This is going to sound all over the place but just keep reading.
So my OTTB Sunny crossfires at the canter. Ugh, I know. I can manage it if I really anchor my right hip and keep my left hip loose. But, sometimes it is difficult to hold myself in the perfect place. Even then, he occasionally swaps. He mostly swaps on the left lead and does it much more on turns and circles than he does on straight lines. As you can probably guess, dressage judges don’t love that (even though I tell them he’s doing half tempi changes). He does it more at shows than he does at home, mainly because I hold more tension.
Sunny’s breeder/owner/trainer from when he was on the track is a wonderful lady named Pamela Neff. Pam is an angel. I got into contact with her with the hopes of getting his baby pictures (success!) and learning more about his youth about three months ago. Recently, we’ve stayed in contact, I brought up his swapping. She told me that he had always done it. And even more, his dam spit out multiple foals that did it. This was huge to me because it lets me know that it’s not my fault. This lets me know that the swapping is caused by some sort of deformity, So that’s interesting. Anyone want to guess what could be to blame? I’m thinking it could be something in his back under where the saddle sits because of my ability to control it when I hold the right position. I am also able to prevent it bareback. She also told me that she had Sunny on Pentosan and it really helped with the swapping.
Sunny’s second owner, Melinda Harris, current owner of the Woodlands Equestrian Center in Oklahoma (the one David Harris used to have), kept Sunny on Adequan. She did a half dose of Adequan every two weeks. She thought that worked well. We kept him on the Adequan for a while after he moved to Arkansas. After about a year we took him of of it and didn’t see much of a difference. Then we tried him back on it for a while and still, no difference.
So I mentioned the Pentosan to my trainer, Joanie, and she told me that she has had multiple students use it in the past and found success. We have multiple vet techs at our barn and a manager of a vet clinic. We talked to them and decided to go ahead and try the Pentosan. We are going to do the four week loading dose and then do once monthly maintenance injections. We are going to give it a try! If it does ANYTHING at all I will be through the roof. I am going to work very hard to ride him correctly and get him to really use himself and build the proper muscles. No going around like a giraffe on roller skates anymore, Sunny! I am also going to start a riding journal to keep myself accountable. I will send a picture of each entry to my trainer. I am going to try and stretch him after each ride and have him stand on his SureFoot pads as much as possible. If y’all have any other suggestions of things that I could do to give the Pentosan the best shot at working, let me know. I’m honestly down to try damn near anything.
Also, is there anything I need to watch out for when I give him the Pentosan Injection. Based on what I’ve read it goes in the neck. I know it is a 6cc dose, but what gauge should I use? 18? 20? Yeeees I will be doing it myself. Yeeees I know how to give an IM injection and where to give it, even though I’m gasp a young rider. Are there any long term side effects that I need to watch for?
Last but not least, what is everyone’s experience with Pentosan? Has it helped your horse?
picture of the pony in question dressed like a peacock on xc [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“custom”,“height”:“212”,“title”:“IMG_2217.JPG”,“width”:“318”,“data-attachmentid”:10762707}[/ATTACH]:
