Crazy old man learning dressage!

Dateline: November 23, 2008 5:18 PM

    After spending a few weeks performing due diligence concerning Rody’s soundness issues, trying to find the best possible hoof and foot equine professionals to assess Rody’s condition for me, and to prescribe her rehabilitation/treatment (if any) ..

I finally settled upon a course of action: get a really good HorseDoc/AAEP, working with a really good farrier, and see what Rody’s real condition is, and how best to manage her.

follows: a “progress report” to a trusted individual ….

Dear M***A***,
 
Found Rody’s pedigree, published it online at >> http://www.lazyrminis.com/rody_the_showjumping_tb_mare.htm
    (above includes a Buckpasser video, from the famous ‘chicken flamingo’ stakes at Hialeah Downs, etc.)
 
My decision to get Doc B******, and farrier g**** h**, to work together on Rody was the best thing I ever did.
    > thanks for suggesting a good vet and farrier to me (I took a few weeks deciding which ones to use)
 
Within a week:
    > she seemed like nothing had ever been wrong with her …
    > she seemed to “forget” that her hoof hurt,
    > and wanted to go faster and faster … (without asking her – at her own pace)
 
We have her back to about 95%-97% sound [my estimate]
    (she sometimes starts a very marginal “quarter-game” limp when she gets tired, but often forgets which hoof to limp on, Hhhhmmm… do you s’pose she may have been scamming me? )
    I think she has “the Winston Churchill syndrome” (she ‘does not gladly suffer fools’ – or incompetent riders/handlers; I know she already has me buffaloed, and I think she knows it, too.)

    M***A***, Rody is

    > an “ornery horse” (headstrong and challenging of the rider’s leadership and authority),

    > but her temperament is as sweet as can be (her hunter event name was “Ain’t she sweet”).

She wasn’t a jumper, as we were led to believe. She was originally trained as a HUNTER! (big difference in that world).
    > she passed around quite a few owners’/riders, eventually ended up in some Jumper facility/school near Mt. Vernon,
    > apparently ridden by some rich kid,
    > and when the girl did not perform at “grand prix levels” riding Rody,
        (we also found evidence of a minor injury about that time, which probably was not correctly handled by the Rody’s owner; when I later contacted Rody’s vet during that time, the vet did not wish to discuss the horse or the treatment with me. fortunately, Doc Bridges said that she did not need, or even wish to receive, any information from any previous vets),
    > the rider threw Rody in the trash bin…
 

In my unqualified, non-professional opinion: Rody never should have been a jumper,
    > she was not bred for it, nor was built for it (she looks like she is ready to win a two-mile race on the senior mares cards – this is Kentucky Thoroughbred Racing stock, not tiny-arena showjumping stock).
    > Her US Jockey Club registered name – “Wannabeajumper (unraced)” – may be a giveaway that the breeder intended ONLY to develop her as a jumper (which seems like a great idea to me, as well, until I learned more about the facility she ended up at…), hence she was never raced;
    > but the above is probably only my opinion (what do I know about TB’s ?)
 
Anyway, just thought I would let you know what we found out about her.

\best regards,
mark rector

Tags: AAEP, buckpasser video, chicken flamingo, good vet and farrier, hialeah, hoof and foot equine professionals, HorseDoc, jockey club, Kentucky Thoroughbred Racing stock, trained as a hunter, unraced, Wannabeajumper
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Soon after aquiring “Rody the Show Jumping Mare” it became apparent that there were some soundness issues. I reached out to one of my most trusted advisors in Washington State …

From: Author – MarkRector
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 12:02 PM
To: M***A****
Subject: For M***A****, from Mark Rector, re: assessing/evaluating a horse

Dear M***A****,

I need to evaluate the soundness of a horse.
     I know you and C**** evaluate the training levels and and skills of horses.
     Are you able to suggest somebody who can evaluate the soundness, also?

The issue:  Ashley got a great deal on a free horse, from SafeHorse rescue.
   ~ It was an emergency, first come/first served deal. She was not able to obtain a prepurchase examination, as we had strongly urged her to do with any horse.

Rody the Mare …
     ~ 7 yo, 16HH TB mare from California, trained in SJ, bought and transported to WA ($30,000).
     ~ Owner/rider (a young woman) got a last-minute scholarship to some LV, Nevada Equestrian school; had to fly out over the weekend to be present on Monday morning.       She dad nowhere to put the horse, so she “gave it away” to somebody who was not maintaining it well (confining it in a dog kennel).

