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*hugs* I'm so sorry. I hope she recovers quickly!

I'm so sorry. May her recovery be swift and complete. >:D<

Thank you guys.

I'm just so worried about her. I feel like my whole world has shattered. She's my best friend and the only family member who was going to get to go to college with me. And she's my exercise partner my teammate and therapist. It's just heartbreaking to know she'll likely never do her passion (jumping again). Even walk trot canter under saddle again isn't guaranteed. I did say I wanted babies from her as she's a quality mare but now the thought of her body never being the same again from a foal is freaking me out. Or even worse lose her during birth. Shes supposed to be my partner in crime. She's already going stir crazy in her stall even though she's in even a bigger pen then she's supposed to be in.

Is that the pulse machine? We're trying to look into that but our local veterinarian (who is actually my mom's BF but we had to go to a bigger hospital to get Lexi diagnosed) doesn't have one and he said the only other local veterinarian with one doesn't like to use it much. He was a sweetie though and was originally talking about getting one.

We're just not sure where we want to keep her. I want to take her home so I can see her in the morning and sit with her and read books or something but there's trauma in mom's BF's past and that presses on his anxiety or something as too much like "moving in" (even though we've been there every day for over 3 years now and he was crucial in helping me buy my first truck a few weeks ago etc)

Oh! those machines! There's a lady at the barn that has one but she charges 100(+?)$ a session. I just asked Lane (Mom's BF/Our Vet) if he knew of anyone that would do it cheaper. He seemed to think that he did know of someone but that it was expensive but would be worth pursuing.

And yes, I guess I'm just projecting my own thoughts of motherhood onto her. And my last experience breeding didn't go so well. It was a crabby show mare with no social skills type thing who would kick your head off if you tried to touch her teats and she went and tried to kill her foal... Lexi loves her teats cleaned and also was socially stunted from being a show horse but she's getting over it now. So probably what happened to my other mare wouldn't happen again. And I know of a mare that had multiple babies still showing 4ft++ with my friend. So I guess its all good there... I just feel bad for the mares with stretch marks and permanently swollen teats. To be honest I already have a stallion picked out. I've had my eye on him for years, but recently my (kinda friend) just bought him.... I have fantasized about a warmblood stallion for her as she loves jumping so much I think an APHA foal would be more practical as Lexi's sire is very very VERY popular. Pretty much every decent huntseat horse out there has him in their pedigree and they STILL fight over his descendants. I used to like the thought of breeding her but I'm sick to my stomach at the thought of losing my partner in crime. But even if she has a majority recovery I can still picture my riding her bareback at the walk for a few months in the beginning. Some exercise is good for them. And that's all I really had time for/wanted at college.

We moved her from her old pen to a smaller stall today :(. She seems to like it just fine but I'm worried its still too big.... She's supposed to not move at all and she was pacing from looking outside to grabbing a bite of hay. Which I used to like because it kept her active.. But now she needs to not be active... I moved her hay closer to where she could look out and that helped a little bit. I feel really bad though she keeps holding up the worse leg like 9 inches into the air for half a minute at a time. She's already basically at the max long term dosage of equioxx but I also don't want her going too crazy on it.... We were looking at some rehab pellets that look like they have sufficient pain stuff we could (well actually we might not be able to feed them together even if we wanted to. I think I was supposed to call the supplement company and ask) drop the equioxx altogether.

Lane did make phone calls to one of his suppliers about the shockwave machine. He also mentioned some boots to mom. On first description they sounded like support boots. But then he made it sound like it increased circulation. So I don't know.

We're debating on corrective shoeing. We're leaning towards corrective in the back and not in the front. She has more undiscovered issues in the front and the correction would be the opposite of other things we're trying to fix in the front.... Our shoer is encouraging us but so far we've had bad luck with him. He's honest and tries hard but I'm kinda suspicious that he caused some of the issues that started with Lexi beginning of the year.... And he also took our other horse that was sound and barefoot so that he's now sore too.... And our paint trainer said that when she started using him all of her horses started going mysteriously lame.... Our jumping trainer has been using him for years and thinks he's the best thing ever.... One time he gave me free shoes as he had someone coming to help give tips for an exam he was doing and they took extra long time etc. So I think he's honest etc but I"m suspicious of him....

I posted something in horse vet corner asking for other things I could be doing and all I got in answer was you need to go to the route cause of what caused this. I'm like yes I agree but its happened what more can I do to help my mare? I'm on summer break have time and this is a beloved mare what can I do to help her healing process? Like I said I wasn't even jumping her when this happened so I don't understand how this could have happened. Yes I am suspicious of the shoer. And yes she was being ridden 2x a day for some of the time prior, but one rider was an older lady that walks for 40 minutes trots for 10 minutes and canters for 5. Harldy a hard work out. And my Mom wasn't riding her much harder than that.... It sounds like ONE day of overdoing it like I did at the show doesn't really cause issues like this. The shoer also seemed to think it was old injuries.

