Although the weather has been weird this summer, it does FINALLY feel like summer to me. After we painted my mom's living room for her I got to come home, and I've been here ever since. Mom seems to be getting around well with a cane and my stepdad has his wheelchair.
I've been riding Boo regularly. We're still working on transitions while staying on the bit. I get them about 5 out of 10 tries, so there is still work to be done. He's looking really good weight-wise and staying sound (knock on wood). I am planning on going on a trail ride with him next week! I'm really excited about it. I'm a little aprehensive too. Boo can be a bit of a fraidy cat.
The hubby and I went out to Mollala Saturday night to the Ross Coleman invitational. It is a fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation. We got to see some great bull rides. Ross was there (of course) and Mike Lee, Chris Shivers, JP Mauney, Austin Meier...just to name a few. Those names probably won't mean anything to you unless your a PBR fan, but it was a fun night and there were some rank bulls there. There was a silent auction and in between the long and short rounds they had a live auction. PBR tickets in Las Vegas this coming year with VIP treatment were my favorite items. They went for about 2200 dollars. I don't know how much money was ultimately raised for Make A Wish but I think the event was a success.
Yesterday was a looonnng day and a bit overwhelming. Bay has been showing signs of unhappiness for a while now. We've had the chiropractor out because we thought he was back sore. We've had the saddle fitter out. Nothing seemed to be fixing the problem, so we had the vet do a lameness exam on him yesterday. He has some positive results in both front feet and the right and left hock. Looks like arthritic changes. Looks like hock injections are in his future. The front feet showed slight navicular changes that the vet is managing with shoeing. We are having the hocks injected on Friday. That along with some nsaid management should help the inflammation response and keep him more comfortable. It's extremely important that he gets exercise, however, not with any collection until about 5 days after the injections. Going back to normal riding will tell us a lot about how the injections are going to work...and then we will see how often they will have to be done. We talked about putting him on Adequan too. Anyone out there with experience with that? If he continues to show he may get Legend as well, but only if he shows. Same question as above...anyone have experience using Legend? All of this is overwhelming to even contemplate right now. It seems like a lot for a 13-year-old horse to endure for a few blue ribbons.
If we retire him from showing and just use him as hubby does...for a trail horse and an occasional cow sorting we might not have to do anything but give him some bute before hand to help out with pain management. It's kind of like me actually. I take ibuprofen right before I ride ;) Then again we could still end up doing the hock injections. Who knows?
He's only 13-years-old so we weren't to happy to hear this. Now we've got some decisions to make. It's devastating for Sarah because she had finally gotten to the point with Bay where she was not only comfortable showing but looking forward to it. She had to vet out of our Arabian sporthorse regionals last weekend. Something she had been working towards all season.
Ultimately what we care most about is keeping him comfortable, sound, and fit.
Sorry to hear about Bay. There is someone at my barn that just had his reining horse's hocks injected and it worked out really well. I hope it is the same for Bay. BTW, I hear you regarding ibuprofen...I take it before I ride or have a lesson, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about Bay. He does seem a bit young to have joint issues. What was done with him before he teamed up with Mick?
ReplyDeleteSarah put forth so much dedicated effort into dressage with Bay. I was sorry to hear about the Region IV sport horse show.
If you want to keep Bay sound and happy for another 15-20 years, you have have to curtail his dressage career. Which of course would be a major blow for Sarah.
No easy choices. :-(
Our horse Lily gets a coffin joint injection and is good with that and cosequin powder once a day. At some point we'll be starting Adequan - did you know there's a generic equivalent that's much cheaper?
ReplyDeleteShe just does light trail riding, but I notice she's pretty miserable without the injection even if we aren't riding. Our turn outs are not very soft though, so that may make a difference in your case.
Also on the mental side of things she loves to get out and do things, and being left out of trail rides with the donkey in the paddock was not her thing.