Listen to your heart

So yeah.... I should have listened to my gut... Fleck was hurting... pretty badly. Although I can try to make myself feel better and say it didn't really start until April. But knowing what I know now.... I think the recent stops at jumps were related, the stopping at jumps he couldn't see what was coming up was related... and perhaps even some of the tripping.

Basically his vet work up showed that he's got "moderate arthritis" in just about every joint in his front limbs. :( To the point where the vets were surprised he moved as well as he did considering his rads. Sigh... My poor poor guy...

He's got a chip in his right knee, bad knees, bad pasterns, bad ringbone, and... who knows what else?! I think we stopped with that, because, quite frankly, that's enough! BUT... the good news is that he's tough, and not every horse reads the book. I've always told owners that x-rays don't always correlate. I've seen plenty of dogs with horrible spondylosis that still run and romp and others with the tiniest bit that can barely move. Because it's an all over kinda thing.. the plan is to lube him up as best as I can and take it by ear. If he's happy, then ride and enjoy him. It will progress.... but it will regardless of whether I retire him now or not. Plus, if I keep him fit he's relying more on muscle than his joints.

So.. the plan is to try IRAP, joint injections as needed, and then continue his maintenance but be a little more obsessive about it and much much pickier with what I do with him. Extreme management. I honestly think he enjoys it too, so as long as he stays happy and forward.. we keep playing. If he starts acting ouchy or stopping or sluggish...we back off.

I'm actually sorta okay with this. It's not a life threatening thing... and even if he has to retire from eventing, he should still be good for dressage, and then trail riding.

So... fingers crossed I can make him happy. He's already feeling better with some minor changes to start, so I'm optimistic. His heart is so big... it makes up for a lot. I just am going to watch him like a hawk and do my damndest to make sure I'm not taking advantage of that big ol' heart of his.

He really truly is such a generous giving horse. I'm lucky to have him!