Yankee – Part thirty

Yankee hobbled painfully to the fence when I called him to get his daily apple treat. This was a sharp contrast to the way he usually gallops up and comes to a dramatic, sliding stop. He had been acting a little footsore and I had been treating him for a mild case of hoof thrush, assuming that to be the problem. But now

the thrush was clearing up and he was limping worse and looking completely miserable. I went back to the house and called the vet.

The vet arrived the next day, took one look at him and said, “I think we have a case of founder here. I hope we have caught it in time.”

Those words brought a chill to my heart. I know about founder and it is a dreadful thing. It is an inflammation of the inner layer of the hoof that can cause the bone to rotate painfully and result in the loss of the hoof. The usual reason is getting into the feed bin and overeating grain which is a rich food to a horse. We couldn’t understand how this could have happened, for we are always careful about closing the door to the feed bin.

But it wasn’t grain that caused this calamity, it was the grass in his pasture. The lush spring grass was so delightful to Yankee that he was even grazing during the night. We weren’t aware of the disaster that he was eating himself into until the consequences were evident. We were prepared to protect him from extraordinary happenings, but his everyday environment turned out to be as dangerous.

Too often it is the same way with us. We are usually girded to meet the dramatic burdens and temptations of our lives, but often we are unsuspecting of our daily atmosphere and the damage that it may gradually be doing to us. We may be ready to repel the obvious sins of the ten commandments while subtly poisoning ourselves on a daily diet of the world. We can become so inured to the evil around us that we hardly recognize it anymore; we lose sight of its dangers.

Lot lived in the midst of sin so long that when the men of the city came to molest the angels, he called them brothers. It is a sobering example that he had been able to dwell among people of such incredible wickedness. The times we live in are also terribly corrupt, so we must stay aware and work to control the influences around us.

As for Yankee, we still don’t know if he will come through this or not. Some days he seems better, then we have bad days again. We will have to wait and see.