Reason to feel silly about calling out the big gun lameness vet, number a billion: hearing over and over during the appointment how physically good your horse looks and how nice it is to have one trot up so perfectly sound.
Ohhhhhh, Tucker!
I am at peace with feeling a little silly. The horse had never been limping, the vet could not have been nicer, and I went into the exam prepared for possible outcomes ranging from "horse is fine; rider sucks" on up to "inject ALL the joints!"
Exam went about as expected. Legs? Super-clean. Joints? In good shape, with the hock injections holding well. Front feet beautiful. He hoof-tested with some heel pain in both hind feet, which is weird, but at this point given recent changes in his life, the farrier will just keep tabs and we will investigate further if it doesn't resolve. Trotted up very, very sound on the pavement. Back is sore. Up by the withers, perfect. Farther back, not perfect. Not the worst ever, by a long shot, but decidedly not perfect.
We took some a few X-rays to rule out kissing spine, etc. The pics were really cool to see, and cue extensive praise of Tucker's spine. I didn't appreciate what we were looking at until the vet pulled up some rads for another horse and compared. Apparently Tuck has better vertebral space at fifteen with sport-horse wear and tear than most horses have at five. My little overachiever!
So no big surprises. He's back-sore because his back is sore. Good to know. I
try not to be all hypochondria-by-proxy, but I am glad to have a
current baseline and I figured going in that if I got nothing more from
the exam than a clearer plan for management and a sense of whether or
not I was breaking him (spoiler alert: not), well...peace of mind was
worth the cost of a few X-rays.
The take-home recommendation was two-fold: check saddle fit and pursue physical therapy. There may or may not be some strain to the (a? don't quote me on this; I don't have the write-up in front of me) dorsal ligament, but Tucker's presentation at this stage did not suggest to the vet that we need to take him out of work. If we don't see improvement, I'll call him back out and we'll ultrasound.
The plan is to try some chiro because that's been more beneficial in the last year than massage. Not quite on the level of acupuncture, but I can do several rounds of chiro for the cost of an acupuncture session, so we'll start with the former and see how it goes.
And barnmate will be sending me contact info for her saddlefitter. I am not super-thrilled, on account of I adore my jump saddle (which was actually fit-checked and reflocked recently; insert lots of thoughts here) (the dressage saddle is out trying to get itself sold now anyway, so that's okay) and also I would rather chew glass while barefooting it over hot coals than reenter saddle-shopping hell. But maybe barnmate's wonderfitter will be able to do a little thing and it won't come to that.
Unfortunate timing, though! If it were November, I would just ride bareback all winter and regroup in the spring. Instead it is May and I would really like to jump and do some distance rides, neither of which I am super-eager to pursue sans saddle at this time.
I am also having thoughts about what this means, if anything, for those rides. Today is opening day for the 25 we were going to enter for June. On the one hand, I obviously don't want to hurt him and even limited distance on a horse with an iffy back seems like not the world's best idea. On the other, there are lots of horses more sore than Tucker participating in just about every sport out there, he remains very happy and willing in general, his back palpates quite a bit better after work than it does beforehand, and we have plenty of time between now and the ride to make some small changes that could have a big effect.
Like I said, lots of thoughts, and lots of time in which to think them; I will count myself lucky if I get to see Tuck at all this week because I am in studying lockdown starting...now.
Glad nothing is seriously wrong!
ReplyDeleteAt what point do you have to commit to the 25?
ReplyDeleteMy initial plan last year was to do our first 25 in July. Turns out that ride was cancelled.. so we postponed until September instead. It was a very unhappy realization at the time. It ended up working out well, though, as we really would not have been ready for a 25 at that point in the summer.
Here's a non-panicking thought you can hold onto as you contemplate saddle shopping: it sounds like the current thought is to CHECK saddle fit, not that the saddle fit is necessarily bad, but that it MIGHT be.
I have spent two weeks with great anxiety about the white hairs on the pony's back, despite completing a 25 in that saddle and having a zillion people look at it for fit, and finally decided that logically, that endurance saddle is probably fine (and I do not need to buy a thousand-dollar saddle just yet, woohoo!). Instead, I'm placing the blame on my lesser-used jump saddle (so I need to find a used Thorowgood with specific qualities, yikes!). If you're having a saddle fitter out, you're a step or three ahead of me :)
I went ahead and entered. I figure I can scratch (or drop down to the 15?) if things are going the wrong way and I would be sad if I didn't enter, it filled so I couldn't, and then he was perfect to go on the day.
DeleteYour non-panicking thought is very sensible! Thank you. I am such a crazy planner-aheader, I sometimes forget that having a set of worst-case scenario plans doesn't actually mean I'm going to have to use them...!
He's never had any white hairs or rubs or sores or anything, and he felt fan-freaking-tastic doing 12.5 miles tonight (I played hooky from studying; it was 75 and sunny out; no jury in the world would convict) and his back seemed totally fine after, so I do not even know.
Luck with your own saddle adventures!