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I am having a strange problem with my mare, and also my boarders
horse.
At Thanksgiving I did a hard, hilly ride on my mare. As we were
going up and down hill, I cinched up fairly firm ( but certainly
not as tight as I COULD have) The day after the ride she had
two very firm large swellings on her belly under the cinch. They
did not seem to bother her at all. We did a very short ride
that day-very loose hanging cinch, and by the end of the ride they
had disappeared. My assumption was that I had just cinched too\
tightly and to be more careful in the future.
I am riding in a Sport Saddle, neoprene cinch, and equalizer pad.
This combination seems to have a lot of give to to it anyway.
She has never exhibited any back soreness, and the saddle does
not seem to slip or slide any even on steep hills. I also have
never had amy problems before with the neoprene cinch.
Next rides I cinched her much looser, and took a long time after
the ride to let the cinch down hole by hole and not release the
pressure suddenly. But she is still getting some swellings the
day after (though much smaller than the first time)
I am afraid I really bruised her on that Thanskgiving ride. I
went through a period of perhaps 3 weeks when she wasn't ridden
at all-just ponied.
Oh, also, my mare has been ridden with this combination since
May, about 2 to 3 times a week. She is and was in fit, and the
ride I did Thanksgiving was no harder than what I do weekly.
So any advice appreciated. My boarders vet-student friend said
it is lymph fluid from the thorasic channels. but how do we
solve this problem? If did cause some sort of deep bruising,
I really wonder how long it will take to clear up?
My boarder did a ride SAturday, again, very steep up and down.
She made sure when we started her cinch was not too tight. The
same thing happened to her horse.
Karen, stumped
To: ENDURANCE@MOSCOW.COM