Feeling disheartened

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Horsegirl25

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Sorry in advance for the long post…
I’ve posted a few times about my pony having a few issues/ looking for advice so some may recall.
My pony has went through various lameness assessments since around October time with about 7 weeks off in between, this all started when he started refusing XC which was super out of character for him. The hunter trial that ended with me booking a lameness assessment he stopped 7 times throughout the course.

He’s had his back, front feet and hocks X-rayed with nothing other than sidebone in his front feet to show but he wasn’t concerned about this. (I have photos of them if anyone is interested)
I ended up getting 2 separate vets out, the first vet thought he looked lame behind so nerve blocked and came back to X-ray his hocks which showed nothing so she wanted to come back and scan suspensories.
Various reasons I ended up getting a second opinion, there was about a month between the visits and vet number 2 (who specialises in lameness) couldn’t see a lameness behind although he had had about a month off so was conscious that possibly whatever original vet seen had resolved. Long story short he couldn’t find any lameness and x rays were all clear so we got the go ahead to bring back into work. Things have been going well, he has been out arena eventing and won his class and I finally felt like we were getting somewhere.
Today we were at showcross (a mix of WH and SJ fences) he was 2nd in the 70cm and refused twice in the 80… now I can’t decide wether there is more to this , if he is still in pain or if he had lost a bit of confidence? He isn’t a stopper this is what I keep reminding myself it’s so out of character for him especially to do it twice.

This is the pony that jumped double clear at BE90 last year, jumped clear round a regional qualifier for the 80 regional finals and placed at the Aintree ACE champs in May… now we are barely getting over 80cm WH… I can’t help but mourn him as he isn’t the same pony as this time last year. I think his hearts still in it, when he jumps he jumps great and he still gets excited when he sees the fences.
I don’t know what to do, if I should phone the vet back out? I can’t understand how if he was sore he jumped basically 2 classes (he refused towards the end of the 80) surely he would’ve shown his pain to start? Who knows… I’m just feeling extremely disheartened and don’t quite know where to go from here…
 
SpotsandBays said:
I think I’d get the lameness vet back out to assess again. You need to be sure that something isn’t niggling before you start looking at other aspects such as confidence/sourness etc. Does he jump a lot?
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Thank you think that is where my mind is going. No he hasn’t jumped since 2nd of December when he won his arena eventing class. He’s just done flat work hacking and poles since then.
 
ycbm said:
Have the suspensories been scanned on the hind legs?
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So that never ended up happening as second vet didn’t feel there was a hind lameness so no indication to scan. TBH I should have probably asked for them to be scanned anyway but at the time I was just happy he didn’t see anything behind..
 
Horsegirl25 said:
So that never ended up happening as second vet didn’t feel there was a hind lameness so no indication to scan. TBH I should have probably asked for them to be scanned anyway but at the time I was just happy he didn’t see anything behind..
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Well that's your first thing to do then. The symptoms pretty much scream out "suspensory problems!" when x rays aren't showing up anything. It fits with being better with rest, and with causing no issues with jumping one round, standing around for a while and then refusing to jump again.

I hope you find an answer and that fixing it won't be too difficult.
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ycbm said:
Well that's your first thing to do then. The symptoms pretty much scream out "suspensory problems!" when x rays aren't showing up anything. It fits with being better with rest, and with causing issues no with jumping one round, standing around for a while and then refusing to jump again.

I hope you find an answer and that fixing it won't be too difficult.
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Ahhh okay interesting. How would he be ok for one round the start of second but towards the end of second have issues, would it be from the increased activity suddenly causing pain?
Kicking myself for not just asking for them to be scanned when vet was out
 
Horsegirl25 said:
Ahhh okay interesting. How would he be ok for one round the start of second but towards the end of second have issues, would it be from the increased activity suddenly causing pain?
Kicking myself for not just asking for them to be scanned when vet was out
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If he has strained tendons they may feel ok the first round but be inflamed by the activity, and while standing around waiting to do the next round stiffened up and/or got more inflamed. It does fit the symptoms.

