It’s an old saying, but sometimes it’s true.  You’re sitting right on top of the problem, but with all the stuff around it, you don’t see the obvious.

This horse came in several weeks ago for a lay-up.  The woman has had him for three years, and for three years she’s been trying to find out what is wrong with him.  He doesn’t want to pick up his left lead.  No big deal, a lot of horses are right or left-sided just like people who are right or left-handed.  He gets sore behind the withers.  Okay so she had a custom saddle made for him.  When he runs in the pasture he has the leg motion of a Freason.  He is a Thoroughbred, but when he is ridden he travels with his nose to the ground like a Western Pleasure Horse (which is not normal, so don’t get me started).  Now a horse with a sore back usually will put his head up and hollow his back, not raise it.  Humm…..  But the worse problem is that he falls at a canter.  Yup does a nose dive and plows the ground with his nose.  He’s 17 hands and tries hard not to fall on his rider.

She’s had him to numerous vets.  Had three different chiropractors treat him.  Many x-rays.  Everyone is treating what they see but not finding the cause.  They have treated him for EPM and other things, but nothing has changed.  She felt if she gave him some time off he would straighten himself out.

I told her if she brought him here we would find out what was wrong with him, but I didn’t guarantee that he could be fixed.  Since no one has been able to fix him, we both agreed that we thought it might be nerve damage.  She’s put way too much money into this horse, that is now dangerous, and no better than when she started.

After a week here, he was no longer back sore, and he was comfortable with me, so I put my hands on him and had a good close look.  Kind of a long pencil neck, and a scapula that was way too high on the left.  He was a little under weight, his ribs were showing, there was a lump but not anywhere that would be in the way, I didn’t give it much thought, I could get the weight on him.  He was only six.

Just a complex of red flags, but nothing added up.  So whenever I’ve had a training problem or a health issue in the past that the vets can’t put their finger on I call my friend Myra who is an Animal Communicator and an Equine Medical Intuitive.  Learned this years ago when Bobs horse was having issues and three vets, twenty-one x-rays, acupuncture, and a chiropractors couldn’t figure it out.  I told the vet at the last clinic I went to that I was ready for Physic Friends Network and he gave me a number of a ninety year old man in California to call.  The vet said call me and let me know what he says.  Seriously!!!???  But I did and that’s when I believed.  He told us stuff that he couldn’t have possibly known.  So if you find a person who is legitimate, they can be a big help.

It turns out that this horse was in a bad wreck, but this we assumed.  So the pain behind the withers is being caused by a broken rib that did not heal right.  If you follow that lump up to his spine, that’s exactly where the pain is when he is ridden.  Instead of dropping away from the pain he is pushing the saddle and rider up away from the pain. The pencil neck is caused by extensive damage to his vertebrates.  There is no muscle above or below them.  The vertebrates are larger than normal with arthritis and putting pressure on the nerves that lead to that shoulder.  He goes to move that left leg forward and it just doesn’t go past a certain point, because the nerves do not tell it to.  He picks his legs and knees higher so he doesn’t fall, since he can’t move that shoulder forward.  The scapula is where it is because the tendons, ligaments, and muscles are not working or holding it where it belongs.

It’s been four years since the wreck so the chances of him getting those nerves to work are not good.  But we are doing therapy with him with special supplements to encourage the nerves to regenerate, but the best we can hope for is a trail horse.  Right now he is dangerous to ride and he knows it.  When walking him down hill he is very slow and careful.  It’s such a shame because he is beautiful with a sweet personality.

So we had a situation, just like people are with doctors these days, the doctors treat the symptoms, but do not always find the cause.

So sad, but at least we know what the problem is and what the prognosis is.  I promised her that I would get to the bottom of this and I did, even though it’s not what I wanted to hear.

Don’t let those trees get in the way of seeing the forest, and don’t settle for not knowing.  If this horse had been treated after his wreck he would have been a beautiful TB show horse.  But because OTTB horses have just become throw away or recyclable, you don’t treat them, you just dispose of them and breed again.

Don’t get me started.