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Today trainer rode since I tweaked my back (ironic huh lol)
He was very confident, no spooks in the “scary arena.”
Did some trot poles and looked very confident with those (we have walked poles but rarely have trotted yet.) But in the canter he was flinging himself wildly in the transition. And tossing his head in the canter today. Trainer said she thought it was adrenaline but I’m watching it because I know that could be pain for sure!
I’m suspect of my saddle though. Since I had the fitted out, after she widened it, seems like it’s shifting a lot. Like we are always tightening the girth more and more. Like it’s a saddle on a barrel or something. I’m going to try a different girth. But might pull my jump saddle out of its resting place and try that too…
So we continue with two steps forward and one step back. The vet said give Zycosan the full month to see if it helps so it’s early yet…
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He got a massage on Wednesday afternoon. He has Thursday off. This morning I went out and getting him groomed to ride I noticed a kick/cut on his forearm.
He was sound on the lunge (In fact I think he looks great.) But the big bummer was we were supposed to give him his 2nd dose of Zycosan today. But because of the anticoagulation properties of the drug, I don’t feel comfortable giving it to him with an active cut like that. Although maybe that’s silly since the cut already happened? Idk.
I might give it in a day or two.
Bummer! He looked so good though, He’s on antibiotics so if all goes well maybe I can do a light ride on Sunday… I’m being a little hyper cautious because of past experiences!
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Update! A few steps back and then some steps forward.
For a few weeks he got kind of funky in the canter. I’m not yet cantering since I’m still building my own fitness from my car accident. But my trainer has been cantering him in small amounts. And he started to get really fussy and head toss in the canter. He also is starting to want to head tilt to the right a bit more. So I changed my tack set up a little bit and had a chiropractor out.
He was extremely well behaved and she commented how quiet he was and how easy he was to get some releases. She said his muscles felt soft and supple and his back did not seem sore in the muscles. But she said his right behind was a bit tight and she wondered about his illiopsoas muscle. She said it does start in the lower back, deep, So she said I should think about getting his back injected again. I think it’s been almost 9 months? She said overall he felt pretty good but just some tightness in the right hind. He also was a little sore in his right TMJ so I’m going to have my vet recheck his teeth.
But I rode him today and he was just so wonderful. Soft, supple, stretching down with ease. We did some shoulder in and haunches in at the walk and it was easy. Even some shoulder in at the trot was easy as well. The only trouble spot I think I had was a leg yield going to the right He started to want to tilt his head. But I did get a decent leg yield with no head tilt towards the end.
I’m going to call the vet just to stay on top of anything that might need taken care of but today was great. We didn’t try the canter today, it’s blazing hot. Later in the week we will.
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More updates. For a good week and a half after the chiropractor we had absolutely wonderful rides. I did drop the canter until the end of the week. My trainer tried just getting into two point at the canter. He was a bit better but not 100%.
The vet came out and thought he was a little stiff in his lower back. Not very painful but but tender and tight. She went ahead and reinjected it because it had been 10 months. Good news is he was negative on all flexions. She looked at my saddle and she really thought that my tree might be twisted. Uh oh. Cue me panicking a little. Especially since the saddle fitter was just out 3 months ago. But the saddle has been in question since then… It’s hard to feel straight.
Unfortunately after his injections he’s pretty much sat for about a week and a half. We had terrible wildfires in the area so the air quality was absolutely atrocious and it was 100°. Then my daughter had the county fair the weekend after so I was running like crazy (thankfully the air cleared up for her and her to lease horse!) I did pop in occasionally and hand walk and do some carrot stretches but that’s about it for a week and a half.
So I put him on the lunge, he looked good. I used a different saddle. A jumping saddle I had fitted to him awhile ago. My trainer agreed that the fit looked good still. So on I go. Not a good ride. He was balking and tossing his head at the trot which is new. But I got off and he peed right away… He never pees when you’re on him. So I ended up getting back on him for a few minutes and he did go better… Our thinking is he was holding in a big pee and maybe that made his back feel even more stiff?
Seriously, horses man. He got chiropractic again yesterday and she was happy with how he felt compared to last time. I will ride him on Friday again, fingers crossed!
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I rode him one more time in my dressage saddle -no issues. I then took it up to the saddle fitter for them to evaluate. Just got the email back that they said the tree looks completely fine but the panels were asymmetric and very “soft” and squished. So they evened those out.
I rode in the jump saddle again today. No issues, he was a wonderful boy. My trainer did say it seems like the saddle wanted to sit to the left. Although I have a bit of scoliosis (minor but there) And I kind of scrunch my right side which always wants to push me to the left too…
I’m still inclined to think that it is a horse issue versus me only because My trainer had been feeling the exact same thing in the other saddle… And I feel like she rode in it more than I did the last 3 months…
So they are coming out the 13th to do undersaddle evaluation on both saddles. But I’m thinking this is going to be a management with all hands on deck type thing.
