Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse - A Setback

Part 1 of Rachel and Grandma and an Arabian Horse

When the Arabian gelding, Dandy, was ok'd to go back to work, I was unable to be there when Rachel rode. I was concerned about the fact that the horse had actually taken three lame steps at the Daffodil Arabian Spring Show and we didn't have any definitive answers to what had caused those steps. But I knew that on her own, Rachel would not be pushing the horse to the point of collection where those steps had occurred. So I was content to have her take the horse on one light ride without me as long as they (Colleen and Rachel) paid close attention to his soundness. If there was any sign of soreness they were to cease riding.

They called after the ride to check in and they were pleased to report that the horse had shown no signs of lameness. While optimistic, I was still reserving judgement until I had a chance to ride the horse myself. I knew that whatever had been troubling the horse probably wasn't going to show itself again until the horse experienced the same degree of collection. So the true test would be the next day when I warmed him up before Rachel's lesson with Crystal.

As fate would have it, I was unable to make it to that lesson. I have a yearling filly with a troublesome injury who had experienced a setback. So Rachel would be on her own for the lesson. I wasn't concerned about it because I knew that Crystal was as adamant about protecting the horse as I am. If there were any signs of a problem, Crystal would stop the lesson. I knew that Dandy was in good hands.

From what I understand the lesson started out fairly uneventful, The horse was fine at a slow trot or jog but as Crystal instructed Rachel to push him on the horse just was not himself. He is such a smooth horse to ride, that if you did not know him well, you would probably not even notice the problem. The trot would have been fine for most horses but it just was not Dandy. Crystal asked Rachel to have the horse canter with the same result. This direction was normally Dandy's good way of going, but currently he was doing the canter in a manner that Crystal had not seen in months. Concerned about the condition of the horse, the lesson was stopped. The horse given another Vetrolin liniment rinse and put away.

The communication got messed up and I didn't get a call about the outcome of the lesson. Rachel thought Colleen called and Colleen thought Rachel called, while I worried about my horse. This horse is my first foal and he has my heart in a big way. It's hard for me to have him out of my care and even harder now that I am not sure how he is doing. Grandma gets crabby when she worries.

I tracked them down the next day to find out about the lesson. The decision was made to have Dandy examined by my vet the next day. It was tricky working out getting away from my farm to pick him up because the yearling filly, Echo, is requiring 24 hour a day care and I have a sneaky mare on foal watch.

I enlisted the aid of the folks on Marestare to watch the mare for me while I was gone. It was a relief to know that I had that as a option. I know from past experience that the marestare community will step up to the plate and be as dedicated to the task as I would.

Once I had a commitment from the marestarers I hitched up my trailer and loaded up Scandalous Hope to take to exchange places with Dandy. Currently I have more horses than stalls so I needed to swap out just in case Dandy needed to stay here.

By the time I got back with Dandy, the vet called to say he way on his way. Once he arrived, he worked on the yearling filly who had again figured out a way to trash her bandages and then he examined Dandy. He found an excessive amount of soreness in the horse's right shoulder (the shoulder that was hyper extended in the fall) and also the horse's back was out again. Even though the back had been great on Monday, the riding that had been done had caused rotation in the vertebrae along with soreness and swelling.

The horse did trot off sound on the leg in question with a flexion test That was a big relief, at least we knew we weren't dealing with ligament or tendon issues. But it was obvious that the brief time off with chiropractic and message therapy were not enough for the horse to recuperate from the fall. The vet administered a shot of Legend and advised more time off for the shoulder to heal.

To be continued Here

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