Re: MECHANICAL FATIGUE

[rides2far@juno.com (Angela C. McGhee)]

Truman,
You complained about the confusing grading of lameness.  Afraid I've had
the same problem. 

I always swore I wouldn't be one of those riders who declares, "He moves
like this..."etc. to vets.  However, Kaboot has a tendency to flop down a
little harder on his RF.  It's consistant, you can hear it more than see
it.  I've had complete workovers done and the vet sees nothing wrong, and
it's never gotten worse during a ride.  I guess I should have memorized
what "Grade 1" and Grade 2 mean by now, but I just natuarally thought
Grade 1 means "I think I see something" and Grade 2 means, "Yep, I'm sure
I see something and it's kinda bad", Grade 3 means "He's lame and if
you're too dumb to pull him, I will" and grade 4?  I guess that means,
send out a search party to find the rest of his leg that you left
somewhere out on the trail.

At one ride, the vet told me Kaboot was grade 2 at the 2nd check.  I was
shocked, hadn't felt a thing, didn't see anything,...but maybe...you
know, once somebody mentions it.  I missed my out time waiting for the
vet to have time to give him a good checkover with flexing before I would
go back out.  He said he thought it was probably just a stone bruise, so
I put on 2 E-Z boots and rode on in.  At the finish, the other vet said
he looked fine.  Had him checked again later by the vet that called him
grade 2.  He said that he'd really just call it a grade 1 now.  That it
wasn't the severity that made it grade 2, it was the consistency...and
that he heard it more than saw it.  EEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!!  If he'd said that
at the vet check, I wouldn't have missed my out time!  I think we dropped
at least 5 or 6 positions because of it.  Guess this is just something
I'll have to get used to.  One vet at I rode under last year called him
grade 2 at the 2nd check on the 50, at the finish on his BC form he gave
him a 10 on quality of movement.

Just one more thing to get my gut in a knot over.

P. S.  I wonder if it was you back at the first SERA convention I ever
went to, who stood up and said that your biggest complaint was that
nobody could tell if you Walking Horse was lame...and the vet stood up
and said, "Nobody on God's green earth can tell when a Walking Horse is
lame!

Angie
>
>Horse 1: 
> Vet A - grade 1
> Vet B - sound
>
>Horse 2:
> Vet A - sound
> Vet B - grade 1
>
>Horse 3
> Vet A - grade 2
> Vet A  - grade 1
>
>Horse 4 
> Vet A - grade 1 
> Vet B - grade 2
>
>Horse 5:
> Vet A - grade 2
> Vet B - sound
>
>Well I had seen enough - so much for the 9 out of 10.
>
>Truman
>
>

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