Before I get into my lengthy description I just want to say that the vet is coming out this week. I’m just filling time while waiting.
So this mare came to my farm about a month ago. I took her on a 1 week trial as I was pretty confident she would work. I knew the horse previously but not well. She is an ex polo pony turned polocrosse horse. I saw her play a couple times last year and liked that she took care of her rider. She was sound when I bought her. Even did our own little lameness exam on her. Bought her after the week trial. Started conditioning her to play and getting to know her. Everything is great till the weekend before last. I entered a tournament in NC And made the 6 hr haul for the weekend. We were playing under her normal level and had played harder in practice than we played at the tournament. The first game she felt ok. The next a little tender. She was due to be shod anyway and thinking there was something irritating her under her pad (she has full pads) i have her shod and farrier asks me if she has ever foundered. Not to my knowledge. Trimmed a lot of excess sole out and puts shoes and pads back on. She felt better the next day for the first game. Next game at the end is trotting uneven esp on hard ground. Haul her back home and turn her back out in her pasture. Bring her in to do a light hack later that week and she is off at the trot. More short strides than head bobbing lame. Her legs feel great no heat or swelling even after a longish trailer ride. Very slight warmth in front of hooves. No pulse. Decided to keep her in and monitor. She seems fine in our soft dirt arena but jogged her on hard ground and no head Bob but looked short for sure. Any ideas? Again I have the vet coming this week. Have already talked and made is on bute and is already on a low starch diet. We switched her feed, which was very similar except our feed is lower in starch and 1% higher in fat,very slowly. Previously the owners had her field boarded on pasture so I put her on pasture here hoping to put some weight on her.I’m sure my lengthy explanation was a little much but sometimes a small detail can hold lots of clues. I really hope this is nothing major as I have fallen for this sweet mare!
Personally I’d pull her off pasture immediately and start icing her feet at least until the vet comes and takes X-rays of her feet and you know what’s going on. I would also soak her hay before feeding. Try and find out the NSC of her grain - you want as low as possible (or preferably no grain which isn’t easy for some horses). I have a chronic laminitis mare who had an acute flare-up a year ago (one foot only - all tests came back normal so most likely mechanical) and it was horrible. Bute/previcox, ice, soaking hay, no grass and Soft Ride boots got my mare through it last year. That along with a new farrier who works with my vet when it comes to my mares feet - I had to fire my old one despite using him for 11 years - he didn’t agree with my vets instructions on how to trim/shoe her. Needless to say I’m checking her feet daily for heat/pulse or anything else that isn’t NQR. Even though it was mechanical I’m still paranoid about grass so she gets basically none right now.
Hope it’s nothing with your mare and she turns out fine :).
I agree with the above - this time of year, I’d suspect laminitis for every lame horse unless I knew for sure it wasn’t. It could also be that there is a difference in pasture quality - a lush pasture is hugely different from a sparse pasture where horses were “turned out” but still fed hay…or a horse that was on pasture last summer but has been on hay all winter long.
and, it can never hurt to treat it as laminitis. If it’s not laminitis, fine. If it is, and you ignore it, bad consequences.
Pull off pasture dry lot or stalltil vet ~ Jingles & AO
could be any number of things
but
pull her off pasture til vet sees her
could be brusiing or a high nail or sole pressure
or that “L” word …
Jingles & AO ~
6 he trip and then a hard or harder warm up game than normal. You mention the ground being hard and she needed a trim. You trimmed for the 1st time with your new horse and then rode., Could she have a bruise, could the trim /reset be related (change) or just the hard ground (no history) then the 6 hr trip back… I would also x-rays when the vets out will help with answers …
Bumping for an update ~ Jingles & AO continue ~
Bumping for an update ~ Jingles & AO continue ~
I have not had the vet out yet, but my farrier (who hadnt seen her yet) took a look and thinks she had a high nail. He pulled that nail and she seemed to move much better! I am still going to have the vet take a look. I am switching vets and need to make an appointment for my other mare anyway. I am not happy with how my current vet is handling her.
For now my PoloX mare is not on grass, which she is pretty pissed about! Farrier does not think it is laminitis and neither do i really after my initial freak out.
Not that it matters but to clarify above "We were playing under her normal level and had played harder in practice than we played at the tournament. " I meant that the practices at home had been far more demanding than the tournament was on her. We were playing at a very easy level and mostly trotting around. When we practice at home we are often playing against upper level riders so much more running around.
I’m still wondering what caused her to be off in the first place, if the high nail was the cause of her soreness. She was off before the tournament farrier reset her shoes.
