New bonnet matches topline perfectly
I was hesitant to call a new vet over "I think something might be wrong with my horse, but there are no visual or physical signs." That sounds totally crazy, and I try not to let my crazy show before I even meet the vet.
Luckily it was time for spring shots and coggins and all that fun jazz, so I made an appointment and mentioned that I would like the vet to see him go and get her thoughts on him. Unfortunately, because it was a special shots clinic day she didn't have time to watch him that day, but she wanted to come back next week when she had more time to do a full evaluation.
I am the idiot that scrubs a water tank in 30 degree weather
If nothing else it will give her a baseline to see where he is at and we will have more information for future issues. Interestingly enough lately the equisense gait symmetry data has been trend upwards. For awhile when I was riding his gait symmetry was trending around 4.5. On a scale of 0-10 4.5 is not great.
I am trying to balance his workload with his physical condition, so I am working him with the long lines, doing lots of walk work, and not pushing too hard with the dressage time. I don't know if this is a blip on the radar or if it is something that I will have to continuously manage.
Cowboy got a new pad and of course I picked purple
Either way he doesn't owe me anything and I will do my best to provide him with the care he needs so he can keeping prancing around being a sass monster. The farrier put some different shoes on his hind feet. They are suppose to provide more support on the back half of the hoof, so hopefully they will help and things will keep trending upwards.
The new bonnet also matches cowboy's saddle pad, in case you hadn't noticed 😉 glad his gait symmetry scores have been improving, it will be interesting to hear what the vet thinks and if the shoes make any noticeable changes!
ReplyDeleteCowboy doesn’t get to steal the bonnet
DeleteLove all the new purple!
ReplyDeleteI have to say, you should always follow your gut, even if the crazy comes through. At the end of the day, you know this horse like the back of your hand, so if something seems off, it might just be!
EPM has been known to relapse, so you may need to do a course of meds. Thankfully they've gotten a lot more affordable! Hopefully it's not that, and the shoes will do the trick.
Keep us posted!
Hopefully it isn’t EPM. I’m hoping that it is just a lack of fitness and getting back out on the trails and doing more hills will help things out. But I’m a firm believer in being safe over sorry so getting professional eyes on him will make me feel better about things.
DeleteYou are not crazy- listen to that voice. I did and was able to identify that Irish was indeed experiencing difficulties. Hopefully your voice is wrong but it's good to find out.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it feels off to you because you've gotten used to it being 1 way? Like for instance I realized a couple weeks back that I was sitting way to the left, that felt normal to me even though it wasn't right. Moving over to the right felt so wrong, but everything became easier/better once I made that slide. *shrug* Horses definitely make us paranoid and I hope that the gut feeling is wrong and he's doing better than ever!
ReplyDelete