Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Searching For Answers

On Monday, Linda and I took a good look at Bentley to see whats "up" with him.  I wanted that second set of eyes on him since its hard to run him and look back at him at the same time... I fear each time I will end up eating dirt.

So after running him straight a few times down the arena, our first answer was "yes he is still sore"

Then proceeded to lunge him in both directions.  He certainly was worse on one side than the other.  After a bit of time trotting, Linda thought it might be his hind left leg that's actually bothering him.  I gave him a bit of a chase off the lunge line to get him to canter and he always picked up the same lead.  This also suggests more soreness in the one hind in the other, as there is unequal pressure on the legs in the canter gait.  Hence why we weren't seeing any lameness in the canter, he was always picking up what felt most comfortable to him.

The vet is coming in to do ultrasounds on it next Monday to give us a better idea of what we are dealing with and what sort of rehab he will need.  It doesn't appear that hes so much lame as he is just sore, but the length of time its taking him to recover does cause some concern.  So it will be nice to figure out whats up.

Monday we also re-fit his saddle as he keeps changing the shape of his back on me.  Looks like I will have to get a different cushion.  The saddle fits without cushion, but I don't think I can ride without it, so I need to go down to the slimmest cushion.  Right now it does fit him, but uses a ton of shims which I would rather not use if we don't have to.

There is always something on the shopping list isn't there?

No comments:

Post a Comment