Vet Visit 2.0

The weekend was fairly successful lameness-wise. As per the vet's instructions, I worked him almost every day. I lunged him Friday, checked him Saturday, lunged and rode him Sunday, and he was turned out on Monday. I intended to ride him Monday, but the weather really perked up for a change.  I figured that natural turnout was much better at working him and other horses do a much better job of giving each other an attitude adjustment!

After all that, he was still sound. Well, not 100% sound. He was definitely still a little stiff and a bit off , but the vet says he is much improved. She expects that returning to work will simply mean some good days and some bad. Last week was clearly a bad day and not necessarily worth the nervous breakdown. But hey, when your horse has been sick or sore for 4 months, you start to err on the side of caution!

She also agrees with my farrier that although his back feet are deteriorating rapidly, they are not bothering him all that much and the damage is mostly cosmetic. The brittle parts simply need to break away so the strong ones can replace them.

He was also 10x more behaved and did not try to run down the vet tech. Dear lord, thank you for making my pony generally sane on the end of the lunge line instead of the wild beast you gave me this weekend. Much appreciated.

Now I simply await the results from the X-rays. We also did a better view to see the extent of any navicular changes this time. I figured I might as well just add it onto the bill. Then I will know what I'm dealing with or maybe (dare I hope?) it will not necessarily be the end of jumping for us. But I doubt it.

Fact of the day: a horse who is sore on their front legs (for whatever reason - laminitis, navicular, general soreness) will often not stretch their head down towards the ground while moving because the weight of their head and neck adds that much pressure to their front. I think this is a super handy trick, especially for a horse like Walker who is generally bred to have a low set head and be a peanut roller. I was happy to see that he had no problems jogging with his head low today.

Girlfriend #1: Zeva

Girlfriend #2: Cheyenne

Watching me as I leave
Notice how his turnout has no pasture and is
quite hard (although admittedly softer at the bottom)
I wish he had some pasture to graze but c'est la vie... for now...