Lameness is Lame

The day before. Being awesome.

Insert major paranoia.

Why? Because my horse is lame. I repeat, Bacon is lame.

I took her out for a dressage ride two nights ago out in the pasture. We started out ok, and then she really started to fuss and I had no idea why. I got off and lunged her and there it was. The head bobbing action started. I was (am) horrified. Of course, it was the same day that I had signed her up for a jump clinic with Nicole Cobb at the end of the month.

I took her back to be untacked, my mind racing. We had jumped the day before, a two jump grid thing that I quickly switched to one jump with a placing pole. We went through the grid jump maybe five times and then the single jump five times? She was sound as could be.

First jump into out "grid".

There are two factors on my mind. One is her feet. She has been living in mud all winter long and the pasture is hard as a rock and very lumpy and uneven. Her feet are pretty soft right now and I am sure that must be uncomfortable.

But the scary one lingering in the back of my mind is her mystery lameness that kept her from being ridden for almost a year. And we had no idea what it was. We had thoughts of a possible knee chip, but that was never confirmed. We originally thought abscess, but that never really was true either. And then we thought her feet. But at that point in time she did not have shoes on and weaved her walls right off so that made more sense.

Second jump.

I took her out yesterday and watched her in turnout. She seemed better but not all the way. I took her out of her pen later that day and jogged her two laps in the sand. No lame steps. I turned her out this morning, and she seemed a little worse than yesterday for turnout. But "somebody" did forgot to turn the water off when filling the trough and her pen got muddier. And of course, she still weaves and weaves.So, I am stuck and scared. She is what keeps me going with this stupid disease. My goals and plans with her.

She enjoyed the one jump more. And figured out how to counter bend through the corner and thought that was a blast!

So, I am going to try to not lose my cool. Our vet is scheduled to come out next Tuesday to teeth on everyone. If she is not better by then, then we shall have some more investigating to do. Fingers and toes and eyes and arms and legs crossed that it is just a soft feet issue. I just hate this.

Please lameness gods, spare this sweet pony.