And we're back!

And we are back!

Sam and I had a holiday over the winter break. It was lovely but I also eventually did miss riding.

Sam met a lovely man, Dr Rob Willis who is a vet but mainly does acupuncture. He spent 1.5hrs with Sam, looking, watching, feeling and pointed out a few different things. Sam has lower back pain due to the left fore issues and he tries to hold himself on the offside hind to help that. This is what is causing him to have trouble when travelling to the left. At least we have answers! So he gave him 4 injections straight into that area to see if that would help. The effects for the next three weeks were interesting. I had one pony who was in a lot of pain. In fact Sam was in a very bad mood, did not want to be touched, patted, talked to. Just fed and left alone. At first I was extremely worried as you could imagine. I mean, Sam would see me and canter to the back of the paddock and keep his bum pointed to me, if I grabbed his halter it would take a while to catch him and even if I bought the float out. But after 3 weeks Sam finally felt better and I was able to bring him back into work slowly. So he has been back in work now for about 10 days and is feeling really good. He wants to stretch a lot more, he is working over the back a lot more. The canter to trot transitions are a little icky but he is still very weak behind from his holiday so I will slowly build up his fitness and strength. We go back for a second visit about mid September.

I had to have Sam's left fore re x-rayed and things are deteriorating rapidly. He now has a spur, the side wall has increased and thickened and the joint disease has progressed. The vets could not believe that Sam was still able to be in work. They recommend having him put down or retired on bute. Of course I felt like the worst mother on the face of the earth and rang Dr Rob Willis for his opinion. He was surprised that the xrays revealed something so bad. He agreed that Sam was not sound but that he could be managed. Sam enjoys being in work and I am very careful on what surfaces he is ridden on and how he is managed.

Sam's tootsies are getting better, back to landing heel toe and he is much more sounder. My farrier comes back from over seas next week so we can get back on track.

I have been looking at horses for sale and I really have a good horse I just wish he was sound. I went to look at one mare and the poor thing was in so much pain. You could see she was sore from head to tail, also needed her hooves tended to properly. She could not hold a light round frame, she could not stretch down. If they didn't have so much money on her I would have saved her! You could see the pain in her eyes and occasionally when she would soften her little face, it was so beautiful! They just needed to drop her price by say $8000!!!!! I guess we can't save them all! So the search is still on...........