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Please Reply to: Jessica Wysocki syreino@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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I've been a lurker for some time, signed up for digest a few months back and 
have learned so much.  I appreciate everyone's knowledge and differing point of 
views.  However, i now need the Ridecamp community to help me if they can.

Ribbons, my 9 year old Arab mare, my endurance partner and so much more, had 
knee surgery at the tender age of 5 for a fracture/chip.  It is not known how 
she injured herself, maybe in a trip while riding, maybe in the pasture...she 
faired well through her initial rehab (then again it was winter and she's not a 
snow girl by any means) and after three months stall rest and a month of hand 
walking, she was ready for our first ride, where she promptly dumped me and 
took off running and bucking--oh to be free again.  We conditioned slowly and 
three months later did our first 30 mile CTR--where she did unbelievably well, 
but I learned she has quite a temper and mind of her own.  We also did a 25 
mile CTR in November.  Around christmas she re-injured herself--opened her 
fracture according to x-rays--and we did another four months of stall rest and 
month of hand walking.  This time she wasn't quite so hyper and was more 
willing to settle down and get back to conditioning and we were ready for our 
first ride late August, a 60 mile CTR where we were pulled at 30 miles for 
footsore--complete rider mistake.  We went on to do a 50 mile CTR, 25 mile CTR 
and a 50 mile endurance ride that fall, which she completed without problems.  
We have had several battles to overcome during our winter conditioning, but she 
has been without injury for two and a half years and we completed 310 
competitive miles last year.  That is until our first ride this year, we were 
pulled at the first check at Old Dominion 50.  She didn't take a lame step, she 
was cruising the hills wonderfully, we lost an easy boot, but went back only 
about 1/4 mile for it (yes, she lost the boot on her right front, the "bad" 
knee) and she was grade III at the trot out.  The vet said to come back for a 
recheck after I'd checked her easy boots--but I declined the recheck and we 
were pulled.  After a trot out at home on monday, I called my vet.  It took him 
a week to come out, and she was sound--during the week, I was cold hosing and 
poulticing--so he said to put her back to work and thought I was insane.  We 
had one long conditioning ride, several short ones and then another long 
conditioning ride.  The next day, she was off again, but seemed to warm up out 
of it, and we took it slow.  I called him back out again because my gut said it 
was her knee again, and sure enough it was.  So we went for more x-rays and a 
third injection of hyaluronic acid (one after surgery and the following year 
after her re-injury) and we've been cold hosing/ice packing 40 minutes a day 
for over a month now with heat still noticable.  We hand walked for two weeks, 
she's miserable so we now walk under saddle with a little trot thrown in, and 
she seems fine.  My vet basically has no prognosis for her as to if she will 
even be ridable so I sent all her x-rays and history to New Bolton for a 
consultation.  I received the consultation report yesterday and he said that 
she has severly moderate degenerative joint disease, which is not unexpected 
with her history.  He does not feel additional surgery or debridment will yield 
any better results than a more conservative approach of injections, physical 
therapy and extended rest.  However, he did not suggest what type of physical 
therapy and how long the extended rest should be, and he also did not give me a 
prognosis on her ridability.  I have had two months to come to terms with the 
fact that our endurance career is over, and I honestly will miss it, but what 
is more important is her health and happiness, which means getting her back on 
the trails for at least light work around home and not being a pasture potato 
where she is clearly miserable.  Our partnership means the world to me and I 
will do anything possible to ensure she is the soundest and happiest she can 
absolutely be, so my question to the ridecamp community is--does anyone have 
experience with physical therapy, degenerative joint disease progression of a 
young horse, shock wave therapy (it was mentioned a few weeks back and I stuck 
it in the back of my head as maybe a possibility, but I know nothing about it), 
anything at all that might help her ease any pain she might still have, but 
allow her to still go out on trail, as she loves it so much and her attitude is 
terrible when she's "just a pasture potato".  I am scared to ride her now since 
I feel I have caused all of this pain for her and yet I miss her so 
terribly--we spend a fair amount of time together still, but we just aren't 
connecting, we're both dealing with our pain separately rather than together as 
the team we have become.  The conditioning miles to get to a ride are the best 
part of everything endurance--we only have 250 endurance miles and 490 CTR 
miles, but we logged so many more miles, just the two of us, learning and 
living together and to see that slip away breaks my heart.

Since her surgery she's been on J-Flex and Springtime GL, MSM and Conquer 
(weekly).  Now she is on Hylamotion and Vitamin C as well.  She also gets her 
Vitamin E and Selenium supplement and Clovite.  She is fed beet pulp and 
Pennfield grand prix granola (10% protein), after her re-injury in the winter 
of 2001/2002 I took her off alfalfa cubes which were a treat for her.  She 
lives with her 27 year old POA brother on 3 acres.  She is on pasture, with 
stall rest when called for or during the winter at night.  We live in central 
NJ, where it is relatively good footing, no real hills or anything to speak of.

Thank you for reading Ribbons story and any suggestions and help you might be 
able to give us.
Jessica and Ribbons and Spider;-)


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