Yo horse’s leg so phat you get a three week vacation. Oh snap! So – Simon saw the vet yesterday. This was a new vet to me, but I really liked him. He was patient, thorough and seemed respectful of my finances which is always appreciated. Anyway, you don’t exactly care about my impressions of the new vet so let’s move on to what’s wrong with Sir Simon Pants. The short answer is a strain to the suspensory. When I arrived at…
Long time readers of this blog might have been thinking lately, “Wow – Simon sure has been super sound lately. It’s been a while since she’s had issues.” Been a while until now, that is. After the horse show, I gave Simon Monday off. He got new shoes, and my trainer/farrier didn’t report any weird swelling or issues. Tuesday I went out in the evening to give him a light hack. Immediately on pulling him from turnout, I noticed his…
Who’d have thought I’d have more than one post to write on this blog about bell boots? Back in 2013, bell boots caused Simon to sit on the ground like a dog. At the show this past weekend, we had another incident with bell boots but this time it wasn’t nearly as visual. Since Simon has pretty severe hock arthritis, I take a lot of (USEF legal) measures to make sure that he’s comfortable at shows and doesn’t get stiff…
Even though my vacation was as relaxing as can be, life started back chaotic as soon as my first day back at work began. Stress at work for Tim and I combined with some health scares from a family member made to an interesting back to reality day. Everything should be fine, but moral of the story is take care of yourself and enjoy the things that make you happy! For better or worse, Simon makes me happy… so off…
As most of you know, I spent a large part of July trying to figure out why Simon was NQR. It has half gone away, and half improved by a mix of strategies we’re currently working through. Of course we can’t be drama free in the Mauldin household, and another creature is showing lameness signs… but it’s not a horse. Pascale has been NQR for the past few weeks, and I’m concerned she has signs of hip dysplasia. At the…
Confounding horse continues to be confounding… but then again what else is new? Let me dive into some more detail. Simon finished his 7 day rest and 2g bute/day on Friday. On Saturday morning, I headed out to the barn to give him a light walk/trot hack and see how he is. Now I realize he will still have some bute in his system at that point, so I expected him to feel amazing. Overall, he did. Huge shoulder swing….
I had the vet out today, and the short story is that I still don’t have a firm answer and what I have is not excellent news. First we lunged Simon in the round pen, and he looked sound both directions. Didn’t show any of the dropping behavior I described to her at the walk, trot or canter. Next they flexed his hock/stifle/suspensory. He jogged out pretty well with the left, and slightly worse to the right but still not…
In the world of the “weirdness” we left off with a plan to re-do Simon’s shoes, treat his hind thrush, and re-evaluate. I’ve been attacking that thrush like a mo-fo, arranged to have his shoes re-done on Monday and all the while he felt quite good except for the occasional tripping/falling out during our rides. On Monday his shoes were adjusted, and while they looked beautiful… he still tripped/fell out in the hind during our ride. In-between these blips he…