Either way he’s been feeling very good lately though so hopefully we are continuing on the right path!!
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Saddle does seem like it’s fitting better since they evened it out at the shop. But they are coming out to check both my saddles on Friday.
He was going pretty well but had a few slips behind. A few at the halt. Like from halt to walk, mostly from standing for a long period (like talking to my trainer) then walking off. Seems like a bit of stifle lock maybe? Then my trainer decided to test the canter out again with the saddle being a little evened out… He struggled to get the lead in one direction but did get it, he was looking good but then stumbled behind… Like maybe his stifle slipped or intermittently locked or something. Poor buddy. One thing my trainer was thinking was she was trying to like not interfere at all on the canter so he wasn’t really together at all… Which maybe didn’t help him.
Anyways I’m working with two different vets so I called the one that injected his back. I asked about Estrone. She said she wasn’t able to get Estrone anymore. She did send me a very detailed stifle strengthening program which was nice. It’s nothing that we haven’t been doing but it’s a lot more detailed and laid out which was helpful. Basically using the equiband, walking over poles, tail poles, backing him up.
I also talked to the other vet because we have an appointment next week to haul into their clinic. She said she wasn’t really familiar with estrone And she would be more inclined to just inject his stifles.
I’m not sure yet if that’s necessary. He flexed negative behind at basically his last two vet appointments (both vets.) We are planning on injecting his SI next week because that has been an on and off thing that keeps popping up. And I would think could contribute to his stifles as well. It’s possible to stifles are contributing to the SI too. But again he is not shown that he is painful in them but he has on and off shown a little bit of pain in the SI area.
So we will see. Since I started the really detailed rehab plan, of course his stifle hasn’t stuck or slipped once. But we aren’t cantering until the saddle fitter and vet gives us a really detailed looking over.
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Would you be willing to share the rehab plan? I understand if not, but I think it could help focus my plan for my stifle guy. Call me intrigued.
Also, I can’t recall, have you imaged his stifles? Ultrasound, specifically? I had one with a slip/lock (he’d lock up coming out of the stall after just an hour, despite 22/7 turnout) - we found some soft tissue messiness in the worse stifle. Did injections (IRAP? ProStride? I can’t recall) and Estrone. Also, really worked on his feet. The locking went away after the first stifle injection, the slipping remained fitness related. Estrone helped.
Weird that your vets can’t/won’t get estrone. I mean, I won’t argue, but it’s super common here!
I will copy it and PM you! I agree it’s been helpful. Everybody has just suggested the same type of things but never like an actual plan week to week type of thing. It probably could be even more detailed but it’s been detailed enough to at least have something to stick to right now.
Basically all of his joints were x-rayed when I bought him 3 years ago. He x-rayed clean. We did ultrasound the right stifle because I’m convinced that he hurt himself in the mud. How much of this has contributed to everything else is on my mind… Because it took gosh probably a year and a half maybe 2 years for any vet to really take it seriously. And that’s including CSU!
So we know there’s some stuff in the right stifle but we don’t have an ultrasound of the left. It is currently clean on x-ray. But again he’s not flexing negatively either… And he’s a bit straight behind so it’s not exactly shocking to be having these issues. Plus with the flat angles behind… Both stifles have been injected a few times so I guess that’s why I’m not inclined to just keep injecting blindly. Especially since he was flexing positively for a time and for the last few months, nothing on flexions so that’s an improvement in comfort behind.
The Estrone thing kind of grinds my gears. Like if they were saying oh my gosh this horse is sore and lame in his is stifles, I would totally understand wanting to skip it. But that’s not the case or it wasn’t a month ago. To me it just seems like there’s little harm to try it. My chiropractor who is a former practicing vet, said she thought it was just a wonderful idea given everything that he has going on. But she does not do that kind of thing anymore and just does the chiropractic. So I can’t get it from her either.
It’s also possible that because he’s sore in that left SI, that he’s struggling at times to really bring that stifle forward or something. Idk. I’m hoping for some good results next week… Like I said the last week he has not had a stifle episode so fingers crossed.
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Yeah the hind end can be a big circular mess and it’s hard to pinpoint “the” issue. I feel for you!
Good luck next week!
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To me, the missing link might be the SI. Which is what the vet number two originally thought when she first saw him. But then we went back for a checkup and / injection and she thought he looked great behind. And then was a little sore up front. But she thought it might be just kind of overall body soreness and compensation. So we did a loading dose of Zycosan and Equioxx for a month. It did help for sure. But not 100%…
So then vet #1 (my long time but who tends to be pretty conservative) came out and also thought he looked great behind. We did reinject the back though as it had been a long time and he had some tightness there. She also noted that he was a bit sore in his left SI joint.
