Oh the Joy of Handwalking

Tonight was our first 30 minute handwalk. She was too funny! Totally willing to walk along next to me-although we did have to review that if you keep walking at the same tempo I do then it doesn't feel like I'm pulling your head along. But she was so upset that another horse was being ridden in the arena! I'm not sure if she doesn't like this particular horse or if it was that another horse was moving faster than her but it was so funny. Every time he would come around the rail by us she would pinch her nose and put her ears back and think really hard about how much she'd like to kick him. You could literally watch her brain following this line of thought. She cracks me up!

Injection Junction, What's Your Function?

We saw the vet this morning. She looked at her withers and her lumbo-sacral region with ultrasoud. Wanda has some bad arthritis in her L5/6 joint. And on her right side by the base of the dorsal spines. We injected her withers with a lot of cortico-steriods. Hopefully that will reduce a lot of inflammation and pain. The vet wants to take it slowly and in stages so we can tell what's helping and how much. So she's on rest for a week-thankfully she can be turned out or hand-walked as long as she's quiet. I have quite a stock of tranqs on hand just in case-rest not being Wanda's favorite thing! The vet thinks this is a result of some severe trauma-nothing that I did which is a relief. It's still to early to tell if she'll really be suitable for work though. She'll probably always struggle with tucking her pelvis due to her L5/6 issue but as long as she's comfortable and happy I can deal with that. I don't need her to be the world's best dressage horse-just my best dressage horse! After this week off she can begin longeing in her halter for another week. At the end of THAT week, if she's not sensitive to palpation then we can try putting a saddle on her and see how that goes.

Houston, We Have a Plan

Well, I just got off the phone with my wonderful vet and we have a plan! Tomorrow or Wednesday we're going to ultrasound her SI joint and her right withers. They both lit up on the nuclear scan. And my husband finally got me to understand that I tend to say nucular instead of nuclear so now everyone is happy. We're definitely going to inject her withers and probably her SI depending upon what the ultrasound shows. Her tooth is getting looked at by the dentist next week. And I'm hoping the saddle fitter can work us in sometime soon as well. Hopefully I'll have a horse I can ride again in the next three weeks.