Please Pray!!

Okay. Here's the sparknotes version of what has happened in the last few days:

Dr. Bullock came out to look at Dakota. Did an exam, blocked the right side nerves in this front left pastern. Still 10% lame after the block, so he went on to x-rays. Got 2 shots. The calcium deposit that Dr. White in Sallisaw said was completely harmless... wasn't harmless. It damaged a co-lateral ligament on one of the joints. Dakota needs surgery so that Bullock can go in, remove the calcium deposit, and clean up the area. Six months of recovery time. [He's already been out six months with this lameness.] After the six months... we slowly bring him back to see if the surgery has worked.

There's no guarantee. If the "easy" surgery doesn't work [$500-600], then we would have to spend around $4,000 [closer to 5,000-6,000 probably] to have a specialist fuse the joint together. Please pray! I don't know exactly what to do. I've already talked this out at length with my parents [and gave them a headache - hah, they should live in my head for a day!] about our choices and my thoughts about our choices. First of all - we won't sell him for anything if we don't at least try the first surgery. He'd have to be put down because he isn't worth anything. [My trainer blames PETA for devaluing horses. I'll have to get back to you on my own personal opinion of this later], or be sent to the auction, where more than likely he'd be bought for dogfood or to be made into a European delicacy because again... he isn't worth anything to anyone else.

I wish time wasn't an issue for me. But I'm going to start college in about a year and a half. College is darned expensive. Horses are darned expensive. Yes, I would have the time to ride. No, if wouldn't have the money to ride. On the other hand, if I had the money I wouldn't have the time because I'd be working for that money. Am I making sense? I mean, I knew that I would probably have to sell Dakota before going off to college. But I thought that wouldn't be until my senior year in high school. Right now we should be routinely jumping novice jumps. We should be dominating beginner novice schooling shows. He should be worth more than the $3,500 that we paid for him. But he isn't. And it breaks my heart. I mean, if he wasn't just EIGHT years old, it might be easier. If I knew he had lived a full, happy life, it would be easier to make this decision. He hates stall rest. He hates turn out for too long. He hates not having a job. He's too smart to sit around doing nothing. But he'd have six whole months of that. Of less than what he is doing now, which is next to nothing, so he could recover.

But... on the other hand, the decision could be worse. I have a FREE horse waiting in the wings for me if I need it. Dr. Randall has a bay, eight year old gelding that has been out to pasture for several years. I'm itching to get my hands on it to work with it! I mean... I've been riding for 5 1/2 years... heck, I could have a master's degree in riding with how long I've been doing it. I want to be able to take a horse that was out to pasture and bring it up, make it worth something, and be able to say... heck yes, I did that. And I sold him to a good home because he was worth something. But then I think about Dakota, and all we've been through together. He's been my BABY for 3 years now! Three years. Well... three years in January. But that's less than a month away.

I want to ship Dakota off to Jamie's place after his surgery for his recovery period, and try to convince my dad to let me take on the free horse while Dakota is being a horse for six months. But I don't know if it would work. I mean... it takes more than six months to get a horse ready to sell. Especially if that horse hasn't been ridden for 3-5 years.

Please pray that I'll get some guidance on this!!!

Isaiah 30:21 - Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

Tina