Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Just got back from the barn. The vet was there to give everyone shots and health check. I asked Dr. Morrison about Lady, who has had an upward fixation of the patella, which started last year after getting off a trailer when I moved her in June. This is also known as a Stringhalt, a term often confused with a condition from eating the stringhalt plant I believe. What lady does is paddle outward on the left hind when the ligament gets caught and locks on a boney prominence of the patella. Anyway the ligaments that attatch to the hind patella are limp, which can be caused by poor muscle tone & confirmation issues, Lady is, an arab with refined bone structure and long straight legs, popular look for the halter horses but not good if you want more than a pasture ornament!--so she can be predisposed to this. It was explained to me by the doc, that it can be common in two-year olds since their muscles have not caught up with bone development. Lady is seven but has not worked on a reg basis to build up those muscles and being an arab, they take longer to mature--although by seven she is pretty much done with the growing. In her case the trailer incident was enough to fire this up. There is also the weight issue which I have mentioned before--she and the other horses are underweight and that really makes a difference to me. So, what is the plan besides an expensive operation that may not work as a permanent soulution?

Here's the plan: work on the hind muscle groups--building up the muscle mass will cause the proper tension in the ligament so that it can do its job. I can do a lot of hillwork, although, going up is beneficial, while going down can aggravate. So, we'll work on trotting over cavelletti --about 5 or 6 poles in a line and we can also set some up arc like fashion. 20minute about 3 to 5 times a week. Long trail rides are also good to work inbetween. Of course she's underweight, so my first priority is to get that hay into her somehow. I do not feel right working her at all right now as she is. When she's in better shape nutritionally, We'll begin the work on the caveletti and see how she progresses. The doc says later we can think about blistering. Not as bad as it sounds--but you use an agent that causes swelling--I think you inject DMSO maybe? someone told me I could apply this topically-- on the day you may have a long trail ride--they will be stiff at first, but keeping them moving will free them up and they will actually feel really good and flexible--it basically lets them to use that hind the correct way because the swelling causes tension on the offending ligament so they won't be protecting it undermining all the muscle conditioning you are trying to do. If you want to learn more about this, you can go the The Horseonline.

Now, the other problem this could be is EPM, but since the trailer incident caused this acute presentaton, as she did not have any gait problems before she got on the trailer, there's no reason to worry about that yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.