It's also sad she's an ideal weight right now and all muscled up and gorgeous but I figured a little weight off her legs wouldn't be a bad idea so I've lessened her alfa alfa (increased her bermuda) and starting to lessen her grain but I don't know if I"m being extreme. But in addition to less weight on her legs it would be better if she had less "hot" food.

I did hose her legs off in cold water today but I didn't realize I could've/should've done it 2-3 times a day or I would have. Although no one has actually given me an answer on whether it was actually helping her or just making me feel better. she's not supposed to be walking at all but I'd have to walk across the property to hose her off anyways.... I half wish I could just put her in a sling for a while lol.

That's a good idea. And depending on who it is maybe I can trade work or something.

Yea I would love to have a barefoot horse again. One of lexis feet falls apart within an hour of being barefoot. Ugh

Yea Lexi is normally in pretty good shape. But she had been doing less for the past couple weeks as there were other "wonky" things going on

Which yay it looks like the MRI is "affordable" (well as in affordable if we put it on the credit card and diminish the rest of mom's retirement but you know ...) So we're going to go ahead and do that. And hopefully get to the bottom of her feet soreness too which the chaparral vet cautioned against making corrective shoeing without first having an MRI and see if there's anything else we didn't find the first time round

Unfortunately since we only have the basic insurance the 2/3 main 'practical' rehabs (prp and stem cell) aren't covered at all by insurance and only half of the first three therapy sessions of the third therapy are covered. (Shockwave)

So I don't have the best experiences with suspensory injuries (the last one here had to be fully retired, or else risk never being pasture sound again but she came from a life of hard jumping before I knew her). But what seemed to help her feel best was the infrared pad we had (both the active infrared and the Back on Track passive infrared wrap arounds). Buteless helped also (main ingredient Devil's Claw), since NSAIDs should be limited in amount of time and dose. Since she was already supposed to be healing by the time we met her we were allowed to turn her out in a small, flat area with good footing and supervision (we used a round pen). Our vet has used Shockwave, and laser therapy in the past (not in the latest case, because it was old and would not help).

Horse injuries are the worst. As a barn manager at a dressage barn I see far more than I would like to, a few career ending. Often I feel guilty. Should I have avoided turning them out? Should I have noticed it sooner? Is there anything I could have done differently? But the reality is, our horses unfortunately cannot live in bubbles, and we cannot prevent all injuries. Not even keeping them stalled 23 hours a day works! (My boss had a horse break his leg in a stall, no joke. And heal.) Best of luck with your mare, and don't beat yourself up over a ride that should not have injured her.

Oh my goodness. So much has happened. But weeks have gone by and we still haven't figured out how to do shockwave treatments. Gah. My Mom's BF is being nice and is thinking he's going to buy one, but he needs one he could use for his practice, but of course he has other things going on his life. He doesn't respond well to pressure, and since he's nice I don't want to push but weeks are going by.....

Oh yea... I was going to look up that remission thing but I forgot. Will do now.

And I never heard of the ultra violet wraps? We did get her special germanium boots that have other healing properties. The ice feature on them doesn't work as well as I thought it would so I bought her ice boots as well.

Okay, so wrapping her legs would help? So far I've only been icing and if one of her legs swells up I wrap that one overnight but I'm willing to keep all of them wrapped. I also had never heard of the liniment.

We did try a new farrier. And so far it seems promising? He was detail oriented and self motivated and he was the one that specifically asked to talk to the veterinarian in the big hospital and see what he wanted done. Although he also took her wedge back off even though that heal being low is what caused some of these issues in the first place.... Although he did say that having it without the wedge would promote that foot to be overall more healthy long term. And his philosophy is along the same line of thought as the farrier we liked that kept Lexi sound for years, but also slightly different....

The vet who did the therapy not being optimistic wouldn't stop me from trying. The last colt I rehabbed from major tendon problems had been tangled in barbed wire during a tornado that his dam did not survive. He was seven months old then and had bowed tendons in both front legs and severed tendons (two completely, another partially) in one hind leg, among many other much more superficial injuries. Three different vets including a track vet at Louisiana Downs told his owner there was no hope and to put him down, but he was the only foal from a mare she had loved dearly and she decided to try just one more vet. Lucky for the colt, she called my vet that time! After a full exam he told her full recovery wasn't likely but that there was some hope. He had her call me because he knew I was stubborn enough to fight until the colt said he was done, and after meeting the colt I took him on to see what I could do.

The colt's name was 'Sweet Baby James', and he totally earned it. He was one of the sweetest, most willing foals I ever knew. It took months to get him walking sound and much longer before all trace of a limp was gone at all gaits, but at two years old he passed a soundness exam with flying colors for one of the vets who condemned him as hopeless when he was hurt. There was scarring, and his back leg wasn't as pretty as when he was born, but that vet told Jamie's owner that it was a miracle he could even put weight on the leg, much less was sound. It was a very slow process getting him there, but he was worth the hours of hydrotherapy, tendon support boots I had to replace three times as he grew, surgery to repair the severed tendons twice before the extensor finally began to really knit and heal, and a whole lot of time in a stall or a very small pen just keeping an eye on him and making sure that he didn't run and play like the baby he was.

Moral of the story: where there is life and a will to keep trying, there is always hope. Don't let anyone steal that hope from you until your filly says she's done. Horses have all the heart in the world, and if you help them fight, there isn't much they can't recover from.

I'm glad you got a new farrier! It sounds like he's paying attention at least. I never used wedges on horses either, but for me that was just a gut thing. No hoof, no horse is really very true. The hoof angles can cause changes in every joint above them when you change the hoof, making pasterns, knees, elbows, and even the shoulders and spine sore. Trimming too short in the toe or heel causes problems by pushing things out of alignment over time and stressing the entire leg, but there's a physical limit to how much a hoof trim can change the angles because of how the hoof grows. Artificially changing those angles by adding pads and/or wedges can allow changing those angles much more drastically, which causes more soreness because the change was made too quickly for the horse's joints and tendons to adjust. Think of it like it was your foot... If you've worn flats all of your life and someone suddenly made you switch to stiletto heels and then walk in them all day, your calves and thighs will be sore for days and you could easily do major damage to your ankles, knees, or tendons along the way.

As far as wrapping your girl's legs, if she has tendon problems I would definitely get some tendon support boots on her, if not all the time then at least when she is out of her stall. At my vet's suggestion Jamie wore tendon boots on all four legs for just over two months after I got him, and after my vet said the front legs were healed Jamie still wore the tendon boots all the time on both hind legs until the severed tendons had healed. Well, I say all the time, but I took them off for several hours every day while I was doing his hydrotherapy (cold hosing), wound care, and allowing his legs to dry completely before the boots went back on. Your girl isn't hurt as bad as Jamie was though, so I would probably let her go 'naked' in her stall unless she's prone to acting up a lot in a way that could stress her bad tendon. The main thing is to support the tendons when she's out of the stall where she might get frisky and do something silly that could do more damage. 'Sports medicine' type tendon boots are designed specifically to support all the tendons and ligaments in the lower leg and they can be a lifesaver for a horse with weak or damaged tendons.

I would also go with the big city vet on the exercise regimen. Riding a horse with tendon issues is never a good plan from all my vets and farriers over the years taught me, it just puts more weight on that tendon that is already damaged. Usually for a minor tendon issue you 'lay off' the horse (don't ride or work) for at least six to eight weeks. For something major, it can be months before the tendon is strong enough to support a rider again. That's why a lot of race horses who are prone to bowed tendons end up retired to breeding or sold, they just don't have the time or space to lay off a horse that's not earning their keep somehow. :/

Question: How is Lexi saying that she feels? Is she alert and fairly happy most of the time, or is she in enough pain to be depressed? Bright-eyed and willing when you ask her to walk, or reluctant and hesitant?

And sorry this got so long! I run off at the fingers sometimes, but only because I want to help. :x

I got to ride while I was housesitting the other day. This is VC's current main lesson horse Cricket. Not bad for being in his 20's huh! This was also my first time riding him, and I had no help, the "cameraman" is my pivo auto guiding camera.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/95HYb5byJE1Nuw1N7

While riding I felt really really spectacular. Watching this video I'm really struggling to find positives. I've gained so much weight since i stopped riding lexi. According to the scale I've gained 6 pounds which was already up 4 from when I started school, which is 20 up from the weight my Mom has claimed I have been overweight my entire life. And the weird thing is while I was housesitting I had breakfast shakes for breakfast and dinner. One day I had 1 1/2 hambugers for lunch (dog stole the rest). The next day I had some bread. The next day I was out of food. So how could I have even gained ANOTHER 3 pounds while housesitting? And of course I was exercising WAY more than normal. I know that my stirrups were too long because I didn't want to mess up someone else's saddle, but I still can't believe how much my legs are swinging and how out of balance I am. I'm so discouraged. And my arms especially my elbows look like they're moving out of control.

First if you enjoyed your ride. Don’t let your weight take away from that. You were able to ride that is better than not being able to. If you saw some things that need work give them a nod and work on them. Everybody has flaws. If you have decided weight is something that needs your attention now than work on it, but don’t be discouraged by it.

As for how you can gain weight when only eating that little. Your body probably thought it was starving and started storing every calorie you gave it. Also our bodies view bread and pasta the same as a candy bar or piece of cake. A book that helped me more than any other I’ve read was Passion Nutrition by Jennifer Adler. It was honestly the easiest health book I’ve ever read, it was relatable and encouraging. It was also a very simple step by step process she went through.

A thought. The scale is your enemy right now and isn’t helping you in any way besides discourage you more. Why don’t you not weigh yourself for awhile? Do whatever you want to work on your weight, just don’t look at the scale. A week, two weeks, a month just give yourself some time.

And dad Helen and I just narrowly avoided a head on collision....

90 day check on Lexi tomorrow!

Thank you!

My jumping trainer was talking with one of the local veterinarians that has been doing Lexi's shockwave (not the specialist tomorrow although he has seen all of her info). And he was like YES there is a lot wrong, but none of them are necessarily career ending. So I found that a little bit comforting. (Although I'm trying to have low expectations and be pleasantly surprised instead of the other way around). Also, she said she was talking to a friend of hers that was having lots of problems and they injected him with osphos 3 times and never had an issue since. (We've done osphos once and although expensive it was the cheapest/easiest treatment we've done)

Well it’s exciting that it’s time for that check up. I hope it goes well.

On your note. I don’t agree with diets much either, they only work while you are on them, then when you quit you go back to square one. The book I mentioned is more of a lifestyle book. She adds things to your diet to help you with different issues. She uses food to heal you. I honestly don’t consider it a diet book, just a good general health book. I don’t mention health or diet often because it can be such a big deal. But that book in my opinion is worth mentioning.

Wonderful news! Just keep with it, and maybe back off a bit on the exercise. I know slow and steady is hard to do, but it will help her even if she doesn't believe it. :)

Thank you guys for your support!

Yea its hard. I think when she was getting less exercise it just meant she was more rowdy in her stall (not terrible though). So its kinda a catch 22. I have her at a low key barn, but I've been hauling her to the barn Mom is at (Carla's if you remember my other posts) and just letting her chill and walk around and she's been REALLY enjoying that.

Yep. True.

Yea, she loves doing stuff. and thankfully she's good as she's a been there done that horse. (Also probably part of her issues..... She was being shown as a 2YO and had more show miles than me when I bought her when she was 5/6. I walked her over to roping practice yesterday and she loved watching the steers go. When she was sound I took her at least one place a week. One time I took her to a ranch riding show, a jumping lesson, a trail ride, and paint horse trail lesson all in the same week.


Agh so glad I have her. Tons of home drama. Lexi's solution was knocking me down until I scratched between her legs. lol.

Have fun at school this year hun. I'm so glad Lexi is feeling better.

Yea I don't know what the big hurry is on starting horses. Greed I guess. They really should start futurities at 4 or even later. But all of the futurities that are worth anything are for 2YO's. And some for 3 YO's.

Thank you! I love my girl. I wish we had more space to walk in. Technically she's not supposed to walk over any terrain whatsoever.... But we're in the middle of a forest so not sure how that's supposed to work out. I mean its not even flat out to the arena.

Since I've been back at school I've been having the best mental health I've had all YEAR. Maybe TWO years. Except for this week. I've been fighting with more or less random depression. Like the beginning of the week I had some MILD issues that stacked onto each other. Resolved a lot of them. Fine for a couple days then randomly depressed last night again even though I was hanging out with my best friend minute before and was laughing and having a blast. (well as much as you can while studying linear algebra lol)

I'm rooting for you! Keep up the awesome at school.

Here's hoping Lexi was just saddle shy cause it's been awhile. I love hearing how well she's doing.

It's starting to get cold here. We even had snow a couple weeks ago. Its getting harder and harder to keep Lexi calm. She's happy though. And when she does sneak in bucks and trots she looks perfectly sound. So its hard to convince her to stay calm.

I just went back to school too, and found someone to lifetime lease my gelding. I miss the chilly fall day zoomies! I'm glad she's feeling better. I think animals are much more in tune to their bodies than we are, and it sounds like she's feeling good :)

I wish I was a source that could offer advice. She sounds bored. I'd love to tell you something she can play with with out doing more damage, like a fidget spinner for horses. I always give kids that reach this point playdough.

Maybe you could take her for a slow drive? So she's not walking but getting to see things? Or maybe there's some sort of toy you could rig up that's more puzzle focused and less active focused.