Wednesday, March 31, 2021

What's Up Wednesday

 

The vet was out Friday so he palpated on Pammon's back, and confirmed that yes he was very back sore. He believes we may be dealing with a metabolic problem but the only way to confirm is with a biopsy. He couldn't do it that day because the sample needs to be overnighted to an open lab, and that doesn't happen on a Friday evening. So we're kind of just in limbo waiting to get that done. The good news is, should that be the problem, it is controllable with a special diet. In the meantime, I'm supposed to just keep riding him. It's pretty terrible though, I feel like I'm hurting him. 

We've been riding out a little, and inside a little. Spring weather is tricky here in New England. One day it's sunny and 60 and the next it's 48 and pouring rain. They do seem less spooky outside than in though. So that's a bonus!

Eros has been a good boy, he's definitely happy to be outside, but my goodness, is he heavy in the bridle out there! So we have some work to do. We had our flat lesson last night, and it was exhausting but great. I sort of felt what I need to do to start getting him lighter, so hopefully I can get that stuff accomplished without someone reminding me every few minutes... Riding is hard.


I had my lesson on Sunday with Shiny, and it was great! The instructor teaches a lot of beginner/intermediate lessons, but she really does know her stuff and was very helpful. Shiny was more responsive than she's been, and she was SUPER excited to be jumping! She still sucks back and complains when it's our turn to go again after watching my lesson mate, but once she realizes she's doing the jompies she gets moving again. Unfortunately, no media again this week. That 9 am lesson doesn't lend itself to spectators unfortunately. 

In other news, Eros' saddle arrived Thursday and it's pretty great. Full disclosure, the other one fits him a tiny bit better, but I think it's a breaking in to him kind of thing more than a problem with the saddle. He seems comfortable in it and is still moving really well through his back and shoulder so I decided to keep it. I traded in my temporary saddle, so if for some reason it doesn't actually work, for now I still have his other one. As for me, it's SO comfortable! It has a slightly more narrow seat that Pammon's which I was afraid I might not like. But turns out, I like it better. It keeps me in the middle of my horse better and it's a lot easier for me to go from a half seat at the canter to sitting which has been a struggle for me with Eros. So let's hope, even though I've said it before, that I'm all done with this saddle nonsense! 

That's about it from here. Just plugging along trying to get these horses going well. My state opens up vaccines to anyone over 16 starting tomorrow so I'm going to be stalking appointments as soon as I can. Looking forward to rejoining society this summer! I mean kinda... the recluse life has actually been pretty great for me. But I can't be a hermit forever.

7 comments:

  1. glad that you like the new saddle!! not sure what part of the seat is narrower than the rest, but i've heard from saddle workers that it's actually pretty common for women to prefer a narrow twist, whatever that means lol. and good luck with Pammon's back and biopsy etc, ugh. i think you've probably written this before, but has he had any robaxin for this?

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    1. I think the twist is about the same on both (that's the part by the pommel, between your legs) but the actual seat part is narrower than Pammon's. It does seem to keep me in the middle better. I think I needed tighter parameters despite my... ahem... ample behind.
      Yes, he's been on Robaxin since the earlier this winter, and at first it helped a lot and then it just kind of stopped working. He's still on it just in case it actually is helping and he'd be even worse off it. And he had his back injected two weeks ago, which felt amazing for literally two days and that was it. Right back to sore after that.

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    2. ugh yea... definitely sounds appropriate to pursue further diagnostics. robaxin and injections should have seriously covered just about ALL the low hanging fruit when it comes to back soreness, hopefully you get answers from the biopsy !!

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  2. I had no idea metabolic issues could cause back soreness. Hope you get that sorted out! I can see it being hard to want to ride him when you know that's an issue, poor guy.

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    1. It has to do with how the muscles get fed. So if he's not metabolizing things properly, the muscles are tight. Last summer he tore a muscle just trotting. Like 5 out of 5 on the lameness scale, couldn't weight bear. It was horrific. But he was a bit vitamin E deficient so we hoped that was the reason. Now that he is this sore in his back even after injections, we're thinking it's another symptom of a muscle problem.

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  3. Hope the vet can pinpoint Pammon's back soreness issues so you can get him sorted out!!

    Glad the new saddle is working for you!

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