Where we've been, where we're going

Every time I end up without a horse to ride, I am amazed and grateful at the people around me who offer up their lovely horses for rides. I started 2022 off with a lovely hunter pace on Yoshi's sellers RRP horse, Eddie. He was a blast to ride. At the start he was a bit up and bounced around like a lovely little ping pong ball. He is so compact compared to Yosh and even though he was up, he was so balanced it never felt like he was going to vanish out from under me. He settled down beautifully though and jumped everything out there like a pro. 

I also got to take Mr. GY's OTTB for a good gallop with Ms. GY out on the trails near our house. He lifts UP into his gallop in this really cool way that I haven't ever felt before.

Okay, moving on to Yoshi. He got his bone scan done, and the good news is that it isn't neck. We can't deny there was some inflammation in the left side C6-C7 with the excess synovial fluid during the injection, but it was quiet on the bone scan. He had a weird spot in his left radius, near his elbow. They ultrasounded the ligaments and x-rayed the joint. Not much doing there though. In a bit of desperation, they blocked his feet (we've done that twice now). This made him about 50% better. I think the reason we hadn't seen that was we were doing his exam on grass and the footed arena. To get to pavement we'd have to walk him 3/4 of a mile to the main road, so we clearly didn't do that. His improvement means that in spite of the pads and how much better his feet are than a year ago, his feet are still playing a role. Then he blocked his suspensory with local infiltration (we've done that once before...). And then he went sound. Neither vet had any idea why he hadn't before, but there was our answer. The frustrating part of this is that his suspensories are not covered based on our March 2021 work up. So the bone scan comes out of pocket... UGH. If he'd blocked out to that before we obviously wouldn't have gone on to the bone scan. But, such is life. And now I can relax a bit about his neck. 

The good news of the suspensory though is that he felt his prognosis for soundness was great, especially because there are no lesions on ultrasound. Yoshi just will continue to need special shoeing and very careful attention there. He even wanted him to continue doing light work through this because the more they jogged him the better he went even prior to the block. Somehow in my mind I thought this meant I'd get on and he'd feel great. Not the case. I got on and he still felt left front lame (DUH) and kinda sore overall. Between that, the $4k bill I have to pay, and the fact that I have scratched this horse out of more shows than we've made it to, I got a bit discouraged and threw up my hands and said he was going to just be a horse for a bit and live in his field. 

His chiro vet came out Monday and worked on him. She found him a bit body sore overall and also out in his pelvis. He's got a big 'ole piece of skin/hair missing on his right hip, so we suspect that was some pasture shenanigans. This helps explain why he felt overall not great when I got on him. I shared my discouragement with her and she recommended the book Activate Your Horse's Core by Narelle C. Stubbs and Hilary M. Clayton. She said it had been developed for use on horses on complete stall rest and they found that completing these exercises kept the horses from losing muscle tone or flexibility. She also recommended he be separated from the group for a bit. This part is easier said than done. There is a smaller pasture that he could go in; its the one he lived in while he was gradually being introduced to the herd. But in spite of living in that just fine by himself for a month, he now starts running the fence line when he's in it alone. He does this even with another horse in there with him. I discussed with her starting him on some trazodone to see if that keeps him from being such a pest in turnout and inviting the others to beat him up. We figured it would be worth a try. 

So that's where we're at. 90 days of light work recommended by the vet who did his bone scan. Pasture rest decided on by me for the next 30 days at least.