China's OK.
Please see the drama at yesterday's daylog for the backstory.
I'm glad I left the stable yesterday when I did (11 AM), because things got worse before they got better. The horse threw up all the water she had sipped, plus a bunch more stuff. Finally the vet arrived, and it was ascertained that while the lump of food that was stuck in her throat had moved down, it had not gotten past the sphincter muscle at her stomach.
A human being would have died during the previous night. If we get a big lump of food stuck in our throats, it also closes our windpipe, and we die very shortly thereafter. Luckily for China, horses are differently enough constructed that she was still able to breathe throughout this ordeal.
So the truck was full of diesel and backed up to the barn. The horse trailer was hooked to the truck, and the gate was open. Everything was ready to go to Davis, but the vet thought a tube down the throat and some water still had the chance to work. After working with it for a bit, the bolus of food broke up, the horse vomited everything out, and her throat was clear, so the trip to Davis didn't have to happen. Good thing too, I don't know how the two-hour trailer ride would have impacted this poor animal.
So there was China in her stall today, looking tired but not much worse for wear. Reasonably alert. (The human trainers both looked a lot worse, frankly.) Animals don't feel sorry for themselves. Now comes a careful and watchful month. Certainly some water got into her lungs, so she's on antibiotics, and everyone is watching for pneumonia. Also, a horse who has once choked is at an increased likelihood to do it again (scar tissue forms), so everyone is watching for that too.
Cautious optimism, then, and the sense of having survived a near-disaster.