Chance Report

Very Interesting

The vet was here yesterday to evaluate Chance. Those of you who visit often know that he has been off and on lame all winter. Dr. Klayman did a thorough evaluation a while back and found a bit of bony change in his right hock. He injected that and Chance was sound behind, but was slightly off in his front left.

My farrier had found some sole bruising from the winter's back footing so we decided to treat conservatively. We first painted his soles with Venice turpentine, but during the course of that treatment, he got VERY lame. Since rain was predicted, I decided to forego the turpentine for a few days and, sure enough, in a day or so, Chance was sound again. I suspect he blew an abscess. At that point, I thought all was well.

Now, mind you, I am not yet sound enough myself to ride, so I did not try him out, except for a quick lunge.

When my vet arrived yesterday, his assistant lunged Chance, and once again, he was slightly off on his left front again. When he reacted to the hoof testers, we decided to do a nerve block to see what happened.

This time, after the block, he was slightly off on his right front. As I saw it, at that point, the best option was a set of X-rays.

Dr. Klayman found some signs of navicular disease. Again, it was slight, but the bone is definitely compromised.  The pictures also showed that changing Chance's hoof angle will help as well in aligning his coffin bone.

The vet is sending copies of the x-rays to my farrier, Scott, and plans on doing a phone consult. After that, Scott will need to come out to do some corrective trimming and, most likely put a set of front shoes on my boy. It's not my favorite option, but considering the prior bruising, this might be the best solution.

As for my riding, I am quite positive that once I am in the saddle, riding itself will be fine. The problem is both the mounting---probably not too bad with the tall mounting table I have--and dismounting, where the real problem lies. In order to dismount from either side, my left hip/leg needs to be able to turn and twist and therein lies the rub. Standing on one leg is difficult enough, but add that torque and I'll be in trouble.

At this point, I am opting out. No rush at this point. And besides, I need to wait until my boy is ready too.

On a side note, we are inundated with mosquitoes! Swarms of the little monsters are making it almost impossible to spend much time outside. The horses are hiding in the barn most of the time. I put there scrim sheets on and sprayed them with repellent and it helps, but the flysprays only last so long against mosquitoes. I called the County extermination service to report the little critters--well some of them are fairly good sized--and the woman there said I wasn't the only one reporting. It's been raining for the last two days and the sun is behind clouds which certainly doesn't help the situation.

Which leads to the fact that the swimming pool opens for weekends only tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's been far too cool to warm the water up enough to swim as far as I am concerned. The nights have been in the 40'sF and with the rain, the days have not been too warm either. I still may go over and at least dangle my feet in the water.

Until then, I think I'll opt for the indoor pool--water at 83F.