Grace is Back!
At Dressage at Lexington in July 2006, Grace finished up her last training level class with a 69.8% limping slightly through all the trot work. She had been on and off lame for almost 6 months, after bending a front shoe while at pasture. Three separate vets looked at her steep contacted front feet and all agreed that her large amount of side bone was the cause of her unevenness and I just had to live with it. The true diagnosis took 6 more months to find.
First found was a torn collateral ligament in her left front foot. With a winter off with no shoes and confined to a small paddock, she continued to limp when put back in work. Well into the summer of 2007 Grace was still limping. I made an appointment with Scott Anderson a vet/chiropractor to have her back looked at (still fishing). Scott, by checking the sensitively in her acupressure points, found a very damaged suspensory ligament in her leg front leg. Since her injury was old, (who knows when it happened) he did not offer a lot of hope for a full recovery. After Shock Wave treatments, bare foot trimming, and the holistic sprouted grain and seed products made by Thera Cell EQ and 8 more weeks off...GRACE IS BACK!
Grace came out at First Level in June 2008. She was very under muscled after two years off and First Level was a challenge for her. Her scores were in the low 60's but at least we were out in the show ring again.
At Dressage at Lexington Grace did moderately well but began to show signs of lameness again.
The summer was hot and the ground hard she had sore feet. So I decided to put shoes back on after the show and she became sound again.
In September with shoes all around, Grace thrilled me with a winning ride at Rosemont and a 68% score for First Level, test 4!
Watch for us in 2009, we will start Second Level.
Grace has been 100% sound all year. She was bare foot through the winter, but her shoes are back on for show season.
Grace is back and for both of us, it's back to work!