Lame or Not Lame? That is the Question!

On Saturday when I came over to ride Ben, he was acting very strange. While I was brushing the mud off his blanket he started to lift his right hind leg and hold it in the air. After I removed his blanket, I felt him all over his back leg and didn't find any areas of heat or swelling. However, when I touched him around his stifle and the inside of his thigh he would again lift his leg out to the side and shake a little as he held it. This really worried me and I almost wished I had found a wound that I could pin point it to.

I decided to try lungeing him to see if his gait at the trot and canter were affected it was hard to tell. The ground in his pasture isn't level and he was full of energy so he was really jumpy. But at least he didn't seem to be favoring it much while moving.

I'm thinking it may have been caused on Wednesday when I free lunged him after my ride. There was a lot of tractor work going on at Barnabee and they were fixing their retention pond and Ben didn't like all of the noise, so he was a little nervous. Had I not had such a solid seat I probably would have fallen off at least 4 times since he was so jumpy, especially at the canter. Anyhow, after riding for a 1/2 hour I decided I would get off and let him run around the arena. He had a great time doing this and at times was in a full gallop before he had to break and turn a sharp corner.

So he could have strained a muscle then, or possibly it was on Thursday morning when my Dad saw some coyotes near the pasture. The horses were pretty nervous and running around snorting, so he could have easily slipped and stained it then as well. Either way, something wasn't right. Since I didn't have any bute I just gave him the day off and hoped that it would heal with time.

Lucikly it did and when I came to ride him today, he showed no signs of soreness. We had a great ride today! At first I lunged him a just to make sure he was 100% sound. After 10 minutes I got on and we worked on suppling him through the serpentine and getting him to establish the correct bend and be balanced as he changed directions without lifting his head. Then we worked on his canter on a figure 8, changing leads in the middle and also leg yielding down the quarter line at the canter. He did really well during both of these exercises. In the past he has had some issues with leg yielding at the canter to the right and would break out and bolt, which lead me to thinking that something must be pinching him or hurting him, but today he showed no signs of this and was very willing. We also worked on swing turns at the trot and that really helped him to collect more and engage his inside hind leg. All and all it was a great ride!