It was May in 1961. Legend and I had just returned from our week's ride from Barstow to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, she had been kicked by someone on the ride on the left hind leg below the hock and above the ankle joint. It didn't seem to bother her any.
I returned her to Joanne to resume conditioning for the Western States Trail Ride. One of the first things Joanne did was to ride from our house down the San Gabriel River to the ocean near Long Beach. The ride was at least 30 miles and the river bed by this time was nothing more than a concrete ditch. You could have rolled a bowling ball from our house to the beach.
Next on the training agenda was a ride into the San Gabriel Mountains. Joanne and our neighbor, Doris Levingston, trailered the horses to the Arroyo Seco Stables in South Pasadena and headed up the trail towards the mountains.
A little south of the Rose Bowl, Legend suddenly went from go-go to no-go. Joanne dismounted and discovered that Legend couldn't put her left hind foot on the ground. A huge lump, hot to the touch, had suddenly appeared between the hock and the ankle areas. She had become an instant three-legged horse. Joanne managed to walk Legend to the Rose Bowl while Doris drove the trailer up there. From there everyone came home.
A vet later explained to Joanne what had happened. There are twin parallel tendons running down the hind leg and they move against each other, or at least in opposing directions, when the horse walks. Apparently Legend had been kicked there and the resultant swelling of either the tendons or the muscle tissue surrounding them caused the tendons to rub against each other. This friction resulted in Legend's disability. And believe me, she was disabled.
Not much to do about it. Rest. Massage some lotion onto the area to increase the circulation. We did that twice a day. It got so Legend would see us coming with the lotion and she would just stand there and wait.
It didn't take too long before she was ready to take easy rides, but the time for training was over. So Joanne left for Tahoe City to accompany our neighbor Doris to help her on the ride and to see what went on there. She intended to complete the ride the next year.
Legend and I were left to guard the chickens and she didn't make the ride until the following year, 1962.
Copyright Ken Harris 2009
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