To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Update

Lance's GI tract is handling his tiny, frequent meals just fine, so we will stay that course, gradually adding more hay over the next several days.

This morning Rick ultrasounded Lance's right hind high suspensory ligament and found swelling, but no large tears or holes. That's good news for that area . . . but why then would he be so lame? Rick may do more investigation, as well as treating the high suspensory with extracorporeal shockwave therapy.

Why another injury? I'm suspicious, again, of the sand footing in our arena. I had schooled Lance there a few times recently to start preparing for our lesson and the Nov. 8 show, thinking it would be okay because we had gotten some rain. But there were areas that were drier, and Lance is used to the much harder ground and gravel roads we have been riding on through the summer. If I could, I would amend the sand with something to make it more stable – or replace it ALL!

6 comments:

Theresa said...

Well, that is a good news bad news post if ever there was one. More good thank heavens, his gut is working! You would think that with the relatively small amount of time he actually spends in the arena it wouldn't be a big deal. Can the sand really be that much harder than ground? He's such a young horse to be so unsound Michelle. Do horses get Lyme disease? It has such a gamut of symptoms in people and dogs I wonder if horses can get it too.

emma said...

ugh poor Lance. glad he's recovering tho!

A :-) said...

Theresa said that better than I did in my last comment. Unsound was the term I was looking for. I sure hope you can figure out the problems so that you can enjoy riding and dressage again. I know you must be so disappointed that you have to wait now again until next year to show. I'm really sorry this is happening and I do hope Lance will be better really soon.

Michelle said...

I really DO think the sand can be that much of a factor, Theresa. Think of how hard it is to walk on the beach in dry, deep sand. Now imagine trying to do ballroom dancing in that sand, maintaining correct form and energy in spite of the difficult footing.

Horses CAN get Lyme disease, but we see very little of it here in any species.

Michelle said...

See my reply to Theresa, A. I am confident that Lance and I will dance again; I look forward to a long and happy partnership with my Mustang Man. This is just a bump in the road; showing isn't that important. :-)

Michelle said...

Me, too, emma!