I haven’t posted about Gillis because I am a little unsure at
the moment. He was vet checked last Monday. The vet who checked him is very
high/well known rider and judge in Australian dressage and I have heard she is
very picky and really takes her time and checks everything – fantastic! I told
her who the first owner was and who had really set his foundations and she knew
them and agreed they were very good with cementing the basics well into a horse.
She really liked his temperament and thought he was a nice horse. In the flexion
test he failed on his left hind. Trotted out lame, improved on the way back.
When she did the flexion test on the right hind he trotted out sound on the
left. She then put him on the lunge and he showed up lame in that left hind
again. Only at the trot. Not major, just stepping a little short by about a hoof
length. She couldn’t tell me why without nerve blocking, xrays. She couldn’t
palpate anything. She wondered if because he is not in full work he had some
muscle soreness.
I then had a look at my videos. The first visit I had I
couldn’t see anything. On the second visit I think I can it on the video. Have a
look here and what do you think? Am I just searching for something because I was told he was off? I feel bad for now riding him for as long as I
did but I honestly couldn’t feel it. A couple of times I thought he may have
taken a bad step.
I thought long and hard about how I wanted to proceed. The
owner is devastated and swears he has never had a lame day with her. I have requested for him to have a
week off and then he will be seen again on Thursday. If he fails again I will
let the owner decide on how they want to proceed with investigations. It is so
slight I wonder if I am being too picky for a 13yo, very heavy set Warmblood but
Sam is already a little scratchy and I really didn’t want another ‘scratchy’
horse. If it is a muscle thing I have an absolutely fab chiropractor but then I
don’t want to spend a lot of money on purchasing Gillis, having him treated by
the chiropractor to find out that it wasn’t a muscle/out of alignment thing at
all.
Lucky I have a Super Sam to keep me sane!!!!
2 comments:
It's very slight. It's quite likely at his age and with the kind of work he does that he has some hock arthritis. That sort of thing can sometimes be managed well with proper exercise and conditioning. I'd have hock x-rays done if I were you. If it's something else, I'd be more wary - might be stifle or sacro-ileal (although he looked very comfortable going around).
Listen to your gut on this one once you have all the info.
I'm with Kate. Take some xrays and see where you're at.
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