Those posts you don't want to write

Tsar went to the vet on the 22nd of feb. blocked sound in the back of the foot and had really really clean X-rays. A little side bone but nothing unexpected in a horse that raced until he was six. Certainly nothing that lept out and screamed I'm the problem. This points towards the soft tissue inside the foot which I can't see without a $3000 MRI and I think we can safely rule that out. I have always had some doubts regarding the soundness of the right fore, from a few shorter steps here and there but he missed being worked last summer much because I was too poor to do much with my horse and lost all interest really after putting butch down. 

So basically the harder ground of summer brought the issue to the fore and he became unrideable though he had always been prone to stumbling on that foot, obviously that got worse with the harder ground to the point of being dangerous. On discussion with his prior owner I found out that the tightness in his neck and shoulder had been a problem from the time he came off the track and this problem occurs as a result of him moving oddly over his sore foot.

He had a cortisone injection into the coffin joint and showed some improvement for a while but the next treatment is a $700 injection and I don't feel the response to the steroid was enough to justify spending that. Especially when you consider the offness is 5 and a half years old. 

There is a slim possibility that with box rest and rejab on a perfect surface and then the improvement with the sting gone from the summer ground. The sort of surface he needs basically doesn't exist in my area to rehab on. Also his foot balance was really good so not much improvement could be made there. So basically I have made the call to not to pursue treatment.  

We all fall down

So I managed to have two falls in a week after having not fallen for about two years. Both of them were both bail outs on horses that kept bucking so that was better at least I landed on my feet or knees. As opposed to face or back which tend to be my personal favourites particularly if there is a jump to sprawl over. Only once was off of my horse and despite the neat on the feet after a rotation landing it was a somewhat terrifying prospect. He's been off most of the summer being nqr in the right front and I have been getting the money together to get him properly vetted which is harder than you think this time of the year. I'm not sure whether I get the physio and keep working him or the vet and get to the bottom of it. He needs his shoes reset and then I'll see how he is looking. He always stumbles over the right front and he's getting quite dangerous. Once he very nearly went down and other times he will stumble and fling himself into a fit of bucking- hence the unplanned exit. And we were getting some height and he wasn't planning on stopping. The problem with athletic horses is that they are always athletic whether they are being bad or good.

The farrier is talking about pulling his break over back so it will be interesting to see if that helps with his stumbling.

On other news I do at least have a new project pony and it's one I even rode on my brief stint as a track rider and he seems like a total dude very brave, quite smart and sassy, and one of the nicest movers around. He does windsuck and is a total piglet but so far I really like his brain. He is totally blown away by my friends grey horse though which makes me laugh. He's staying there for a week because she has an arena and I have a huge open paddock and that doesn't seem like the best option for an ottb starting out. He's only five and the owner is in no rush to sell so I'm a bit excited to get going again. Life is pretty good but my head is pretty bad like all the bad stuff I haven't dealt with, I'm processing now with time to think about it now things have slowed down. And my polo ponies were sold 😕 I didn't realise I was so attached!! So quite a lot going on horse wise and some big decisions to make regarding a $10 horse.