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[RC] Ain't doing right - long - syreinoI have a 4 year old (she'll be 5 in January) that I have been doing long slow miles with and she’s ready for 25’s. We completed a 25 CTR three weeks ago and she did absolutely wonderfully – she took care of herself, she paced great, we had a wonderful time. We started our second 25 yesterday and after ten or so miles she started stretching her neck out – we’ve been doing dressage lessons and though she doesn’t like to stretch too much yet, I thought she was working on her dressage at first, but then it just wasn’t typical of her. She then would stretch her neck out, slow down from a trot and not want to trot again. We walked into the halfway hold and she delved into her food right away. Her P&R’s were slightly elevated for her – after about 8 minutes then were 48/28 (normal would be 42-44/12-14) and her gut sounds and all metabolics were fine. I spoke with the vet about my concerns and he said she was absolutely fine metabolically so maybe mechanically the saddle was bothering her or something. I checked to see if I could find a reason, but didn’t. All the while she was eating grass and acting normal. I made the decision to go out but see how she did. We had about 4 or 5 miles before hitting basecamp again, and she was okay for about half that, then she started again. But she was more insistent about not wanting to trot, so we walked back in ready to pull. She drank some and then wanted to follow the group of horses onto the next portion of the loop, so I thought maybe she was over whatever the problem was (the first portion was all on a canal tow path and was very hard packed and the second portion was all on grass trails more of what she is used to) – but after about ¼ mile she stopped trotting again so we turned around and I pulled her. The vet looked at her and said she was fine metabolically still, her trot out was fine and again she was starved – eating grass and not wanting to walk to the trailer to take her saddle off. I let her eat grass for about an hour, gave her some beet pulp and she drank and peed and pooped. I had the vet check her again – she was completely normal metabolically but he did mention she looked tired (which she did). She came home, was happy to get into her pasture and eat grass – she ate all her supper and breakfast this morning, but she’s subdued and just a bit more quiet than usual. She’s very easy going in general though.
My question to you is did I overreact or might she have some sort of problem? It was suggested that maybe she has ulcers – so I will be calling my vet today to follow up – but has anyone had a similar experience? Her saddle seems to fit okay – but she does have a touch of thickening around a white spot on her left wither area that showed up recently. She’s never showed any indications of a poor saddle fit otherwise, she’s never been reluctant to trot or canter, she’s never been so stretchy and uncomfortable. Occasionally over the summer she would eat half her supper and then walk away not feeling “right” but after walking her for a little bit, she would go back and eat the rest of her supper and be fine afterwards – are these two things related?
Thank you so much for any input you might have for me and Mars – who loves going down the trail, and I want to make sure she’s healthy while doing it.
Jessica and Mars
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