Finding a wonky lameness
Today, I had planned to ride Kasane and do a little trot work. We have been just walking up and down hills on the trails to help her recover from the windpuffs (swellings above the fetlock joint). She has had them for a while, but the one on her back right leg was about 20% larger than the one on her right. The vet had told me to give her bute for 3-5 days, keep her up at night, put standing wraps on her back legs, and limit our rides to 20-30 minutes of mostly walking.
When I went out tonight, she felt off a little at the walk. It wasn’t anything that seemed consistent. It was just not right. She trotted off immediately when I asked her to. Periodically her gait didn’t sound even. A trotting horse has a steady two-beat rhythm. Her footfalls didn’t sound quite right, but not all of the time. She normally engages her hind end and lifts her back when we trot. Instead, she was heavy on the forehand and felt like she was leaning on the reins.
My friend at the barn noted that Kasane didn’t seem to be moving right. The second I gave Kasane a loose rein and we trotted off, her head started bobbing slightly. She was lame. I got off immediately and took the video below.
Her gait is so strange: a waddle in the back and like it is a lot of extra work to move her front right leg forward. It is very strange.
The barn manager noted that Kasane had been cutting up in the field most mornings. it’s been cold and she gets excited when she knows it’s meal time. She’ll run, buck, do sliding stops, and other things that aren’t good on joints that need to heal.
The tricky thing with lameness is do you leave the horse up and take a chance that they might get stiff or do you turn them out and hope they don’t further injure themselves. I turned Kasane out, hoping that she would not be stupid in the morning.