To all of you that have asked me about Link, here is the masterpost for anyone interested.
When I was away on vacation, I had a friend who was supposed to ride my horses, well I got a text saying Link had hurt himself. Soon followed some video of how he was walking because it was weird. He would lift his leg up and then put it down, almost kicking himself in the stomach. Well that was only 2 days into my vacation and I wasn’t coming home, so my friend tended to it by cold hosing his leg those two days and then he sat on pasture/came in to eat the rest of the vacation. Well, when I came back, I found it extremely weird when I saw what he was doing. It was even weirder in person. He literally would lift it up and then down. He couldn’t walk without it doing that, no matter how much soaking/cold hosing I did. Well the horses needed shots and teeth checked so I decided to get the vet out to check on his condition. He has stringhalt.
Stringhalt is a neurological issue where there is a pinched nerve in their back. Basically; pony doesn’t know he’s doing the thing with his leg. He’s in no pain whatsoever but at the same time, with stringhalt it’s dangerous considering it is a neurological issue and he is not rideable currently.
The vet put him on a week of Dex, since it was a fairly recent injury he was optimistic about possible rehabilitation, however he said that if he does not get better after a couple months of pasture board that perhaps the most humae thing to do would be to put him down. As a gelding he has no biological contributions to make to the horse world and he would be unhappy being a pasture pet for the rest of his life as a thoroughbred he enjoys working.. And isn’t a super easy keeper.
Currently he is enjoying pasture life with about 8 other horses from out farm that aren’t sound/need weight (we’re a rescue). So that’s Link’s story... I’ve been dealing with this emotionally and financially. It’s been stressful and strenuous on me. I don’t have the energy or emotional capacity to say goodbye to him. :(