In March Monty had a very thorough physical exam and soundness evaluation and has been cleared for any and all athletic endeavors. I'm eager to start competing him again this season. We'll start at beginner novice level just to get him into the swing of things, and hopefully move him into novice for the bulk of the season. I had been planning to ride Monty in my lesson so I could focus on my own equitation and position that day, but he threw a shoe while we were out hacking in the back forty the day prior.
Therefore, Highboy had to step up and act his age so I could ride him in my lesson. Physically 7, mentally two. We compromised and I treated him like he was a four year old. Highboy is recovering more quickly from hard rides, so I'm hopeful this is a sign he is nearing the end of his growth. I rode him hard at horse expo in March, and he recovered nicely after a day off, and I rode him hard last week when I took a dressage lesson on him and he was a butt head. It was the day before a spring storm moved in and it was cold and windy, but there still wasn't a sufficient reason for the ridiculous amount of bucking and leaping around which he demonstrated. Fortunately he got himself together and we ended on a good note.
Fason is having some continuing back pain and soreness through his haunches, even after being thoroughly treated for ulcers and having some let down time here at Bit of Honey. Because Fason still is struggling with standing still to be mounted despite the fact that he does understand what I want now, I had the veterinarian come out to assess him. I also have found that Fason's right hip is higher than his left, causing the back of my saddle to list to the left and my lower right back to be sore when we're done riding (and Fason is sore in the same places I am).
When Dr. Landes performed a thorough physical exam on Fason we found the majority of his pain was likely originating from his pelvis and the sacroiliac joints. He was sore around his withers as well, but that may be secondary, and as Dr. Landes so eloquently phrased it, "We can only chase one demon at a time."
This diagram from one of my college text books shows the sacrum in yellow and the ilium of the pelvis in orange. Where those two bones meet is called the sacroiliac joint. There is one on the left and one on the right. When a horse has a lameness issue or pain in their back you want to be sure to rule out problems lower down in the limb, because often lameness issues stem from the parts of the leg that are closer to the ground. When I bought Fason I had a veterinarian perform a thorough prepurchase exam on him, and there were no issues with his movement or flexion tests. That would indicate that his legs were fine at that time. That vet did note some back soreness, but I find most of the horses who come to me from the track are a bit body sore just from the rigors of racing so I wasn't overly concerned about it. Yesterday Dr. Landes carefully evaluated Fason as well, and was able to narrow the origin of the pain down to the pelvic region by ruling out lameness and other issues.
The next step is to get an appointment with a specialist to ultrasound Fason's pelvis to collect more information. This area is tricky to visualize on ultrasound and requires experience with the equipment and looking at this particular portion of the body. With as sore as Fason was on physical exam with Dr. Landes, I have to take a moment to appreciate Fason's excellent temperament and be grateful that he has been letting me ride him at all. I'm glad I noticed the slight abnormality in his gait from the asymmetrical pelvis, and I was able to recognize he is in pain and not merely grumpy about mounting. I don't have any detailed information yet about Fason's prognosis or likelihood of competing in Kentucky in October, I want to make sure I'm proceeding carefully so I get him the best care for his long term soundness whether that includes a cross-country trip to compete or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment