If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Part 1

I haven't shared Ernie's history of issues with his right hind, mostly because I haven't had a recurrence of issues with this limb since, well, all of the initial problems. However, last night was the first time I'd ridden him in a couple weeks because I was waiting for the farrier to come out and fix his seriously twisted front shoes, and I didn't want to lame him up in the meantime. I was so, SO bummed to begin lunging him only to see he was very short on the RH and very obviously not moving correctly.

Way back in the summer of 2004, Ernie had been going really well for several months. He had developed actual correct muscling for probably the first time in his life, he was moving on the bit, tracking up, using his hind end, and becoming light in his front, really learning to lift his shoulder. Despite his lack of proper conditioning over his life, this horse had a lot of buttons installed, including auto lead changes. I, being young and excited about his changes, decided after a short flat hack in the arena to play with this button. As we cantered across the diagonal, I asked for the change of bend and the new lead, and definitely got an answer: a big head toss and a buck. I lost my balance and fell over the side, he cantered a few more strides before stopping and walking back over to stand and look at me. I got up, dusty but otherwise fine, and decided to get back on and just walk. Nothing seemed wrong.

The next day, I got on and he was dead lame. Not quite 3-legged lame, but damn close. It was exactly what I had feared. We had the vet come out to do a lameness exam and went ahead with an ultrasound on the leg; it confirmed that Ernie had strained the lateral branch of his suspensory ligament. There were no structural defects that had caused the tear; the vet's suspicion was exactly what I already knew. I'd asked a question too soon, before his body was ready to answer it, and it meant overloading leg structures that weren't ready for that kind of work.

The prognosis was actually better than I thought it would be: 3 1/2 months of stall rest with wrapping and application of a topical steroid, Bute, with limited handwalking/handgrazing starting at 9 weeks if he showed signs of improvement and the vet OK'd it. At 4 months we'd do another ultrasound, and if everything looked good, he'd be given limited turnout and we could start back with some mounted walking.

That timeframe was probably the longest in my life. Ernie was MISERABLE in the stall; even on calmers he weaved constantly and got very upset if there weren't other horses around. I finally had the idea of opening the top dutch door of his stall so he could look out and see everything going on in the barnyard. He seemed OK with this for a while, but it was only a matter of time before he became very unhappy. He seemed depressed, lost his appetite, and spent a lot of time sleeping. I was afraid I was losing my horse, and everything I loved about him. When the time finally came to do the final ultrasound, we were given the OK to start a slow rehab: the initial strain had healed, but it had left a bit of scar tissue and plenty of areas of windpuffs around his fetlock. Though the joint looked big and puffy, the vet assured me it didn't mean anything in terms of his recovery, and that it would likely be a permanent thing.

So, we started a long, slow rehab. Again, me being young and naive, I saw progress and got excited. Ernie was returning to his old self, I was getting my best friend back, and I was hopeful for a long riding future ahead of us. After almost 3 weeks of walking, and walking, and walking, I had the brilliant idea of trying a little trot. Just a little, down the long side, to see how Ernie would handle it. It went well; no bad steps, no spooking, no stupidity, no nothing.

The next few days of walking Ernie felt a little off. I wondered if he was sore, but I was fearful of what the real reason was. I called the vet back out and had him do another ultrasound. It confirmed everything I had feared: that little bit of trot had been enough to almost completely tear the suspensory ligament from the bone. The ultrasound showed he had 93% separation of the lateral suspensory ligament from the sesamoid bone. He'd also irritated the branch that connected to the extensor tendon, suffering some micro-tearing. We were looking at permanent retirement. The vet cautioned me against hoping for anything good; the injuries were so extensive he said even after a lengthy stall rest, rehab would be difficult and present a high risk of re-injury.

That's all for today. The second part is coming soon!