Miracles DO Happen!

To my ever-faithful followers,

I've got some news that may just blow your mind. It certainly did mine.

If you've been following since the beginning, you'll remember that my horse, Rusty, had an injury a year ago where he broke his lateral malleolus - in basic terms, about the top part of his tibia. We all know what usually happens when a horse breaks something: they're permanently lame or only suitable for light riding. In Rusty's case, this is what the vet from Iowa State, Dr. Stephanie Caston, said:

"This horse has a guarded prognosis to return to an athletic career and a poor prognosis to become a future light riding/pleasure horse due to the fracture location, joint involvement and arthritis that is already present and will continue to develop in the future."

Long-term rest was essential, and although Rusty received an injection in his hock to help inflammation, the vet doubted it would last long. Basically, he was done for. The vet even mentioned euthanasia as an option. My first horse, the horse I trained to jump myself, the horse that would do anything for me - he wouldn't be ridden again. I cried and cried, but I knew there was nothing I could do but hope and pray that it wouldn't be the case. My friends suggested that I start looking for a different show horse, and one of the gals I worked with mentioned something about getting a second opinion. In my heart of hearts, though, I knew the damage had been done.





 This is Rusty's hock 3 weeks after the injury. If you look up in the right-hand corner, you'll see the fracture line. If you go down farther, those little shadows around the leg are the bone chips that came off. Also, if you look at the shadow that encapsulates the bone, you'll be able to see that Rusty's hock is swollen enormously.

Somehow, after this injury though, Rusty's swelling managed to go down, and he was no longer running around on three legs. If horses ran three-legged races, I think Rusty would have won, hands down! Fortunately, he was able to move on all four, and slowly but surely, we began a little work with him.

My local vet told me that next spring that Rusty might be able to handle very light riding, mostly at a walk on flat surfaces maybe twice a week. Any more than that, he said, would probably cause him to go lame.

In the fall, after Rusty had been on numerous trail rides with semi-difficult ground about once a week, he walked, trotted, cantered, and galloped. When I took him to get his fall vaccines, the vet told me that I could probably do moderate work with him on an occasional basis - not jumping, per say, but some heavy trail riding. If we did it regularly, the vet guessed that he would probably go lame. He suggested that I take him back to the university to get an x-ray to see how everything had healed up.

After the same vet (Dr. Caston) examined him and took his x-rays, this is what she said in her report and also to me:

"His left hock is slightly larger than his right, but he is able to ambulate well when walked and trotted.

When a flexion test was performed on his left hock there was a slight difference in his gait, but no significant lameness was noted before that on the straight or in circles. The fracture of the left hind lateral malleolus has healed nicely. There are some slight roughened edges and some bony changes noted in the joint, but they are minimal. There are a couple of mild bone fragments embedded in the soft tissue on the medial side of the hock."

And then she said this, and it nearly made me cry:

"You can put Rusty into regular work and do whatever discipline you want with him."  

No Christmas present will be as wonderful as this one. This entire year I have ached to ride Rusty over a jump again, to be able to trust that he'd go over, to feel like we could accomplish anything. His x-ray looks amazing, as you can see here:

I'm not going to blow this picture up because you can see things pretty well at this size. Look in the upper right-hand corner. You can still see the fracture line, but the vet says it has healed up very nicely. In the left and right sides of the center of the picture, you can still see those bone fragments, which have settled into the tissue, not the joint. You can see in places that things have smoothed off, and if you look at his actual hock area, not the bone, you can see that it is still a little large but nowhere near as swollen as last time. The vet said the largeness is due to scar tissue that developed. His arthritic changes seem to be progressing slowly and are minor. He can be ridden regularly, jumped, and can do just about anything. If he gets sore, we may have to inject somewhere along the line, and we can also use Adaquan or Legend to help keep those joints maintained. He should be outside where he can move well (and he is!), and if he's warmed up carefully, things should go well.

This goes to show that miracles do happen, and sometimes the worst of scenarios can turn out fine. Next spring, I'm not quite sure what Rusty and I have in plan. I'd like to return him to the low hunters and work on finessing his lead changes and form. Obviously, there will be lots of trail riding, and a small part of me hopes I can do a beginner novice event with him.

Unfortunately, Casper did not receive the same great news Rusty did. After being dumped off at jumps, handling the unwillingness to move forward, and all the behavioral issues Casper started having, I took him to the university as well. He does has Degenerative Joint Disease in his right front leg, and everyone assumed that that was the culprit of all of this.

That was not the case. We found that Casper has Navicular Disease, which is similar to arthritis. The navicular bone is right around the fetlock area. His progression was fast, and his case is severe. We're not sure what kind of riding Casper will be able to handle in the future if we decide to inject him. He certainly isn't going to be doing any heavy-duty work with that damage, and although the vet said that the injections might make him perfectly sound, I can't see us doing much more in the jumping ring. The poor boy is only 12, and at this point, we're just going to let him rest out at pasture.

But, I am certainly happy that one of my horses came home with a positive prognosis! We all agreed Rusty is some horse, especially after the tantrum he threw in the vet office when we tried to get him to walk on the scale and step over it. Or when he was pacing his stall and whinnying because he couldn't see Casper. Or when he tried to get a drink out of the automatic waterer and the noise of it turning on spooked him. This happened to be his best moment:



Yes, Rusty had to be sedated for his radiograph. When he came back, you could tell he was sedated. His eyes were glossy and his lip was practically dragging on the floor. When he got in his stall, he practically dropped his head to his knees because he was so out of it. When I went in to take the picture, he kept trying to get away from the camera. Apparently sedation makes this guy act like a grumpy, old horse.

The next photo here is with the "scary" waterer. Rusty seems too out of it to realize that he's close to it!
Happy trails, ya'll!