lrw0250
Well-Known Member
Urgh just need to a little rant because I feel like I am the only person listening to our pony at the moment and so called professionals are labelling what I can clearly see is pain as naughty behaviour.
For background, after a 3 week winter holiday following a busy competition schedule our stressy Welsh x mare exploded during a saddle fitting at the end of January. She does have a history of bucking and rearing when stressed (which was the first 3 months we owned her as she was very unsettled by the move) but we had seen a massive improvement. Vet was booked and after a thorough check for lameness or pain points felt that some changes in routine (in at night instead of out 24/7, moved on to haylage instead of hay) could have caused ulcers. We had been making sure she was never without forage and she was on daily Protexin but nothing to specifically target ulcers. Sure enough, scope last week showed grade 2/3 across the squamous, glandular and pyloric areas, some already starting to heal themselves. None of them were particularly bad but more lots of small ones. Treatment has started now and vets advised it might take up to 3 weeks to see any real improvements but to continue to bring her back in to work, which my teenage daughter was thrilled about. I did query it at the time but was told that even racehorses train while being treated so some hacking and schooling at home won't be an issue.
We are a week in to treatment and my daughter had a lesson with our usual yard instructor on Sunday. I wasn't there but had already asked them to take it easy and not put any stress on the pony. Apparently she was very relaxed in walk and trot so they decided to try some canter. One rein was fine, second one resulted in a massive buck which launched my daughter over her head - she was fine thank goodness. I now have my daughter telling me that our instructor says it must be learned behaviour because there is no way ulcers that mild would cause such extreme reactions and that we should sell her. My daughter is adamant that since the vets said it would be OK to ride and she is still being "naughty" that the instructor is correct because they are all the experts, not me. However I'm positive that our poor pony is in quite a bit of pain (the fact I have video of her later that night twitching like mad when pressing the ulcer acupuncture points apparently not relevant because she a "sensitive, mareish" pony anyway).
I am completely open to the fact that yes, given the pony's history she probably does know that bucking and rearing gets her out of work which started with her last owner because she likely had undiagnosed ulcers when with them too . There might be something else which comes to light once the ulcers are treated (at the moment I am thinking potentially PSSM2 as we've tested and she is type 1 negative, maybe a neck or SI issue, maybe ovaries....) but I feel like I cannot write the poor girl off completely as a nutter while she is still screaming to me that she is sore and unhappy and that with the right treatment and ongoing management we can get the fab pony we had for a few months last year back.
Thank you for listening to my rant!
For background, after a 3 week winter holiday following a busy competition schedule our stressy Welsh x mare exploded during a saddle fitting at the end of January. She does have a history of bucking and rearing when stressed (which was the first 3 months we owned her as she was very unsettled by the move) but we had seen a massive improvement. Vet was booked and after a thorough check for lameness or pain points felt that some changes in routine (in at night instead of out 24/7, moved on to haylage instead of hay) could have caused ulcers. We had been making sure she was never without forage and she was on daily Protexin but nothing to specifically target ulcers. Sure enough, scope last week showed grade 2/3 across the squamous, glandular and pyloric areas, some already starting to heal themselves. None of them were particularly bad but more lots of small ones. Treatment has started now and vets advised it might take up to 3 weeks to see any real improvements but to continue to bring her back in to work, which my teenage daughter was thrilled about. I did query it at the time but was told that even racehorses train while being treated so some hacking and schooling at home won't be an issue.
We are a week in to treatment and my daughter had a lesson with our usual yard instructor on Sunday. I wasn't there but had already asked them to take it easy and not put any stress on the pony. Apparently she was very relaxed in walk and trot so they decided to try some canter. One rein was fine, second one resulted in a massive buck which launched my daughter over her head - she was fine thank goodness. I now have my daughter telling me that our instructor says it must be learned behaviour because there is no way ulcers that mild would cause such extreme reactions and that we should sell her. My daughter is adamant that since the vets said it would be OK to ride and she is still being "naughty" that the instructor is correct because they are all the experts, not me. However I'm positive that our poor pony is in quite a bit of pain (the fact I have video of her later that night twitching like mad when pressing the ulcer acupuncture points apparently not relevant because she a "sensitive, mareish" pony anyway).
I am completely open to the fact that yes, given the pony's history she probably does know that bucking and rearing gets her out of work which started with her last owner because she likely had undiagnosed ulcers when with them too . There might be something else which comes to light once the ulcers are treated (at the moment I am thinking potentially PSSM2 as we've tested and she is type 1 negative, maybe a neck or SI issue, maybe ovaries....) but I feel like I cannot write the poor girl off completely as a nutter while she is still screaming to me that she is sore and unhappy and that with the right treatment and ongoing management we can get the fab pony we had for a few months last year back.
Thank you for listening to my rant!
She is a lucky girl to have an advocate. I hate to see "naughty" childrens ponies 
