A very good article was written last week by Dr. Kent Allen. Dr. Allen is a consistent presence on our US team selections and he is helping our athletes at every important event in the east. He has amazing experience and I am linking you to his article because I think it is very important for everyone to read.
And here is a little story to go with it, grab a beer and read:
I skip around Aspen prelim on Taukalot and feel like I am loping over a novice course. OK, so I lose two shoes, but Taco proves his resilience and finishes just fine. Fast forward to the following Friday and I have a fun, challenging dressage lesson with Debbie De Witt. We give Taco plenty of breaks, but also plenty of lateral work and collection. Next day, Saturday, I go horse shopping with Lori (see earlier post) and come home on Sunday to flat Taco a bit…. and he is lame. Ok, maybe not head bobbing lame, but he just is not pushing well from behind. I think that something must have happened in his stall and have an easy week and then leave for Inavale HT.
Inavale = dressage only. Taco feels off color and I cant properly work him in for dressage. He is still not pushing right behind. I withdraw after dressage and dont do the jumping phases, wait for another day when his muscle strain has healed (again, see Inavale post).
Tuesday, June 29th, I cant sleep. I keep imagining that the “muscle pull” is actually a dreaded hind suspensory strain. Panic upon waking, drink too much coffee in morning, snap at dogs, intimidate the working students with my bad mood, get unreasonably mad at Panda, who is on stall rest and a pain in my butt, and eventually by late afternoon I pluck my head out of the sand and make a vet appointment and apologize to all involved.
We do the usual blocking and flexion tests. And after a very boring 3 hours we conclude that Taco is just no fun to hold for that long, but also that the injury blocks to the hock. Anybody who has been involved with sporthorses, knows that just because the suspensory block did not improve the horse, does not mean that there is no suspensory injury. There are many structures in there that may not be affected by that one block, but it is a guide and it gives you some information about your injury, but it is not definitive proof. Due to the fact that we have injected 4 sites for the blocking, we have to delay the ultrasound investigation til today, Monday. You cannot ultrasound very accurately when you have just injected fluid into the area of the leg that you are interested in. Best to wait a few days then come back.
Sleep better, but still some anxiety. Panda still naughty. Dont apologize to him for several hours. Taco stuck in stall.
Dr. Michelle Delco comes to barn to finish the ultrasound. Final analysis: no clear difference between either leg for hind suspensory or tendon injury. After much discussion and lots and lots of measuring with the ultrasound between the two hind legs, she decides that all the signs point to a bony, hock injury. We procede to inject Taco’s hocks with the usual mixture. At this point, Michelle is saying that there are no huge red flags flying to an ugly injury, but there is also no clear reason to see why Taco was acutely lame, which would be a strange presentation for hock arthritis. Knowing this, we inject and upon putting the needle into Taco’s lower joint….. we get blood, not synovial fluid. We are both gobsmacked and finally see the clear reason to his lameness!! He has had a traumatic hock injury. Possibly, he was cast in the stall?Who knows, but whatever it was it caused him an injury in that joint. I am almost giddy with relief because while it is not good news that he needs an easy month of work and no competitions (and he misses Inavale and Rebecca)…. its also not bad news that he needs 9 months of healing from a ligament injury.
I am telling you all this because I think it is extremely important to not skip steps when it comes to sporthorse injuries. A less experienced and less conservative vet might have assumed that we needed to inject his hocks and immediately found the blood in the joint space… and gotten lucky. I would have saved hundreds of dollars with that vet… but what if it was a suspensory strain? The steroids we injected would have masked a suspensory injury and I would have galloped over Rebecca Farm’s immaculate footing and ended up with a worse case scenario: broken heart, surgery, iRap, 9 months rest, 6 months rehab and shockwave.
Ultimately, when you have an injury with your sporthorse you need to get a vet to help you eliminate all the possible options. You dont want someone to say “Oh, Ive never seen that before”. You want that vet who has has so much experience ( ie, N = 67,000) that they know to not skip steps and jump to conclusions, no matter how clear the conclusion might seem.
Thats all… I am extremely happy with the result and I can sleep well knowing we are missing the best event of the season, but at least I have a horse who is not compromised and well cared for. Taco and I will have a great season, most likely in California in the fall. But the long term view of our athletes is the better road to take than the silly shortcut that ends up getting you lost the the shrubbery and asking for directions.
Glad to hear that Taco is indeed ok!
Thank you very much for sharing this. Who doesn’t wish horses could talk so they could say.”Right here in this area, when I do this…”!!!
Look forward to catching up at Rebecca and coming to the Derby in August – I will be getting out at some point this season;-)