Next: scratches clear up, still "sort-of-off", Kevin notices 3 teeny
knots, inside right fore, like splints but very low. Cause of
lameness?--possible--vet books say small splints often the cause of more
problems than large (what's a 17 year old doing with splints?), some
heat, hardly detectable.
Still resting him, not riding. Go out last night, have to ride in that
saddle--running out of time for trial period. Trot out first, lame both
front, high grade 2, head bobs right & left. Now more lame on left than
right, some heat in left fetlock. Put saddle on for critical look, not
sitting well. Detect heat on the back at "?" vertebrae, left side, right
under the seat, also heat on left wither area. I start massage therapy
and Kevin puts the saddle on a rack for a critical look.
Here's what he saw: looking down the gullet from the rear (Kevin is
crouching to keep his eye level with cantle), the saddle is canted
diagonally from the right pommel (low) to the left cantle (high)--it's
twisted so badly that the cantle is lifted on the left. It took a good
70 foot pounds of pressure to force the saddle into an even
configuration. The fiberglass tree is warped. The saddle is bridging
badly, particularly on the left side (where the heat is on Mr T's back).
The panels on each side are "gouging" into his sides, more on the right
than the left.
Now we put the saddle on the mold to check for fit and we can see even
more clearly how badly it's warped. Put the Sharon Saare on for
comparison and it fit like a favorite glove.
Now the chicken/egg question. Could using this saddle on a "brisk" 10
mile ride have caused this lameness, which is obviously coming from the
back and not from the legs per se? We did not detect this warping
immediately--you do have to put it on a rack and sight down it. Did the
warp happen after the ride? Who knows--my guess is, not likely. It
wasn't being used and was sitting on a nice standard saddle rack with a
saddle cover over it the whole time.
This lameness is 2 weeks old and getting worse. I think he will need
some heavy-duty chiropractic adjustments as fast as I can arrange it. I
firmly believe it is not competition-related. I also don't believe it is
related to "splints".
The back area palpates softly, belly lifts are good, the accupressure
points produce the desired result. I just have the heat and a slight
uneveness in the vertebrae at one spot, plus the withers heat, to go on.
What am I missing here? No heat in the feet--no evidence of abscesses.
No swelling, no unusual heat events in the legs. The lameness is more of
a "heaviness" in landing, rather than an "ouchiness".
Could you give me some opinions? I'm really interested in observations
about the saddle.
And yes, it's going back.
Thanks in advance!
Diane @ Safe Haven