This is my pretty girl, Mocha. I bought Mocha in January, and we've been trying to figure out what's wrong with her feet ever since. By way of background, Mocha has supposedly always had some behavioral problems when asked to canter, particularly on the left lead. I never thought this was behavioral, I always believed that it was a pain response. I recently moved her (beginning of March) from another boarding barn where I was having some difficulty keeping weight on her, she had severe sole bruising in all four hooves and extreme soreness in her topline. I tried to rule out saddle fit to no avail. I had her teeth floated, which was never done before. She had some corrective shoeing done and pads put on and regular chiropractic care was instituted. She was coming along nicely by picking up needed weight and muscle through light riding and ground work. Her back soreness was diminishing, although she still experiences some from time to time. Her feet were getting better, until she was re-shod. Lameness in her front left, and possibly right, presented and continues off and on for the past month.
The day before the lameness presented again we had a terrible lesson and she bucked extensively when asked to canter. The next morning she came up lame. She was rested for 3 days and lameness went away. I did ground work with her, and she was acting terribly. She didn't want to lead out of the paddock and when lunging, she was not her usual responsive self and was galloping around out of control. I attributed this to the nice weather and our first groundwork session outside. However, she came up lame again the next morning.
My conversation with the vet let me to believe that she thinks this is a chronic problem and will likely not be able to be healed, but instead management is our best option. I need to be able to establish trust and respect with Mocha and be able to listen when she is trying to tell me that she is in pain. Sometimes I believe she is misbehaving, or anticipating pain when there really isn't any. But, as I am unable to tell the difference, I feel like we are never going to get anywhere building a trusting, respectful relationship or progress in our training. I wouldn't trust or respect anyone who hurt me whenever they were around!
X-rays are being taken today to try determine the cause. I have my fingers crossed that she is not diagnosed with pedal osteitis.