Don't blame yourself for taking the vets advice, that's what you pay him for.
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I'm Dun said:
what are his feet like? Apart from suspensories, foot pain is another thing that can cause intermittent stopping.
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His feet are pretty pants tbh, they break up a lot in the summer.
After having the X-rays done and them showing side bone bilateral fronts my farrier advised to take the shoes off for the rest of the winter and put them back on come summer.
He did take some adjusting to this but has been good as of late but this was his first time jumping barefoot
 
ycbm said:
If he has strained tendons they may feel ok the first round but be inflamed by the activity, and while standing around waiting to do the next round stiffened up and/or got more inflamed. It does fit the symptoms.

Don't blame yourself for taking the vets advice, that's what you pay him for.
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Ahh okay thank you so much for explaining that makes sense.
Think I will give him a ring Monday and just get him back out, even if it turns out to be nothing I need to know that for my own peace of mind..
 
Horsegirl25 said:
Ahh okay thank you so much for explaining that makes sense.
Think I will give him a ring Monday and just get him back out, even if it turns out to be nothing I need to know that for my own peace of mind..
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I'm not sure I would use the vet who didn't want to scan the first time. It might be difficult for him to have to face having been wrong. I would go for someone who is motivated to find what might be very small changes at the moment, since rest was so immediately effective.
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ycbm said:
I'm not sure I would use the vet who didn't want to scan the first time. It might be difficult for him to have to face having been wrong. I would go for someone who is motivated to find what might be very small changes at the moment, since rest was so immediately effective.
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Hmmm yes know what you mean. Off to do some research!
Thank you very much you have been so helpful
 
ycbm said:
Have you got any video of him jumping, or pictures of take-off? Failure to take off from both legs together side by side is another giveaway. They normally appear sound if both legs are affected, and often don't respond to flexion tests, so vets often get fooled. Good luck getting it sorted.
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IMG_7953.pngDo you mean like these? I’m not quite sure how to attach a video sorry but these are screenshots from today’s video. These are the only 2 jumps that you could see his hind end so I’m not entirely sure if he looked like that the full time.


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Yes, those are good. I don't know if you can see it, but to me it's pretty clear he's taking off from his left hind foot and the right one isn't taking its share of the work.

When he was unsound was it on the right leg?
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ycbm said:
Yes, those are good. I don't know if you can see it, but to me it's pretty clear he's taking off from his left hind foot and the right one isn't taking its share of the work.

When he was unsound was it on the right leg?
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Ahh interesting, thanks for that I wouldn’t have ever seen that without it being pointed out.
He was never unsound so to speak it was just a loss of performance that prompted the vet visit however he was short tracking up.
Now this is where I get muddled but it was his right leg but our left if we stood and looked at him. Is that what you see in the photos?
 
Yes, his right leg is not taking its full share of the workload. That will be to your left if you were looking at him face on. Though sometimes the leg that falls to come through as far is the good one, because the horse doesn't want to keep its weight on the bad one.

My money is pretty firmly on suspensories and they will hopefully be fixable. If the suspensories scan clean then I'd move to xray the stifles.

You've almost certainly got a problem somewhere, well done for listening to your horse.
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ycbm said:
Yes, his right leg is not taking its full share of the workload. That will be to your left if you were looking at him face on. Though sometime's the leg that falls to come through as far is the good one, because the horse doesn't want to keep its weight on the bad one.

My money is pretty firmly on suspensories and they will hopefully be fixable. If the suspensories scan clean then I'd move to xray the stifles.

You've almost certainly got a problem somewhere, well done for listening to your horse.
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Thank you very much for explaining and taking time to look at these photos it has been incredibly helpful!

I was worried that it may be a bit silly for phoning the vet after one refusal but I just do not feel like the previous lameness assessments have gotten to the problem. As I say even if nothing is wrong I need to know that for a fact before pushing through.

Thank you again for all your help.
 
Probably not related to the thread but it looks like the saddle cloth is not reaching the rear of the saddle. If that’s the case there will be uneven pressure through the weight bearing panel.
As above, well done for listening to your horse. Hope you find something fixable.
 
ycbm said:
Well that's your first thing to do then. The symptoms pretty much scream out "suspensory problems!" when x rays aren't showing up anything. It fits with being better with rest, and with causing issues no with jumping one round, standing around for a while and then refusing to jump again.

I hope you find an answer and that fixing it won't be too difficult.
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This would be my first port of call. I have a mare that I had to really push the vet to scan her suspensories. Sure enough, she had damage to her right hind suspensory. It was mild damage, but explained a lot of the issues I was experiencing.
 
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