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[RC] EPM - Ridecamp Guest

Please Reply to: Janelle Straszheim jstraszheim@xxxxxxxxx or 
ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==========================================

I am a first time horse-owner, having ridden other people's horses for 4 
decades.  I now have a "gift horse" from a friend who bred him 5 1/2 years' ago 
-- a Polish Arab, who until 6 months' ago had lived in a 10 acre field with his 
mom and 3 other horses.  The transition to a "working stiff" has gone well 
under the circumstances -- he's intelligent, not prone to spooking at all, and 
has lovely gaits (I'm paying someone to train him, and I'm doing weekly trail 
rides with him of 203 hours-- which he seems to love. I live in Potomac MD 
,just ourside of Washington, DC and we are blessed with extraordinary trails 
and pretty great weather this fall and winter.)

My one reservation about his potential as a 50 miler is his status as "an EPM 
victim."  Within 2 months of acquiring him, I got this diagnosis (level 1 our 
of a possibility of 4); he had terrible tail limpness and couldn't hold up his 
hind feet.  He had a two month course of some very expensive meds, and is now 
in his 4th month of recuperation after the end of the medicine.  He exhibits 
the following problem -- he can't easily sustain a canter on the lounge line on 
a 20 meter circle -- he keeps foot-faulting his cadence with his hind leg.

I am wonderfing if this is a residual problem to his EPM diagnosis. If so, will 
it get better.  (The vet says it will take a year to work out all of his side 
effects from EPM.)  Additionally, how much risk do I face of relapse -- 
certainly, the stress of eR, even with only the goal to finish, rather than "to 
win" ... may be a sergious consideration.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this subject.

Regards,
Janelle


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