Pending hock injections

Guinness and I are no stranger to joint problems. Pig was diagnosed with severe DJD in both front fetlocks way back in 2011. That diagnosis ended his jumping career for good, and brought us both to dressage full time. It also started a pattern of steroid/HA joint injections to keep him comfortable while the joints remodeled.

This is my set of "really cool, but you wouldn't want to own them" x-rays. These make every vet I've ever seen cringe and ask me incredulously "Omg. And you RIDE this horse?!" Yes, actually. And he's surprisingly sound.

My set of radiographs is quite old, and I would love a new set to see what the joints look like today. Unfortunately, my finances don't allow me to just throw down money unless there's actually a problem. Since Pig's injection schedule has actually tapered from every 6 months, to every year, to finally none, I can't justify a new set.

But now, I might have another joint to obsess over.

While watching Guinness walk ahead of me on last week's eventful trail ride, I noticed his right hind winging out widely. My horse has always traveled straight behind, so I immediately took notice of this wild change. In fact, I've been obsessing about it ever since.

Year old video of Pig trotting:

 Video from this week (please excuse the wiggling!):

The whole thing is weird because Pig isn't lame back there. He still tracks up the same: at the walk he still overtracks by a good 4" and at the canter he still steps deeply. However, Pig has been incredibly difficult on the left shoulder for the last 3 months. I've adjusted my training and we can still manage all the movements, but that difficulty has been on my mind.

Did the trailer accident cause a minor modification to the hock joint?

It's completely possible. The leg with the weird movement is the one that was trapped under Guinness for the whole ordeal. While the hock didn't have a scrape on it, that doesn't mean that the joint didn't undergo enough stress to start some arthritic changes.

So with two weeks until we trot down the centerline at the season's first USDF show, I'm calling the vet today to schedule injections in the funky hock. If they work, great. If not, we'll look at other options. Wish us luck.

The offending hock in action, and looking damn good.