Coooooolllllllldddddd

It's cold and frozen and there is no way that I would have risked either of my boys hunting on this ground today. I went to the meet to have a chat though, since it was so close to home.

I took Jazz out for a good hack first, and he is certainly now fit enough to hunt Boxing Day. I don't think it would be wise to take Radar since he is not back in work yet and it's only a week away. Boxing Day hunting is such fun that it really won't matter if we can't jump much.

I got a very interesting result with the optical pyrometer this morning. All over the still slightly puffy area, he was 15 degrees, the same temperature as the rest of his leg. I thought that I must be imagining the warmth that I could feel in my hand. I carried on very carefully measuring over his splint bone and then found it! A spot no more than 2 millimetres wide - it was incredibly difficult to keep the light beam on it, it was that small. But the temperature - TWENTY TWO DEGREES !! A whole 7 degrees centigrade higher than the rest. It is right at the top of back of the splint bone, immediately under his knee. He is totally sound, circled and trotted up on the road and he doesn't resent it being poked or prodded or having his knee flexed as tight as it will go.

I know from breaking my arm what he is doing - when the new bone was growing over the end of the plate that was put in, it went extremely hot for two days. I went back to the hospital because I was worried about whether it was infected, it was red, raised and a raging temperature. He's growing bone to repair the tear in the interosseous ligament between his cannon and his splint bones. The heat is so incredibly localised that you can't mistake it.

I've kept them all in today because I don't want Radar sliding around on the frozen field. They are bored, but that's tough!

C