The bad
True confessions: I used to write my blog entries when I got bored at work, and post them later from home. Now that I am retired I have lots more to do, so I don’t just sit around trying to look busy when I’m not, and my blogging has fallen off a cliff.
Now I am in a dilemma about Champagne (my horse, if you may remember) and I am so very conflicted. Oh my.
A couple of months ago he went lame in the right hind. I called the vet, who did some kind of scan and diagnosed inflammation (but no arthritis) in his stifle. So, injection with a corticosteroid, hyaluronic acid, and an antibiotic. Ten days stall rest, then ride.
After ten days he was a lot better, but still something was off at the trot. I didn’t try to canter. The vet had taken a month off, so I called the covering vet, who diagnosed an evulsion of a muscle near the trochanter. 8 weeks stall rest, then gradual return to work by hand walking for increasing amounts of time for a month, then return to mounted walking on the level, with slow increases in time and activity level. Oh yikes.
Yesterday I went to a clinic with a very high credentials equine massage therapist. He looked at him, said he has extensive muscle atrophy on his whole right side (and truly, his right has always been his weaker side, and his right shoulder has always been small compared to his left). Plus, he has a sway back.
So this guy said my 17 year old horse looked like “an old 20”. He recommended trying long lining to build up the right side before ever riding him again. He said massage would not help unless the right side was strengthened first. He seemed totally honest. If he is right, I have a basically useless horse. I don’t have long lining skills, and I don’t know if I could build him up if I did, given his confirmation.
This is my first horse. He is a school master, and he has taught me so much about dressage. He has pretty much taught me to ride and how to keep a horse. Nobody will want to buy him if he isn’t sound, and anyway I don’t think I could sell him into an unknown future.
One answer is to just keep him for the next 20 years doing nothing, but that is very costly what with vet and farrier and floating teeth and feed and special attention for his IRness (feeding 4 times a day, etc.) and meanwhile I have no horse to ride.
Another answer would be to put him down, but he is my dearly beloved horse. How could I do that? He isn’t in any pain that I can see.
I am going to seek another opinion about this guy’s opinion, but I can see for myself the muscle atrophy, and have no idea what is the cause. I can’t believe how heavy I feel. In some ways it would be easier to hear he was dying. At least then I would have a clear way to know how to help him.