The wheels fall off the bus...

These wheels in particular. Related: Is this not the most awkward stance?

With the new year, I have started to turn my head towards my competition goals for the year. Before I can really ramp up the work, I knew I would need to have the vet out to evaluate Pig. This decision was made for two reasons:

1. It's good practice to have your older medium-level competition horse sussed out by vet before putting him back to work in high-stress/high-expectation program.
2. He's been lame AF. 

As I wrote about at the end of last year, Pig's hind end has increasingly been feeling like it is about to fall off the bus. His stifle has been sticky, his gaits have been lurchy, and his attitude towards work has veered from really excited to really NOT excited (sometimes in the same ride). Some days I've been able to really put him together and get him through whatever is bugging him. Some days I can't. It's been frustrating, but overall not something I've been too worried about.

Because: when you own an older horse, you get a good feel for what is a serious problem and what is just an age/fitness issue.

Obviously this sort of NQR-ness is not exactly conducive to ramping up for a competitive show season at Third Level. So, I called the vet to see what the options and diagnosis really were. I've been pretty lucky with this old horse. Though he has his issues, I've really never had to pour a whole lot of money into him. Sure, he's had injections but typically only once a year. And he is not on any sort of joint supplement or corrective shoeing routine. He's honestly been extremely cheap. As such, I went into this appointment willing to throw quite a bit more money into his maintenance.

My vet, working with another chestnut horse.

After a lengthy lameness exam, the vet was pretty settled on a diagnosis: Getting old sucks.

To break it down:

Stifles: Vet is pretty sure Guinness is suffering from some weakness in the stifles due to time off after his splint break and intermittent work since then. That weakness, manifesting in brief lockages during riding, is painful and causing resistance to additional work that would help him build the muscle support to stop the issue. This is something we've had before, and worked through. It sucks but is easy to fix.
Treatment: Estrone shots 1x weekly for 4 weeks. Lots of slow hill walking/trotting and walking/trotting over more poles. Additionally lots of transitions, focusing on stepping under and through. (Interestingly, something already on the training plan as we gear up for show season.) If after a the Estrone treatment and strength work we do not see improvement we will pursue stifle injections, but the vet doesn't think these are actually necessary.

Hocks: Oddly, Pig showed the greatest positive to hock flexions, specifically his left hock. He trotted off very uneven from these. As we watched him go, the vet pointed out how his left hind always swings under his body, no matter which direction he is tracking. I've noticed that his right hind is always swinging out, and thought that was the problem. I didn't think about the opposite being the issue, but it makes total sense. Now that I've had it pointed out, it's supremely obvious. I wonder if that was really the issue last spring as well.

Treatment: Hock injections. It's kind of awesome that my horse made it to 18 without needing these after a long career on the track and a few years as a jumper. I'm honestly impressed, and totally ready to throw some money into those joints.

Fetlocks: Zero response to being flexed in his hind fetlocks. This made me feel good, as his rear fetlocks have basically doubled in size over the last two years. I've been worried we'd be looking at the same issues in the rear that we had in the front. My vet assuaged those fears.

Treatment: Nothing.

Back/SI joint: Here is where I was really proud. The vet found zero issues with Pig's SI or back. He went so far as to tell me "this horse has one of the most supple and relaxed backs I've seen". He did find some positive sore points right over the point of the butt and over the SI, but he said these are not due to the SI joint, but instead are indicative of weak stifles, as those are the muscles a horse uses to swing his legs out to avoid putting pressure on the stifle. I found this fascinating, as this is a spot Pig pops up sore on a regular basis.
Treatment: Keep on keeping on. Whatever we are doing is clearly working for him.

Front end: We didn't really look at anything forward of the withers. This vet is aware of Guinness' fetlocks, and said he agrees with me that they are probably as fused as they are going to get and clearly holding up fine to the workload. He did mention that Pig probably has some arthritis in his neck, but he qualified that with "most horses do, the way their necks are built really encourages arthritis in the lower vertebrae." He didn't seem concerned about it, and honestly Pig doesn't either. He checked on the (still huge) splint bump, and said it looks fine. He doesn't think the bump will really decrease in size, but seems to be just fine. He also did a once over on Pig's suspensory ligaments, which all came up negative.

Treatment: What isn't truly broken is obviously still working. Stay aware, but don't worry.

"Give me apples! And also preventative medicine!"

Because this vet is steeped in medical theory, and is really down to earth, I went ahead and asked him some other questions:

1. What about Previcox/Equioxx for pain management?
• A great option for a horse with long term needs for NSAIDs. However, my vet was confident that regular injections and a careful eye would be enough for now. Maybe down the road this is something we can look at to keep Pig in a lower level of work. He cautioned using it to keep a horse going at a high level. In addition: He mentioned that laws prohibit the prescription of Previcox for horses, unless there is a valid reason (like horse won't take pastes). This is because cross-species prescription is severely frowned on if a formulation exists for the species being treated. As Equioxx is formulated for horses, there is no reason to use Previcox, other than cost. 
2. Thoughts on Adequan/Legend for maintenance. 
• Vet thinks Adequan has shown some good indications towards use for arthritic horses. He suggested it may be helpful to do a session as prescribed (7 total shots given every four days, not monthly) in a couple of months. Legend he was not as positive about. I asked if the intravenous shot of Legend means that the HA is not in the system long enough to make an actual difference. After some time, he nodded and admitted that is very possible, but perhaps still worth trying.

With that said, we made a second appointment for this week to have the injections taken care of and other medications (estrone, dormosedan) dropped off. Until then, I was told to keep riding and working on slow build up of musculature around the stifle and hind end. Riding out on hills was specifically mentioned. Just like with all other arthritis issues with this horse, the suggestion has been "do what he is comfortable with, but above all keep him moving."

So, yep. Getting old sucks.

"I am ageless. I dunno what you're talking about."