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glenatronIt's been a week of mixed news. The good is that Zorro, awesome and chunky black horse I mentioned a while back, is coming to stay with us on Saturday. I have a new pony!
The bad news is that Joe, our gorgeous schoolmaster cob, has had his proper vet examination for the slight lameness he has been showing over the last few months. When we first had the vet out to check him out she prescribed bute and it made a big difference to his manner and movement which really showed how he had been getting less mobile by increments over the months and years he has been with us. Unfortunately, the vetting pretty much confirmed our fears.
I should start by observing that Joe, like the absolute gentleman that he is (I may seem effusive here, but he is as close to the perfect horse as I have ever met) was amazingly well behaved at the equine hospital, he did everything that was asked of him, politely and without getting flustered and he did it all in a regular halter. When they were x-raying his legs the nurse actually asked if he was sedated. He wasn't, but he was very intrigued about the xray gantry thing and really wanted to know how to work it.
He had to have nerve-blocks on his knees and heels, which means he now has little clipped circles on his knees and on his heels although there is still enough feather for a comb-over on those. The clipping on his left knee ( his left leg was the more problematic one ) revealed an old scar that the vet suggested probably meant he had fallen on the road at some point.
The nerve-blocks showed his knees were bad, but not the sole source of the problem so they x-rayed both forelegs. The x-rays ( we should be getting them e-mailed through, I was saving this post for when they arrived, but nothing after a week, and too much happening to leave it any more) showed his left knee to be arthritic and his right knee and both short pasterns to show some signs of arthritic changes.
The cause is simple enough - he was started too young. From what we can tell of his history he was started at two and in regular riding-school work not too much after that- he was sold as a six-year-old to his previous owner and the vet later confirmed he was about four at that time. No horse's skeleton can be expected to handle that kind of treatment at that young an age and certainly to a big, solid-built horse like him the effect was devastating.
Joe, concentrating.
Handsomest cob ever.
The vet has prescribed a course of HA injections along with Cortaflex and says with luck he may be able to come back into light hacking, but his days as a schoolmaster are over and given that he is prone to bolting out in the wide world and the last thing you want to be riding is a heavy bolting horse whose knees are liable to give way the chances are that his effective career is over and although he is always going to be our horse and our friend it looks like he's probably going to have to retire. He is only 14.
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equestrian
The bad news is that Joe, our gorgeous schoolmaster cob, has had his proper vet examination for the slight lameness he has been showing over the last few months. When we first had the vet out to check him out she prescribed bute and it made a big difference to his manner and movement which really showed how he had been getting less mobile by increments over the months and years he has been with us. Unfortunately, the vetting pretty much confirmed our fears.
I should start by observing that Joe, like the absolute gentleman that he is (I may seem effusive here, but he is as close to the perfect horse as I have ever met) was amazingly well behaved at the equine hospital, he did everything that was asked of him, politely and without getting flustered and he did it all in a regular halter. When they were x-raying his legs the nurse actually asked if he was sedated. He wasn't, but he was very intrigued about the xray gantry thing and really wanted to know how to work it.
He had to have nerve-blocks on his knees and heels, which means he now has little clipped circles on his knees and on his heels although there is still enough feather for a comb-over on those. The clipping on his left knee ( his left leg was the more problematic one ) revealed an old scar that the vet suggested probably meant he had fallen on the road at some point.
The nerve-blocks showed his knees were bad, but not the sole source of the problem so they x-rayed both forelegs. The x-rays ( we should be getting them e-mailed through, I was saving this post for when they arrived, but nothing after a week, and too much happening to leave it any more) showed his left knee to be arthritic and his right knee and both short pasterns to show some signs of arthritic changes.
The cause is simple enough - he was started too young. From what we can tell of his history he was started at two and in regular riding-school work not too much after that- he was sold as a six-year-old to his previous owner and the vet later confirmed he was about four at that time. No horse's skeleton can be expected to handle that kind of treatment at that young an age and certainly to a big, solid-built horse like him the effect was devastating.
Joe, concentrating.
Handsomest cob ever.
The vet has prescribed a course of HA injections along with Cortaflex and says with luck he may be able to come back into light hacking, but his days as a schoolmaster are over and given that he is prone to bolting out in the wide world and the last thing you want to be riding is a heavy bolting horse whose knees are liable to give way the chances are that his effective career is over and although he is always going to be our horse and our friend it looks like he's probably going to have to retire. He is only 14.
x-posted with
equestrian