Did I mention she had a swollen leg?

I went to the barn to check Little Love's leg this morning and it looked about the same as yesterday.  No heat, some swelling on the inside of the knee.  Little Love herself didn't look a least bit troubled by her injury. I trotted her up and down on the road while the barn owner watched, but she didn't appear lame.  I hosed it with cold water, which was challenging, since Little Love does not want to go into the "water stall" to save her life.  So we did it outside, where she spun around me and tried to avoid the water at all cost.  I put the "cold clay" on it and left her in the paddock.  At noon she still looked alright.

I went back to the barn seven hours later and the swelling had doubled in size.  Great.  There was also some heat over the knee, right under the small cut.  Definitely an infection starting to happen.  I worked on getting Little Love closer to the water area and managed to negotiate a deal with her.  She stood in the middle of the barn while I hosed the leg with cold water.  She was fairly freaked out by both the drain and the hose, so we weren't able to cool down the leg as long as I wanted to, but I didn't want to get into a fight.  I managed to scrub open the cut and applied antibiotic cream to it. I also dug around in my belongings and found some anti-inflammatory drugs left over from our previous escapades in Switzerland.  I put some in her evening feed and talked to Manta's owner who is feeding in the morning to add some to the morning feed as well.  I'm hoping this all will do it, but if not, I'll have to call the vet and get some antibiotics.  The good thing is that Little Love still doesn't seem too bothered by the leg, so it must not be too sore.  Perhaps I can tame the infection with the already excisting drugs I have?

When I drove home, I beat myself up in the car for being the worst horse-owner in the world.  I know it's silly, but since I've owned Lilo, she has had so many medical episodes that I'm starting to think there is a message behind all that and that message is for me.  She used to be so "healthy" in her past life, but I guess when you keep a horse in a stall nearly 24 hours a day, not a lot happens to them.  Now it seems that if it isn't her skin, it's her hooves.  And if it's not her hooves, she's losing weight.  And if she isn't losing weight, she falls over and gets cuts all over her body.  Or just randomly gets a cut and then it gets infected.  I know she has a better life now than she used to, but sometimes I wonder...  I guess I understand why people keep their horses in a stall, at least they know the horse is "safe".  Selfish, but also so damn convenient.