What's in a Name

I am beginning to make plans to take Elvis to another farm for the next stage of his rehab. Dr. Arensberg said that we have probably achieved all the benefits of the cold sea water spa and it's time to start slowly increasing Elvis' hand-walking. It's going to be hard to leave the Jacksons and their staff at the Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center. All of them have taken such good care of Elvis (and me) through these critical first couple of months. We'll probably go through some sort of withdrawal...

His hock still looks big, which you can see in the picture. But imagine, if you will, swelling that went from the point of his hock all the way down to his fetlock. That's what it looked like the day I took him up to Fair Hill. If you look closely, you can see a bulge right where the clipped hair changes over to unclipped. That's the superficial digital flexor tendon as it wraps back to it's proper place from the side of his hock. But, his hoof is finally hitting flush with the ground most of the time. And he enjoys hanging out with his buds in the spa. It's kind of hard to see but the water comes up almost to his chest and it bubbles just like a jacuzzi. The cold and the massaging action of the bubbles really helps keep the swelling down. They are walking him more now too and they tell me he enjoys strolling around the barn with the racehorses. He looks pretty out of place in that lineup. Sort of like a moose compared to all of the lean racing-fit TBs that are in the barn...

Elvis demonstrated to his grooms how he came to get his barn name. When I bought him 5 years ago, his barn name was Junior. I didn't really get why they called him that. It wasn't because he looked like his sire and it was a bit too convoluted for me to want to keep it. I just figured that I would change it when something came to mind.

When I first started working with him, I would longe him before I would get on because he could be pretty electric. One of the first times I did this, we were finishing up and I asked him to halt and began to roll up the longe line as I walked closer to him. He struck the most amazing pose, arching his neck, slowly shaking his head, and as I got closer, he gave out this gentle nicker, exactly in the rhythm of "thank you, thank you very much". "Listen to you" I said. "You sound just like Elvis!" as I patted his neck. "But don't worry, I won't call you that" I confidently told him. "I'm not such a big fan."

The whole thing tickled me though, and I told several of my friends about it. They kept calling him Elvis even though I really didn't want that name to stick, but you know how that works. And now, I love to hear that nicker (his Elvis impersonation as I've come to call it) and the grooms at FHETC think it's pretty funny. Because most of them are Latino, they call him "Elveese", which I think is pretty cool.