     Ashley accepted Rody, without verifying its history, or the story that came with the horse.
     ~ When the horse arrived, it had a very mild gaminess in FL foot.
     ~ She was told that the mare had incurred a slight strain, during trailering, and that it would go away within a few days.
     ~ The condition has not improved; it is apparently a recurring issue over the last 2 years (cronic occasional lameness, in the same leg – which appears and recedes sporadically).

     Yesterday, I spent several hours driving around Issaquah asking people for referrals to a competent assessor of soundness in horses (not a veterinarian, not a trainer or teacher).
     I also, went to the owner of the pasture where she is being boarded.  The retired gentleman was not able to advise, but he told me that the mare’s condition is very sporadic: sometimes she will hardly move around, other times she will run and jump and kick etc.

     M***A***, I do not know who to trust – among the “professionals” in Washington – to be competent to assess the soundness of this horse.  I
     (1) I fear she has been misdiagnosed, or more probably incorrectly and/or misadvisedly treated, by the previous owners for 2 years.
     (2) Specifically, I think Rody’s condition may be incipient, well, I don’t want to say what I think (do not wish to affect your thinking).

I would feel comfortable with using somebody that you advised – if:
     (1) they are not a “dope them up” veterinarian – with little other equine practitioner experience (e.g. I would not want a racetrack vet, or a breeding stable vet, or a training facility vet),
     (2) or if they are exclusively an equine practitioner for several decades (AAEP), with a more holistic approach to diagnosis/treatment.
     (3) If they were an Amish practitioner, old school (none out here, though) – one who brings horses back from unsoundness (not necessarily wanting Amish-style “training” – of course)

My questions:
     (1) Would you feel competent, and willing, to assess Rody?
     (2) Would you be able to refer me to somebody who is competent to asses Rody?

Best regards,
Mark Rector

     p.s. M***A****, I am no judge of “horse flesh” – but when I first saw this horse I was shocked at the quality of horse that was given to Ashley for free. ==============

Her reply ….

Mark,
     Here’s the Monday morning quarterback talking: Pre-purchase exams are such a lovely thing. Any time you’re getting a horse, unless it doesn’t matter whether you ride it or not, do a prepurchase exam. They’re just as expensive to keep and much more time consuming and expensive to treat if they’re lame.
     Get off it about vets. You’re operating on old information. There are bad ones and good ones, but they aren’t all crap, and the Amish have screwed up just as many horses as the rest of the horse world. They just wear better hats.
     C**** can assess lameness very well in terms of identifying which body part is the problem- stifle, hock, or fetlock kinds of questions, but to identify whether it’s a strained tendon, arthritis, ringbone, a chipped or green-stick fractured bone, shin splints, cancer, muscle spasm, or just chronic crappy training you need a very good vet, and you need x-rays, and you need luck. There isn’t any such thing as a good assessor of lameness that’s not a vet, because you need someone who can use diagnostic tools. Good vets don’t dope them up, they use flexion tests to determine lameness issues, then having identified the leg involved, if the location needs to be specified they will use a block like a Novocain injection first to the foot itself, then the fetlock joint, then the knee… when the horse trots out as though sound you have a location to x-ray.  You often don’t get a definitive response, even so, because lameness is not simple. But, you get a ball park and the vet gives you treatment options for the assumed injury, and you then get a response or you don’t for the treatment.
     For a thorough soundness exam I’d go to a good veterinarian. I don’t know the vets in your area. To get the referral, call the most expensive hunter/jumper barn in your area and ask the trainer who she or he uses for pre-purchase exams. The high end horse owners, especially jumper owners, try really hard to assess those legs before they invest $80k in to a horse. There will be a “leg man” they like and you’ll get that recommendation.
     For treatment options, talk to the vet, read up about what they suggest, and make an informed choice—they aren’t all nuts.
\M***A****

~30~

Tags: AAEP, assessing, assessor of lameness, breeding stable vet, chronic crappy training, evaluation, flexion tests, fractured bone, green-stick, judge of horse flesh, leg man, misdiagnosed, more holistic approach, Pre-Purchase exams, prepurchase examination, quality of horse, racetrack vet, shin splints, soundness issue, the Amish, training facility vet, wear better hats
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