On Monday in this excerpt from the Eclipse Press book Equine ER, Dr. Al Ruggles told author Leslie Guttman, while she accompanied him on farm calls, that he had discovered an abscess close to Surely Awesome’s joint in addition to her primary injury, a shattered long pastern bone. Ruggles was worried about the mare’s progress and the threat of laminitis.

At the end of the farm calls, Ruggles told me about a recent dinner party he attended where the guests included a pediatric oncologist and a car dealer. The latter said to the former, “Doc, you have a lot of pressure in your job, huh?” Yes, the doctor replied. The car dealer looked at him and said, in all seriousness: “Twenty cars on the lot at the end of the month. Now that’s pressure, doc.”

 Surely Awesome’s foal, Sophie, was undersized because of confinement