What’s notable is after I bought him I’m fairly certain he slipped in mud. We were at a barn that did not manage the mud situation at all and I went away for a weekend and i came back and I thought he was moving funky. I was terrified that he had hurt his stifle. I had a chiropractic vet out and she thought he looked great. So I moved him. Once I moved him it was clear that yes something was wrong. So I had that barn’s regular vet out. She said she was more inclined to think it was an SI injury than a stifle injury. So we rehab for a bit, she came back out and thought his SI looked great, But that yes maybe there was something going on in the stifle. So we injected with PRP. He came back pretty well from that for a while… In the meantime I also had him looked at by CSU. They were not worried about the stifles at all but he was a bit foot sore at the time so we shod him all the way around. They weren’t concerned about the SI but did say there was a little bit of soreness there…
So anyways it’s been a thing. I feel like there’s been a lot of on and off of if the SI is an issue or not. So I hate to be that person but I’m kind of at the point of we need to just inject it stick with the rehab and see if that does anything. Obviously it would be pretty chronic at this point which is annoying. We’ve been so focused on the stifles which was absolutely important no doubt. But I feel like for a long time other things were getting missed.
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horses are exhausting
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Literally 
. It doesn’t matter how correctly you try and do things either, I swear. Feels like I’m always running on a hamster wheel here. I will say he does bring joy to my life still… somehow.
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At the very least I need him to say sound enough for my daughter to eventually take at least a few lessons on him. Even if it’s mostly walk or walk trot! He can so easily teach her how to get a horse round and he’s a rock star at all the lateral work at the walk. Maybe not super true collection (obviously) but man he can teach her the aids and how to ride off your seat. Like you literally think leg yield or shoulder in and he’s there, off your seat.
I’m rooting for him because he’s a little joy. 
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I’m rooting for you both!!! He sure has a sweet face, and I admire everything you do for your horses. I have no advice about the hind end stuff but I hope you can figure it out.
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I’m rooting for y’all too! I’ve been down this road, and I know how difficult it is. I didn’t know as much and didn’t have as much access to specialized care for my guy when we were at this stage, so I think you have a shot at a better outcome than us. You’re also learning WAY faster than I did that sometimes you have to force the issue with the vet team and say “thanks for trying to save me money, please do the treatment I’m asking for, or tell me WHY it isn’t a good idea” 
.
What I’ll say next is NOT meant to be discouraging, so please don’t take it that way. But having done this, I’d definitely recommend people having some sort of Stop Plan. Essentially, a dollar figure or a treatment cap (how invasive you’re willing to go, etc), and stick to it. Horses like this can become black holes of money because they’re not LAME, but they’re not really sound, and they seem to need a kitchen sink approach - you never really know what’s working and what isn’t so you just keep hemorrhaging money.
I don’t think you’re at that point yet since your guy is currently happy in work! But I wish someone had told me the above when I was going through all this.
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Yeah unfortunately I’ve had to learn the hard way to be more pushy eventually with the vets. It’s always an awkward situation to be in but like you said I’m at the point of please do what I ask or tell me a really good reason why we shouldn’t! My experience being conservative has tended to cost me more money in the long run than save it. I do appreciate their intentions…
Yeah I’ve already been talking to my husband about that. At some point it’s not fair to anybody to just stay in limbo so I was giving him a date of January 2025 to be in consistent w/t/c work at the basic level and then if not he might be a pasture pet mostly. I guess that could depend on what we end up doing and what the timeline is too. I’m not quite sure we’re there yet I just feel like maybe the vets are not treating everything that needs to be treated. And while sure I don’t love but there’s multiple things going on, It seems like it’s par for the course and it makes sense. When one part of the body does not working correctly everything starts to compensate. But I think doing whack a mole every few months isn’t helping. Like we need to get everything that’s uncomfortable as corrected as close to the same time… Not just chase one thing at a time.
So my hope is if I’m really direct and we really look at everything that might be possible then maybe we can kind of get over the hump. That might be wishful thinking haha but my hope is that if we can get them feeling almost 100% that we can stay on top of things more in the future or break some patterns here.
I do appreciate your advice and it’s definitely in the back of my mind. Thankfully I’m not super frustrated yet… Because we are having good rides at the walk and trot at least. It’s at least a little fulfilling to do that at least for now.
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Thank you 
I have a plan and if someone will listen to me and take my money, I have hope for little guy.
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YES. Absolutely, 10,000%. If you’ve already chased one thing at a time with no aha! improvement, then you already know it isn’t just one thing. It’s been that way with my mare , and I’ve had to get all over my vets about it too. Be prepared financially tho: first, you cannot give that much steroid in one appt or you risk laminitis. In my case, we used a combo of PRP and steroid. So that is not cheap. And I think you are already on top of the shoeing, right? Between all of that, you should see relief.
