for this mare. I knew the risks going in, but I jumped in with both feet and fell in love with her anyway. I kept it together long enough to drive myself home, and then I fell apart for a little while. It's OK because I'll put myself back together tomorrow so I can go pick Riyah up and bring her home. It will be a long road to recovery. We'll take it a day at a time and see where the road leads. I can only make the decisions I need to make today. The rest will have to wait and see what the future brings.