No Quitter!

Today was really cool since I got to see hoof surgery! we dug into the side of the hoof the remove a quitter, only it wasn't a real quitter (though i'm still not 100% on what it is exactly, but this wasn't one) and once we got into the hoof laminae there was a keratoma, so we dug that out. then the vet drilled into the side of the hoof and braced it with wires that he threaded through and tied together in the middle. it was really interesting to see hoof surgery, for some reason it just seems crazy to me to open it up and that it will heal. I know its like ripping off a toe nail, it does grow back and its weird but possible, but still mind boggling. anyway after that i got grabbed to go on a call for a weird lameness test. basically this horse after being ridden from a walk would sort of extend his feet out back like he was taking a pee. i ran him up and down a bit for the vet to look at, then he got his tack on and the owner rode him a bit. we were worried when we got there since he wasn't doing it lately, and this has been an ongoing problem so if it wasn't presenting then there's not much we can do about it. but he started doing it pretty consistently, it was a really weird thing that was happening. so we did a nerve block on his hock joint, which was cool because i've only seen a forelimb nerveblock and not one in the joint. after the block we rode him again and still the same thing happened, so its reall perplexing as to whats going on. the vet was going to block a bit further up the leg but she decided to not make him totally hate us and do the block in a few weeks time. then we quickly stopped at a yard to take a blood sample and weigh a few pony's and a donkey, and i got to take the blood sample! so now i've taken blood on everyone! the pony has cushings so they're monitoring it to see how he's coming along. after that we did a quick dental, but nothing really needed to be done, though it was nice to have a feel of what 'normal' looks and feels like, so that was helpful.