Working George after his little lameness problem

[Gorgeous George]

Some of you may have read about George's lameness episode on Monday night (and my complete panic about it

), as I was riding him he suddenly went lame at the front

. With a friend's help I trotted him up and he was about 3/10 lame on his near fore in trot, but looked sound in walk although a little tentative.

No heat or swelling and no increased digital pulse, and no obvious pain in the leg or foot. Put him to bed and spent the night fretting about him

Our very experienced YM trotted him up yesterday am and could see nothing amiss, so turned him out in the little paddock and kept an eye on him. Trotted him up again yesterday evening and seemed fine, and no heat or swelling and I hear from the YM that he is still ok this morning

.

I am so relieved you wouldn’t believe as I had a million nightmare scenarios going round my head

. I will obviously be keeping an eye on him just in case, but hopefully it was just a tweak as this has never happened before.

So now for my question, should I be giving him more time off, riding him gently, or just carrying on as before? I certainly wasn’t planning on any jumping for a bit, I’m always aware of the ground esp as George has windgalls and I don’t really do fast work anyway! I was going to trot him up again this eve just to be sure and then ride him gently in the school if he’s ok, probably mostly walk with a little bit of trotting – but where do I go from here

?

Thanks all

 

[ester]

probably just a tweak then.

I would avoid the school, I think it increases the stresses as you will be turning and I don't know what your surface is like.

If me I would stick to straight lines at least till the weekend, take him on a couple of short hacks walk to start then, do a little trotting and see how he feels if he is still ok then venture into the school, do you have someone who can watch him in the school and say if he still looks ok.

I might put on the lunge just for a couple of circuits (not for work just for checking) before riding in the school just so I could have a good look at him before I got on.

If all was fine I would be looking at carrying on as normal from monday.

 

[chestnut cob]

I would just hack in straight lines, in walk, for a couple of days.

Sounds like just a tweak, or he might have even stood on a sharp stone in the school, something like that.

 

[kate081]

If he was mine & had been 3/10 lame I'd give him today off, hack / lightly school Thurs & Fri and go back to normal at the weekend all being well.

 

[AmyMay]

I would hack him only, avoiding the school for several days.