Soundness

["Caughey Family" <caughey@merredin.agn.net.au>]

I have had two horses who appeared to have all the right 'stuff' for
endurance riding then it all go terribly wrong.  The first was a purebred
Arab mare, 10yrs old, who had passed the Kikkuli Culling method for
Endurance horses (this it will mean something to those familiar with Ann
Nylands book) with flying colours and was going very well in training and
her first couple of 40km rides.  Then she went lame, and after a number of
visits to the vet and numerous tests, they could only come up with possible
soft tissue damage.  Nothing was detected.  She still would not get a start
at an endurance ride (4 1/2yrs on) as she has muscle hypertrophy on one
side from being lame so long and using one side more than the other.  She
is no longer lame as such though and perfectly rideable for fun.  The
second was a anglo arab gelding of unknown origin or age (approximately
13yrs old) who had done some semi endurance work for a couple of years
prior to me getting him.  We got through our first 80km ride okay and after
that he was always sound during training then each reshoeing he would be
lame for a week or so then sound again.  After much stress, farrier visits
etc, we went to the vet and it turns out both front pedal bones were
fractured.  Each shoeing would just put the slightest pressure on his toes,
for a couple of days until the shoe rounded off a bit, that the bone, just
healed, would fracture again.  This can be coped with, with perfect shoeing
but I chose not to continue the risk of putting him through so much pain
and myself through the stress.  Also our training is done on very hard
ground, so this could be enough to cause a recurrence even with great
shoeing.  So now, to me, finishing really is winning.  Even if regularly,
I'm the last one to win!!

Regards

Kate
Western Australia