I've been in hyper-alert-worried-mom mode the last few days. What irony, I write an entry about the things I do for my animal to keep them sound and healthy, and mine starts to have issues.
Stella is weak in her right shoulder. It's taken a while to teach her and build her up enough so that she can hold herself tracking right. Of course, horse weakness almost always works laterally, so consequently she's weak in her left hind too. Very weak. You don't see anything under saddle or on the lunge except for a barely noticeable, ever-so-slight shortness. I'm talking REALLY slight. But, slight gets bigger if you don't take care of it early on.
It became an issue two or three days ago when I was doing her hind feet. I did the RH first, and by the time I'd move onto the LH she'd been bearing weight on it for a while. I asked her to pick her foot up and she jerked it, a popping sound coming from her hock. She refused to flex her joints, instead sticking her leg straight out under her belly. When she tried to bear weight on it, it buckled underneath her. I thought maybe she had a cramp from standing, so I walked her out of the barn, onto the track and turned her around to go back in. Same thing happened. I was finally able to get her to relax enough to do a rough trim job on the foot before I put her away. Freaked, I called the vet and left him a message.
I went to pull her out today to ride, and as I was girthing her up, she did the same thing: refused to put weight on that leg, refused to bend the joints if I asked her to move over or lift her foot. It was as if she was paralyzed. I decided to lunge her to see if she was lame, and she wasn't: the LH buckled a couple times the way it does for many horses when they aren't fit or are muscle sore, but no obvious lameness. That sealed it for me. When I talked to my vet a few days ago, he immediately thought hock or stifle. I'm not so sure. I put my massage fingers to the test and poked around a bit. The findings?
VERY sore LH gluteal muscles (as in, I poked, the LH buckled completely). These are the main source of propulsion, the muscles that really carry weight when the horse rounds and tucks the hips to work underneath themselves. I could palpate tension dorsally to tuber coxae (the hip bone) and caudally to the loins. It's a very concentrated area, but in general her whole left side from the loin back is sore. It's amazing the imbalances horses can have...
I did some work, and loosened things up a bit, but it's going to take a few regular sessions before I can get her tension-free again. She may always carry tension there, and chances are it will always be hard for her. Like people, horses have their dominant and weak sides.
I'm worried but I'm not. It's a pretty simple thing, dealing with muscles: people make it out to be amazingly complicated but muscles themselves are much easier to deal with than joints. The solution to tight muscles in strengthening, but in a specific way. Less is more, so for the next few weeks we're going to be hacking around, doing some cavaletti, doing lots of walk and some stretchy trot work. No asking for collection, only a more relaxed contact at the trot and lots and lots of downward stretch. We may do some gentle hill work, too, as the days start to get cooler and the bugs less irritating. I'll do a pre-event massage before I get on to loosen the muscles further, and do a complete work-up 2 to 3 times a week.
I also really, really should probably order this...
If ever a young horse needed one, it's her. And as I said before, prevention is the key! (Doesn't make your wallet hurt any less at the current moment, but I've no doubt it will later...)
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