Giant Steps Therapeutic Riding

It's timely that a few blogger friends recommended rehoming Wilbur to a Therapeutic Riding Center because my coworkers and I spend the day last Friday volunteering at Giant Steps up at Sonoma Horse Park. It was the perfect day to spend time rebuilding the "sensory trail" and even having the opportunity to act as side walkers for a session.
Wilbur may be a little too young and spooky for that kind of work. As I threw my first shovelful of gravel I immediately looked up, concerned that I had spooked horses in the lesson. Those guys are stoic and didn't bat an eye.
I ran over to KMC before we left to say a quick "hello" to my favorite Ben!

A Little Buck & A Little Rear- The Injections Took!

Wilburman was discharged today and I just got a text from Marlene that they made it home safely. He and Lulu were swooning together but poor Marlene thinks she has food poisoning- she said the drive home was torture. Ummm a three hour drive pulling a horse with food poisoning sounds beyond horrific.

I felt a bit like a loon but drove up anyway this morning to arrive when Pioneer opened to give Wilbur some cuddling, leave his treats, and review the invoice and discharge papers. Despite the long drive and quick turnaround I was happy I stopped out. Natasha and I had the chance to jog him and behold- the higher dose freaking injections worked! Mostly. He looks to be serviceably sound with slight limp on the right fore. Let's not freak out- no false hopes. We don't have a hunter on our hands here.
But it's good to know that with the right maintenance that he could be a trail horse.

Now we wait. And visit once a month, throw him on a longe line, and see how long the injections hold for. Paul and I are going to make a little trip out of it- I'll need him to help video the progress. Crossing our fingers for six months!

Either way- he threw a few bucks and a tiny rear into his jog so I know he's feeling better now! And that's awesome!

Au Revoir Horseman's One Step

Things go missing at barns. Gear literally sprouts legs and wanders off never to be seen again. I was so excited to get my order from Smartpak- down to the last dregs of my Horseman's One Step. Best tack cleaner EVER! I used it once on Sunday then accidentally left it out.
No sign of it today- I checked by the barn saddle soap, in the lost & found, in the office. Poof!
I guess I've been lucky because I chronically forget to away all my things and up until now I've been able to track down the errant whip.
Smartpak labels all their individual items in shipments with the receivers name so I'm going to be giving the stink eye to anyone I see using One Step.
But in true barn fashion it likely just vanished. I know everyone has lost a thing or two at the barn- any good stories?

Ho Ho Ho: My Blogger Gift is Ready to Go!

Tracy over at Fly on Over is basically a genius and set up a Blogger Gift Exchange. What better way to take one's mind off of Wilbur? Shopping horse goodies for a new blogger friend!
I may look like an overachiever here because my gift is ready to go in the mail- but I'm actually leaving for three weeks on Saturday on work/ holiday trips. If it doesn't go out now, it's not going to.

As a disclaimer for whoever happened to get me.....I majorly misread Tracy's directions and included gift ideas I was going to get for my chosen blogger. I thought she was vetting us or something to make sure we really could come up with ideas for $20 bucks.
Do not get me that Ariat polo- I do not need more polos. Repeat, I do not need more polos!

I'll just add- staying within that price limit is tough apples. If it has a horse decal on it the price goes up exponentially. Personally, I had such a fun time being creative and gifting something that had a little story behind it.

MRI Results

Quite a few issues showed up on the MRI- some more concerning that others. And we did come to a decision on care. For journal purposes (clearly no expert here- info taken directly from my notes):

Right Front

• Articular Cartilage Defects in the Coffin Joint. Treatment: Surgery or Stem Cell. Result: Potentially rideable (i.e. not for sport). Bottom Line: Neither of these treatments are going to entirely reverse the cartilage damage. Because of his age and current ability we are not going to pursue treatment for the existing defects.  
• Synovitis- a thinning of the joint fluid which causes inflammation and continued degradation of the cartilage damage (the painful aspect). Treatment: Injections in the coffin joint every 3-6 months or IRAP (spinning his blood down to just the anti inflammatory proteins and re injecting into joint)  monthly for a period of time then moving into 3-6 month periods. Result: prevention of continued cartilage damage caused by inflammation in joint fluids. Bottom Line: unless we attempt to reverse the existing damage there is no reason to begin injections until he becomes uncomfortable. 
• Flattening of the Contylar Metacarpal fetlock bone. I have no real concept of what this means however it is not seen as significant. Treatment: injections once a year. Bottom Line: we're not moving forward with treatment.

Left Front

• Medial Collateral Ligament Injury (soft tissue) and Cystic Lesion on Coffin Joint. Treatment: Shock Wave therapy (3 sessions 2 weeks apart). Result: likely the same level of healing as if he was just given time off. Bottom Line: While he is lame in the left front he may heal from time off- we are not going to persue treatment. 
• Soft tissue thickening in the abaxial ligaments. I don't even know. Not significant. 

Yikes right? Luckily I had the opportunity to sit down with my vet and review all of findings, all of the treatment options, and all of the potential recovery scenarios. At the end of the day we have a very young, green horse with a chronic condition. He will not be fit for use as a sport horse and is best suited as a pasture pet with the occasional trail ride. 

Perhaps the situation would be different if he was a seasoned jumping veteran that we were trying to keep going. I don't think it's fair to Wilbur to put him through the ordeal of treating this to do a job that all indications show he may not be best suited for. And although it's selfish, it's not fair for me to go through the stress and expense involved in maintaining a horse that will only be able to go out on a quiet hack once in awhile. 

That being said- he is currently comfortable to stand out in pasture and my financials are such that I can continue to support his current arrangement at Marlene's farm (she is such a saint). We've decided to give him a year in pasture- a fair shake to heal up. We'll bring him back to Pioneer in a year to reevaluate- hopefully he is sound enough to be rehomed as a pastured buddy and/ or a light trail horse. If not we'll have to look at some decisions about quality of life in near and long term scenarios. Kelly has some feelers out so we may rehome him sooner than later. It's a hard decision to make knowing that when he leaves my care he's at the mercy of someone else but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

I'm sad for him and disappointed for us but at the same time, life isn't always roses. Tough choices were tossed around and I'm just glad he gets to go home to his favorite pasture mate, Lulu.