I woke up at 7:30 am, ate breakfast and began tacking Picasso. After resting for one day in Ri0 Senguer, it was time to continue our ride. Once Picasso was ready to go, I jumped into the saddle and made my way towards the statue of Mancha and Gato in the centre of the town to snap a photo.
When I neared the statue I knew something was wrong with Picasso. He was walking weird, lame on his back end. I immediately got off the tall pony and inspected his back legs. There were no cuts or scrapes, but when I walked him around he was definitely sore.
“Oh man this is bad news,” I said to Toti.
Without any other option, I walked the horses back to the rodeo grounds and began feeling his back legs to see where the pain was coming from. After feeling for heat in his hooves and legs, Toti and I concluded the pain was coming from his hindquarters. It was a muscular pain and we had no idea how long it would take for him to recuperate.
We called a local vet and had him concur with us. He advised us to give him 4 days of anti-inflammatory injections and a week off.
Spending a week in the town of 1500 people didn’t sound very enticing. Especially with all of the kilometres we still had in front of us and the fast approaching winter. But like many time before on this journey, there was nothing to do but be patient and wait.
Sleeping in the van, parked in the rode grounds, we spent the long week trying to find things to do. What made it even harder, was the fact that all though we were in the birthplace of Macha and Gato, no one seemed to care about us being there. One family invited us for dinner one night and that was it. No one offered us a warm bed. A Shower. An afternoon of mate… It was a hard few days. And to make it worse, in the middle of the week it started raining and it never stopped! We were left frozen and spending the majority of the days sitting in the van watching the raindrops hit the windshield. Trying to stay dry.
Luckily at the end, the secretary of culture heard about us and saved Toti and I. He took us fishing one afternoon and even found a warm cabin for us to sleep in for two nights. It changed our moods! And to make things better, after 7 days, Picasso was 100 per cent recuperated and ready to head south.
