A few days late, but hey, better late than mever ;) I've not been keeping goals since this injury because quite frankly, I only have one goal: get Gogo sound. And I can do the very best that I can but sometimes it's just up to fate in the end. However, with things looking brighter, I am going to go ahead and do my December goals, and hope that all of them will come true:
December Goals:
1) Continue successful walk work under saddle, building to 30 minutes and working on very simple on the bit work
2) Take our first trot steps in 3 months and not be lame/freak out
3) Fully plan out rehab schedule for the next 3 months
4) Start looking ahead to next show season and make very tentative plans
5) Have Gogo chiropractically adjusted
Dr. A's wife literally just called me right now as I was typing out "get Gogo chiropractically adjusted" and we set a time for this Saturday at 10am. Thank GOD for that too because boy does she ever need it. Now that we have bone scan images that show definite asymmetry in her pelvis we need to really do something about it!!
I'm counting down the days not only until Christmas, but to when I get to start trotting again. 11 days!!!
Guess this is a short post. But that's all right because any news about Gogo is always good. ;)
Proving her heart of gold and guts of steel at the 2009 American Eventing Championships
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69.7%, Reserve Champion first time at First Level!
Inaugural Laminitis Research Grant to Swedish Study
2 months ago
Encore H.T. 2008 - Gogo's first real event!
9 comments:
I'm so happy for you and Gogo!
Hooray!! Goals are a good thing. I missed seeing them.
I just hope that Gogo realizes that slow and steady wins this race.
Best of luck for continued rehab success. I'm in the process of rehabbing my mare...not from a serious injury, but from collective physical and mental issues from having really bad feet and being "used and abused". So I know the ups and downs can be frustrating. I think Sofie would be a better candidate for stall rest than Gogo, though. I can't imagine her getting herself all worked up over not being able to get out and work.
In case you'd like to visit a fellow classical dressager/radical barefoot person's blog: http://sofielearnsdressage.blogspot.com
Yay! Trotting again! (Dancing)
I am curious about the erratic behavior Gogo frequently exhibits. There are two things that come to mind, both of which you probably already eliminated as a cause at this point, but I thought I'd mention them nevertheless. The first is stomach ulcers. No explanation needed there.
The second is called intermittent catching/locking of the patella. I would think this would show up in the ultrasounds, but it's something that is fairly common and sometimes misdiagnosed as a problem with the hocks. It's when the stifle joint catches, particularly at the canter, and the horse starts to show lameness in a hind leg because they do not want to extend it completely under neath themselves. The joint will buckle, or lock briefly. Some horses exhibit crazy, erratic behavior when they anticipate this catching sensation, sometimes throwing themselves over backwards, rearing, bucking, bolting,falling down, etc. when asked to go forwards. They will do the same thing in the pasture.
Here is a link to an article on The Equinist regarding intermittent, or mild, upward fixation of the patella:
http://theequinist.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-fix-upward-fixation-of-patella-ufp.html
Akhal-Eventer,
She's been scoped clean twice and lives on aloe juice now because I also live in fear of ulcers. The upwards fixation of the patella was examined long ago and we dropped it because we had no hard evidence to follow. She doesn't catch, ever, and the dragging of the toe that she did two years ago I think was probably related to her unwillingness to bend her hocks further, and not having enough air space to clear her foot. She only did this at a trot. She has never exibited erratic lameness. Just crazy behavior. It's 99.9% explained erratic behavior though. Almost all of the time it's not without warrent. She's a sensitive soul and she acts out towards things that other horses might put up with. And really, quite frankly, most of the time she's a lazy, lazy couch potatoe... I've only seen her running around in the paddock a few times when the bugs were bad and she wanted to come in.
She's clearly just nuts! ;)
Yes, I figured you had already explored ulcers and patellas! You are probably right that she is just a highly sensitive girl. Best of luck to you. . .
Do you have her on a joint supplement? I've heard they're a good idea even for young horses as the components help reduce overall inflammation.
The other thing you could try is arnica, given orally, just like for people. My 3-yr-old had a crash landing out in the pasture (I have one with a case of the crazies, too), and ended up with a badly swollen rear hock. The vet found nothing wrong with the joint, and she never went lame, but the leg stayed swollen for days. We finally decided to give her some arnica in her beet pulp as an experiment. . . and low and behold, the swelling disappeared overnight. Could have been a coincidence, but I'll definitely be administering arnica the next time this happens just in case its not!
Akhal-Eventer,
I started her on regular Cosequin and Adequan too when she was doing the weird draggy-toe chippy-fence thing in 2007 and it REALLY helped. Last summer I upped the ante to Cosequin ASU which I LOVE even though it's mucho $$$$$$$$$. But I'm not familiar with arnica. I'll have to look into that!
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