Little Progress

Nakai’s progress ebbs and flows depending on the day. Last week he looked well: he moved out easily, no hip drop, and had quite a bit of spunk whilst free lunging. However, after a walk (really, a jig) with friends on Sunday he began dropping his hip noticeably again. The worst part is that he feels fine under saddle, so I did not notice until I untacked and free lunged for a few minutes.

We’ve been walking for almost 5 weeks now and just started whispering for trot. The request comes through like a bang, though, and 9/10 times Nakai tries to gallop off from a walk. He tosses his head, gnashes his teeth and groans. He’s terribly bored and determined to launch himself at Mach 5 into anything I ask. After Sunday’s ride it’s obvious he’s not ready for trotting yet… riding with friends is an excitement we can’t afford to have I guess.

Everything I’ve read on SI Joint issues points to most horses never making it back to their normal workload prior to the injury. While the Chiropractor stated that he was better than the first time, I feel it’s taking twice as long to recover and I’m wondering if I should just retire him now. He’ll be “29” in March, although it’s possible he’s even older.

I’m selfishly not ready to retire Nakai. The reduction in work also means my social life has tanked. Between work and Ben I have very little free time as it is, and now I’m unable to ride out with friends. I ride solely by myself, letting Mulder sniff and snoop while Nakai and I walk our loop of boredom for an hour. I can no longer participate in NACMO and my team travels to rides without me. The reality of elderly horses means realistically I knew this would have happened sooner or later; I just didn’t think it would happen at a time when I really, really need the mental escape that riding provides.

The other side to the coin is that I think it’s nearing time to remove Nakai’s right eye. He has been blind for a few years now and the eyeball itself has caused zero issues. He hasn’t had an ERU flare up since going blind. The eye has shrunk and looks more cone-y in appearance than round. The significant issue is that his tears now gather in the corner of his eye rather than traveling down the lid and out. The tears and eye boogies get crusty and I’ve been fighting small, chronic sores on his bottom eyelid for about a year now. While medicine helps heal them, they’ve increased in frequency and are becoming a bother for him.

Ben will be admitted for his stem cell transplant in early January and will spend a minimum of 4 weeks in the hospital. Barring any setbacks, I’m tentatively planning on having Nakai’s eye removed in March. Once the eye is removed, Nakai will have until the beginning of a summer for work. If he does not significantly improve and recover from his SI Joint I will retire him.

The Good Eyeball

 

Tweaks

About two-ish weeks ago, Nakai came up lame at trot. A Holy-right-hip-dropping-swinging-leg-out kinda lame.

Naturally, I have no idea what caused it. It’s likely he did something stupid in the pasture… and probably made things worse because he just loves to buck, kick, hop, and fart on the lunge line. I try to lunge him for a short 3-5 minutes, mostly to capture video and see whether his lameness was better or worse only to find myself death gripping the lunge line and growling at Nakai to knock it the hell off.

He had two massages in the following week and felt normal, so I gave him another week off and had an awesome ride over the weekend. Excited to have a job again after 2 1/2 weeks off, Nakai (as usual) put too much effort into the ride. I rode 4 miles with a significant warm up and extended cool down. He felt GREAT!

Monday rolls around and he’s off again. It’s not nearly as bad this time, but still noticeable.

Sigh.

Another massage. We agree it’s deep muscle and while the massage may provide temporary relief, it’s not doing anything to help him recover.

The chiropractor came out Wednesday night, 1.5 hours after my appointment time. Supposedly it was due to traffic, and while I understand that sometimes shit happens I told M that she better have magic hands or this will be the first and last time I use her.

Nakai’s lower back and hip on his right side were incredibly locked down and tight. She used 3″ long acupuncture needles and two muscle areas were so tight she had to wait for the muscles to relax before twisting them in fully.  It was fun to watch; the chiropractor would run her hand along, find a joint that needed to be adjusted, and quickly snap it back into place. Nakai’s eyes would pop open momentarily before closing in bliss. He lasted just after the first needle before dramatically yawning, sighing, and licking his lips.

She reported that while he was sore and tight, there didn’t seem to be anything significant wrong and agreed with our theory of him having tweaked it in the fields. His pelvis, hocks, and stifle were great. I was instructed to give him another 5 days to 1 week off and then start walking him under saddle, starting with a very conservative 10 minutes and building from there. As long as he isn’t sore the following day she said to slowly increase the time walking with instructions not to let him trot or move out faster until he’s healed.

Of course, short of stall rest I can’t do a damn thing about how he decides to traverse the pastures. He likes to trot up and down the hill and I know he’ll do that regardless. The main concern is keeping his muscle tone. I’m disappointed but know it could be worse; I’ve been awfully lucky in the lameness department.

Silver lining? I was planning on starting to teach Mulder how to ride out with us this fall…and this is the perfect way to start…

Guess I have a thing for spots