Summing up Hahira/lameness

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

O.K. this is my last post on this.  I'll answer lots of questions at
once.

*Are my shoes not balanced?  I've used this farrier 15 years with great
results.  Duane Barnett really looked them over and commented at *least*
3 times that my farrier was doing and excellent job.  I am taking into
consideration some suggestions on pads.  By the way, you guys have never
discussed the 1/2 shoe, 1/2 pad that I saw at Witchdance (I know you're
out there...Boomer's mom).  Bobbie Lieberman recommended them too and I'm
gonna look them over.  He's already in a wide web.

*Why have I not turned him out and rested him?  Am I obsessed with
winning and working him to death...got the taste of blood?  No.  Believe
me, I'm good at turning a horse out.  When Kaboot was 6 he tore a tendon
sheath, ride vets said 2 mo. off.  My vet ultrasounded it, said I stopped
in time (wasn't pulled, vet didn't see anything) asked what my "agenda"
was and I said, "I want to ride this horse to last forever" and he said,
"Good, let's give him 4 months off just to be sure.  I was sick, but I
gave him 6 months instead.  If there's one thing I've learned in this
sport it's haste makes waste.

I've had several posts from riders who had similar symptoms and had
immediate improvement with shock absorbing pads.

I've had a couple of posts from people who seem to think I was caught up
in a *win at all cost* mentality.  None of them were people who knew me,
and I am assuming that if they are like me they probably had a mental
image going through their head of a person they know who shows up at
rides with a questionable horse and gets by by the skin of their teeth
week after week.  That's not me folks.  When I think it's right, I'll
sure rest my horse, however....

You cannot rest a horse out of an ill fitting girth...or a saddle that's
not working...  Sure, it's easy to say once someone diagnoses a deep
bruise, "It would have been better to not do the last two rides", but
what if it had been the girth?  I would have wasted the last half of my
horse's 10 year old year, laid him off, then brought him back to have the
same thing happen again...and again. 

 When I was a neophyte, I used to just get a new horse every time they
had lameness problems.  I just thought, "this one isn't for endurance",
then I began to find that almost everyone who's doing many miles has
problems and it's up to them to figure them out...whether it's a weird
shoe, shimming, equitation problems, or as Pat Oliva found even DENTAL
problems that caused lameness.  Laying them off the minute something's
questionable doesn't fix that.  Believe me, I was darned careful. As Ann
Stuart said, "There's no way your vet at home can get a diagnosis on him,
when he's not sore".

 By the way, at Biltmore as I stood waiting to have the vet give him a
closer look during his free time, I watched at least 4 horses get vetted,
all of whom were more "irregular" than Kaboot had been.  It was a
*terribly* rocky course that day.  Now  I have a diagnosis.  Under very
strict vets I had no pulls for lameness.  I am ready to lay him off
considerably longer than the two EXCELLENT vets who diagnosed him
suggested (one month).  

I think I'm going to unsubscribe now and clean my house.  Then I'm going
to ride ponies bareback for awhile and enjoy Christmas.  Hope you all
have a good time and I'll see ya later.

Angie

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