poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
This may be long and and a bit rambled sorry but I’d really appreciate any input/ideas suggestion and just what you’d do because I’m really not sure which way to go.
Horse, 11 yr ex racer. Retired due to injury. Injury treated given a long time off, signed off by vets as good to race but his owners kindly decided to let him try another life.
He came to me via a friend she had him a few weeks and test rode for me!
I’ve always been slightly concerned he wasn’t 100% but we carried on and he had been great. Occasionally he’d be slightly off, I’d give him a few days and he’d be fine.
Started tripping, some days really badly, some days (less often) none at all. I never felt he was dangerous and spent ages riding on different surfaces etc as the trips were weird, did he step on something etc
He also became super stiff, wouldn’t bend right and drifted right constantly.
Friend rode him and got her vet to look as she said it wasn’t me, he wasn’t right.
Failed a neuro work up, not in a dire way but a defo fail.
We xrayed his neck, it showed some arthritic changes C5 and 6 (from memory) we medicated this and he improved as in on the ground I can carrot stretch him left which was impossible before, he also passed a tail pull test.
He had lots of time off as the vet wasn’t happy with me riding until we were sure the tripping had stopped.
Since winter he’s had lameness at some point in all 4 legs, had “weird” movement in his off hind always. He’s more often than not lame somewhere.
We have fully xrayed his feet, blocked pain to his hocks and injected both, done physio, chiro
Had copious amounts of different shoes, pads fillers etc, none of which did much.
Umm, bute trials, nothing.
The lameness swaps and changes.
He is insured and I have money left to spend but the insurers are becoming a bit iffy about paying because there is no formal diagnosis.
I had thought he was finally sound and was hacking him out again. The tripping is 95% better. He’s still trying to bend right and drifting. As my stiff side isn’t complementing his I decided to try handing him over for a few weeks. Sh*t or bust type thing so he was booked to go to Sophie Seymour this Monday.
I figured she’d either straighten him up or confirm there was still physical issues…. Exciting!
Til he came in very definitely lame in front last week.
The vet who’s been treating has moved away so used that as the cut off to go back to my own vet.
She came out. Blocked to his off fore fetlock, however during the long time she was here he presented at various times lame on different legs aswell.
So, multi limb lameness. Neck related ?
She suggested her first port of call now is to X-ray the fetlock and scan that off fore.
She also mentioned a few times it might be better to quite while I’m ahead and cut my losses.
She said it’s a complicated case and is going to run a bit bill up pretty quickly.
I have had all his records and X-rays forwarded to her so she’s currently looking through but has told me to have a think and decide what I want to do.
I’m a bit lost tbh. He’s a nice horse. He suits me, he fits in well here. When things are good I love riding him, it’s awful on bad days though, he makes me really sore through my back and it’s just a horrible ride. Someone once said to me that neurological horses are often just classed as “just horrible to ride” he is the horse I want. But, I can’t afford to pay huge bills if the insurance won’t pay out. (Hence insuring him)
I also don’t really want to commit to retiring him, I’ve only had a few months riding out of him and retirement could be a long long time. It will mean I stop riding.
Umm, there’s probably more, I’m sure I’ve missed stuff but if anyone’s got this far you probably get the drift.
I’m leaning towards telling the vet to start more investigations with the schooling money I’d got together as obv that’s cancelled, then if the insurance messes round I can pay that bit.
In my head I *know he’s not coming right, pretty sure the vet thinks the same.
However I feel if I don’t do everything then I’ll always worry I may have been wrong.
What would you do?
Horse, 11 yr ex racer. Retired due to injury. Injury treated given a long time off, signed off by vets as good to race but his owners kindly decided to let him try another life.
He came to me via a friend she had him a few weeks and test rode for me!
I’ve always been slightly concerned he wasn’t 100% but we carried on and he had been great. Occasionally he’d be slightly off, I’d give him a few days and he’d be fine.
Started tripping, some days really badly, some days (less often) none at all. I never felt he was dangerous and spent ages riding on different surfaces etc as the trips were weird, did he step on something etc
He also became super stiff, wouldn’t bend right and drifted right constantly.
Friend rode him and got her vet to look as she said it wasn’t me, he wasn’t right.
Failed a neuro work up, not in a dire way but a defo fail.
We xrayed his neck, it showed some arthritic changes C5 and 6 (from memory) we medicated this and he improved as in on the ground I can carrot stretch him left which was impossible before, he also passed a tail pull test.
He had lots of time off as the vet wasn’t happy with me riding until we were sure the tripping had stopped.
Since winter he’s had lameness at some point in all 4 legs, had “weird” movement in his off hind always. He’s more often than not lame somewhere.
We have fully xrayed his feet, blocked pain to his hocks and injected both, done physio, chiro
Had copious amounts of different shoes, pads fillers etc, none of which did much.
Umm, bute trials, nothing.
The lameness swaps and changes.
He is insured and I have money left to spend but the insurers are becoming a bit iffy about paying because there is no formal diagnosis.
I had thought he was finally sound and was hacking him out again. The tripping is 95% better. He’s still trying to bend right and drifting. As my stiff side isn’t complementing his I decided to try handing him over for a few weeks. Sh*t or bust type thing so he was booked to go to Sophie Seymour this Monday.
I figured she’d either straighten him up or confirm there was still physical issues…. Exciting!
Til he came in very definitely lame in front last week.
The vet who’s been treating has moved away so used that as the cut off to go back to my own vet.
She came out. Blocked to his off fore fetlock, however during the long time she was here he presented at various times lame on different legs aswell.
So, multi limb lameness. Neck related ?
She suggested her first port of call now is to X-ray the fetlock and scan that off fore.
She also mentioned a few times it might be better to quite while I’m ahead and cut my losses.
She said it’s a complicated case and is going to run a bit bill up pretty quickly.
I have had all his records and X-rays forwarded to her so she’s currently looking through but has told me to have a think and decide what I want to do.
I’m a bit lost tbh. He’s a nice horse. He suits me, he fits in well here. When things are good I love riding him, it’s awful on bad days though, he makes me really sore through my back and it’s just a horrible ride. Someone once said to me that neurological horses are often just classed as “just horrible to ride” he is the horse I want. But, I can’t afford to pay huge bills if the insurance won’t pay out. (Hence insuring him)
I also don’t really want to commit to retiring him, I’ve only had a few months riding out of him and retirement could be a long long time. It will mean I stop riding.
Umm, there’s probably more, I’m sure I’ve missed stuff but if anyone’s got this far you probably get the drift.
I’m leaning towards telling the vet to start more investigations with the schooling money I’d got together as obv that’s cancelled, then if the insurance messes round I can pay that bit.
In my head I *know he’s not coming right, pretty sure the vet thinks the same.
However I feel if I don’t do everything then I’ll always worry I may have been wrong.
What would you do?
