if horses could talk

It has been a VERY long time since I have written a blog post, and lots of things have changed for us over the past months - it has been a roller coaster of a year, and I lost my motivation to write about what was happening in my horsey world.

Shortly after my last blog post we had the vet out to Pepsi as he was not comfortable behind.Initial nerve blocks on both hinds in multiple places were inconclusive and didn’t show anything in particular. He was not sound, but he was not hopping lame. We decided to reduce his workload in an attempt to see if it was just that he couldn’t cope with the amount of work he was in. We went from hacking/jumping/schooling/competing to just walking, and he improved significantly.

Once it had improved, we then upped the work gently to see if we could pin point a type of work which he was not happy with. He got worse as soon as we started to ask for anything significant (trot/canter/school work). He had Xrays to both hocks and stifles. At 22 years old, I expected some form of arthritis in any of these joints. Fortunately (or unfortunately!) there were no signs of bone changes in either joint on both legs – in fact the vet actually said he had great hocks and stifles! I was really hoping that we would find some arthritis and it could be treated in a relatively easy way – but as this story progresses, I quickly learnt that I wasn’t going to get what I was hoping for. We had a couple more vets visits where we attempted to block his hocks. He is a difficult horse to inject because as soon as he has had one, he flinches and is sensitive to any further ones – making it really difficult to see if he is flinching because he is in pain or flinching because he has had enough!

We made the decision to continue with a referral to Newmarket Equine Hospital for further investigations, and booked him in for a Bone Scan to see if we could find out the exact area where he was in pain so we could treat it.

We packed his bags and drove him down to Newmarket where he was booked in for a weeks stay of investigations and a bone scan. Unfortunately, we were still coming out of lockdown, and we were unable to go into the stable block with him to say goodbye. For the whole week whilst he was there, I don’t think I concentrated on anything other than wondering what they were doing to him, or looking forward to the time the vet was going to give us an update. The vets were INCREDIBLE there, answering any questions we had and dealing with our emotions. Multiple times the vet had both me and my mum on conference call or the vet had to repeat themselves to us at different times of day.

After a few different inconclusive investigations, the vets blocked and scanned his hind suspensory ligaments – BINGO – he improved significantly when they were blocked, and the scans showed pretty bad degeneration in both. By this point, we had gone through a lot of ‘inconclusive’ diagnoses, and I think that finally finding something felt like a relief to me. Its hard to describe the mixture of feelings I had at that time. A diagnosis of knackered suspensories is obviously sinking, but we also had had a long period of time ‘not knowing’ which is equally as demoralising.

We decided to go down the route of injecting his hocks with Steroid which has been proven to be quite successful in horses with suspensory problems. We picked him up, and after a couple of days of box rest we were told to crack on. We walked (ridden) for 10 minutes for 3 days and he felt SUPER. I was so happy we had found the source of his pain and could make him comfortable.

3 days later, he came out of his stable unable to weight bear on his right hind. It was terrifying to see. I thought he had broken a bone or something similar. After all we had been through, I was scared to think there was something else that we now had to deal with. Whilst waiting for the vet he loosened up a bit, but the trot was pretty horrific. I have kept the video on my phone and its horrible to watch. We immediately took him back to Newmarket.

He had the same scans, blocks and investigations as before, and some new ones. His right hind was improving with box rest, which was a relief to hear. He arrived 6/10 lame, and after a few days of rest he had improved to 3/10. We made the decision to do one last day of tests, and if they couldn’t find anything, we would bring him home and continue to rest and see if that would help. It was an emotional decision to make.

I think we all know our horses will get old – and if your horse is a ‘horse for life’ you accept that you may have to go down this route at some point. Retirement wasn’t something I expected to think about for at least a few years yet. Pepsi is more than just a horse for me. Like I have spoken about before, he has got me and my family through some dark dark times, and has been there when we needed a routine, a smile or ‘something to fill the weekend’ when you have those periods of time in your life when you NEED to keep busy – you know what I’m talking about! To make decisions for your horse’s welfare over your own enjoyment is hard and brave. Having Pepsi in his stable/field for 10 years to come means more to me than maybe being able to ride him for 1 year and only have him in his stable/field for 2 years.

On the final day of testing, the vet blocked his hip. Hip arthritis is really uncommon in horses, but there we were seeing improvement in his movement after blocking it. It’s a really hard joint to assess, x ray and medicated because of its position and the amount of tissue/muscle around it. A 100% diagnosis is impossible, so we came away with ‘suggested arthritic changes’ in his hip joint. Its pretty unknown how he suddenly went so uncomfortable, but they suggested that he had tweaked it in his stable, or it may have been linked to his suspensories as a way of compensating. And because we had fixed them, this now flared up.

Because he had his hocks injected with steroid the previous week, we couldn’t risk injecting more due to his previous issue with EMS. We took him home to rest and he had an appointment to go back to Newmarket in July for a re assessment and possibly an injection.

We were allowed to hand walk during this ‘waiting period’ to keep him moving. His bloods came back clear (to test for EMS) and he was able to make the trip back to Newmarket. He had the injection in his hip and returned home looking even more like a patchwork quilt than when he left!

July to September was a blur. Combined with a heatwave, a new job, persuading myself that I didn’t miss riding (that’s a whole other story), and multiple steps backwards, forwards and in every other direction, we finally managed a 10 minute walk round the farm.

October we managed a 45 minute hack round our shortest circular route

We continue to re-assess before moving forward, and right now he is in a good place. We know when to take it slow, or give him an extra few days off if he is feeling tired. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for him (I am sure), he is living the semi-retired life and there is no pressure.