Ever seen a cremello with dapples?! I scrubbed and scrubbed before I realized what I was looking at!
For those who know Dolly, she is improving. For those who don't. . . .
Dolly is a June 2005 foaled cremello Quarter Horse mare. A "victim" of divorce, unfortunately, she has not been AQHA registered, and she belongs to my ex-husband.
About three weeks ago, she was found three-legged lame in the pasture and was subsequently diagnosed with a radial nerve injury that left her unable to feel or properly use or move her right foreleg. In fact, the injury left her completely unable to set her hoof down properly (she drug the toe of her foot, and could not bear much weight on the leg at all), or even lift it off the ground of her own accord.
While she is improving as I said above, she's by no means 100%. The muscles behind her scapula are seriously atrophied, and I'm hesitant to consider that she will fully recover. Because she's been on "stall rest," it's hard to tell for sure whether the muscle is wasting away from the inability to use it, or simply not moving around enough to use it.
I went to my ex's house to do some grooming and such with our daughter, since I board my horse there as well. One of those mother-daughter things. We decided to work on Dolly, and to my suprise, she came out of the barn walking with a significant limp, but picking up and setting down her foot very well. She even jumped the 6" mud puddle at the barn door, lol
She handled her first bath extremely well for a 4 year old who'd never been hosed before! She made a few startled circles around me, then settled in to graze the lawn while I hosed, and washed, and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed! lol
This picture is the result of my realizing as she dried that she's not that horribly poop-stained, she's actually DAPPLED! Her dapples are of course a bit darker than her cream colored hair, almost a very light shade of palomino when she's wet. Dried, they are next to impossible to see.
