Winter Music

  So today was vet day. I hauled her to Dr. Barrows and we had to take off her jammies. She met the Grinch. Hee hee. Brave girl. She was super good. I told Dr. Barrow what I had thought and how it all started and she watched her go. She saw the weird hypermetric hike to her left hind too but agreed it was mostly right front. We tried trotting her in a circle and she would NOT go. She said she looked like a shuffly navicular QH. YES!!! That's how she feels too!  So we blocked her heels.... a little better but not a ton. Blocked her foot and ankle... and MUCH better, although she looked a bit lame on the left front too. So then we took her to the arena and lunged her and she looked MUCH better... striding forward and more free and reaching. And definitely more forward. She also watched her hind end and didn't really see anything. Other than the tight rope walking but... that may be conformation. She flexed her hind end and didn't really appreciate any change. She was sore on ...

  Okay.. maybe it's not so bad!  Last night I gave Lyric one gram of bute and then this morning, at around 8 am, she got another gram. I hopped on for a quick ride at 12:30ish... and she was sound! I rode in Kelli's saddle and just did a short ride to assess. I figured... as much as she's been bouncing, surely a quick ride can't make it any worse than it is. Plus I wanted to ride in Kelli's saddle once more becuase I was going to have to send it back soon and wanted one more confirmation that it fit okay. (Side note.. sent a photo to Tasida for the girth and she mentioned it looked too narrow on her even. Jeepers!! Hopefully they'll fix it all correctly!).    We walked around a good bit and she felt much better than she had been. I didn't have to squeeze for every stride and she was much more forward. She wasn't inverting nearly as much and was much happier to reach for the bit and lift her back when I asked. She was still maybe a hair shorter and slower...