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Re: [RC] [RC] Old Horses and weighing decisions......... - Ranelle Rubin

Don,

What beautiful and heartfelt advise! It makes me want to go get one of my two retired endurance horses and take a walk (or trot) down the trail....:) Thanks for the smile.



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From: Don Huston <donhuston@xxxxxxx>
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC]   Old Horses and weighing  decisions.........
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:02:02 -0700

Hello LAD,
I have a 24yo retired endurance horse that was getting creaky until I started riding him once a month last year. He had not been ridden for 5-6 years so we started out at the walk and still just walk. Has done both of us a world of good. I no longer feel sorry for him because he is improving and I know in my heart that he loves being out on the trail again. I sit on his back looking over those ears pricked forward and remember how we used to fly down the trail. It has become more and more difficult to keep him at a walk going home but I use that surge to tell me that this is the best thing in the world for the both of us. I figure some day he will start to fade instead of surge going home and that will tell me that "decision time" is coming, until then us 2 old poops will continue enjoying our walks down memory trail with no regrets or decision worries. I say put that new saddle on old Champ and start walking.
Don Huston

At 07:41 AM 9/2/2007 Sunday, you wrote:

Since I am again sidelined from my ponies-- Staph infection in a joint and I am allergic to most antibiotics--so Dr. says,if you get a fever or chills go right to the hospital--(did I mention I also have a cold and my new saddle is still on the rack -NOT ridden in and my 15 yr.old NON-horsey child is taking care of them and husband is on the road most of this month?

Pppfffttttt! What a year. Haven't gotten much riding or training done.

Anyway- Old dog is on her way out soon, breathing getting very heavy after exertion or feeding(almost 15 yr old lab) and I am hoping I won't have to drag myself out of bed to carry her to the vet.(please die in your sleep--I hate taking them to the vet for the last ride, we get so upset .

Watching old Champ, Was trying to figure out what was wrong before I got
sick. Had pulled out my Lamness book by Rooney, had my Neuro book out , and my 2 vet books. (had another horse treated for EPM)
He is mid twenties, retired form --raced 5yrs,trailrode, then we 4h-ed and ponied clubbed him, turned hunter, turner eventer and dressage. Synovial injury and arthritis in right fore.
He is on full turnout with MSN daily. He was the one who was seeming to dehydrate, lost some weight (he is a hard keeper--if I dont' watch his weight carefully he can drop weight overnight and take weeks to put it back. He has been "off and on" lame for 3/4 years since retirement.
I put him on bute a couple days--then off. Then on. Off now while sick.
I'd watched him and negotiating up and down hill.
His front is always a bit off cause of the bad knee-- he hasn't "let me" pick up his "good foot on that side for cleaning or trimming most of the time (last 6 months--when I do get if for short periods it seems normal. Never heat or swelling anywhere on any leg or foot.
It looks to me that this new added lameness, it is in his back end--up --hip or back. He is walking with a sway /unsteadiness it seems in the back.He places his back feet by lifting them sort of higher , hesitating then places them in front of each other causing a exaggerated sway in the
back. Like he is walking a tightrope with his back feet. --When he walked
down the slope. He stopped part way and gave a ugly ' back off" look to the
young horse who was quietly following him , till the horse turned off the path and went another way.
I haven't given him the set of neuro ground tests yet.He wouldn't be able to do all of them, but not sure it is for neuro reasons. He pivots funny in front sometimes taking a hop, but that is more the knee I believe. He is prone to thrush some so I try to watch that.
Vets in this area are average farm vets---- and I just wonder when to make tough decisions. We can take average care of him, but he takes the most time and $ to care for -----Is this how it goes, they just start going downhill and more things keep happening and ,yes they still eat and get around, but not very well,and you start to wonder how far to let it go...... I am not going to let it go to the bag of bones,on the ground in
the mud scene, which I have heard stories of--- but, this could, just be a blip in the radar.
Or he may get better and recover, he has had grade 2 lame, then recovers, runs around , then does it again-----this is pretty much the pattern, but the sound days are fewer and fewer. Actually he is always lame on the front.....

So anyone with helpful advice or how you have handled this kind of thing and how you made your decisions will help. Not asking for any kind of
arguments to start ----just wondering how people figure what to do and when.
thanks LAD


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Don Huston at cox dot net
SanDiego, Calif



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Replies
Re: [RC] Old Horses and weighing decisions........., Don Huston