Figuring out Fantazia’s lameness (Road to Tevis # 66)

Several people have asked why we didn’t start the 20 Mule Team 100 a few weeks ago. The answer is that Fantazia was lame on her right fore (75% of the time, per Dr. Mike Peralez). I haven’t blogged about it, because I’ve been waiting to know what to say. I wanted to have AN ANSWER. Figuring out Fantazia’s lameness has proven difficult, however… So I might as well work on this blog post.

Back story

I was very fortunate to have Dr. Peralez for my vet-in at 20 Mule Team, because he had vetted Fantazia in at Fire Mountain (she was 100% sound then). He had also seen her at about half of the vet checks for the two days I rode. (See my post about the Fire Mountain pioneer ride.)

Fire Mountain, Day 1

On the first day of Fire Mountain, on the second hold after loop 2, Dr. Peralez thought she was slightly off on her right fore. Not enough to pull, but he told me to watch it. We had just come in from a lot of trotting downhill. Not steep and the footing was excellent, but we had trotted long downhill roads fairly fast. (Fantazia’s comfortable trot at rides is 8-8.5 mph.)

Of course I was completely neurotic after Dr. Peralez said the L word. I trotted her in tiny little circles both ways, mounted and in hand, before heading out on the final loop. Nothing. I still went fairly slowly (6.9 mph average moving speed), and Fantazia was fresh when we finished. She vetted in with A’s on gait. I even stood for Best Condtion, mainly to get an in-depth vet check. All A’s on gait again.

However, I thought she was a bit footsore all over, or possibly arthritic. We hadn’t injected in months. It occurred to me that perhaps she wasn’t lame because she didn’t know which leg to favor. I decided to go slowly the next day, and watch closely.

Fire Mountain, Day 2

Day 2 was a 55. We did go slowly (in Fantazia’s book): Loop 1, average moving speed = 6.3 mph; Loop 2 = 4.5 mph. Fantazia was never lame, but yes stiff. Gait was A on all checks, and Dr. Peralez did the completion.

At home between rides

I gave Fantazia a full two weeks off before riding, and when I did ride, we just puttered around the place at a walk. When I did start to ride more seriously, she seemed fine. I did not condition much. She didn’t need it. We did some arena work, and a few short, hilly trail rides.

Above: Ever since we’ve been doing endurance rides once every 4-6 weeks, Fantazia and I take it easy between events. She has been very fit since last October, and she maintains her conditioning with very little work.

Just over two weeks before 20 Mule Team, I hopped on her to ride in from the pasture. I do this frequently because riding bareback is great for noticing gait abnormalities. Jogging downhill on hard ground reveals pretty much anything (in the front anyway). That day, she was lame. From the ground I couldn’t see it (my boyfriend couldn’t either), but I could feel it. I could also hear it on hard surfaces, not all of the time, but at least 50%. I wasn’t entirely sure which foot, but I thought the right. When I moved her in the round pen, she looked off on the left fore.

I didn’t ride that day, and determined to get her out the next day and if she was lame again, take her to the vet. She was not lame. We did an hour of arena work, and she was fine.

On February 15th, I rode out 18 miles in hilly terrain. We went slowly (average moving speed 3.8 mph) but did 4,235′ total elevation gain. I was neurotic about her gait. Mostly, she seemed fine, but a few times I thought she was off on the right fore. I decided to take her to the vet if she was lame the next morning. She was not.

Above: What would turn out to be our last long ride for a while, 18 slow miles in the hilly terrain near home.

20 Mule Team

Thursday before 20 Mule Team I rode her in the arena. We did lots of tight turns and circles at the trot and lope. We trotted down hills on hard surfaces. No lameness. However, I must admit that she was not moving as freely as she had just two days earlier. I attributed it to the weather: Tuesday had been very brisk and she was excited. Thursday was warm.

Now of course I think she was probably hurting on Thursday. Sadly, I did not trot her out before loading up Friday.

I did a 4-mile pre-ride on Friday, slowly (one hour). I didn’t notice any regular lameness, but maybe it was because she was excited.

Above: Waiting in line to vet in at 20 Mule Team.

She was most definitely lame when I trotted her out for Dr. Peralez a few hours later. He suggested I move her for 15 minutes and come back (we’d been standing in line). I did, but I wasn’t hopeful. She was at that moment as lame as I’d ever seen her. (On that right fore… past lameness due to muscle spasms had been worse! We were pulled at 20 MT last year after 19 miles. See my post about that time here.). I got on bareback, with the halter, and knew within a five minutes she wasn’t going to warm up out of it.

At the vet

On the Tuesday after 20 Mule Team, I took Fantazia to the vet (Dr. Doug Anez at Pacific Crest Equine). She was lame enough to block, so after manual exams, trotting in straight lines and circles, and doing flexion tests (everything was stiff after flexion), we blocked below the fetlock. After blocking, she was no longer lame on the right fore. Instead, she was lame on the left fore. Behind, she was stiff equally on both legs (hocks and stifles all reacted to flexion test).

Above: Fantazia being x-rayed at Pacific Crest Equine. I stay out of the imaging room–I’ve already been exposed to enough radiation for my own lesions! I did go in to be up close to the Ultrasound machine, so no pictures from that.

We then proceeded to do xrays and ultrasounds. There was nothing abnormal to be seen in the soft tissues (ultrasound). Dr. Anez saw one area on an xray he thought might be a chip, so he sent the images to Inside Information Radiology for a second opinion. They didn’t see any issues at all. Figuring out Fantazia’s lameness was not going to be easy.

You can scroll through a selection of the radiographs below if you are interested.

I took Fantazia back once Dr. Anez had the second opinion and we injected her coffin joints. I am currently waiting to see if that fixes the lameness. I lunged and rode her briefly five days after injecting to see where we were. She was still on bute, so I thought if she was still lame, I would just give up. She was very slight off–maybe 25% of the time. So I’ll wait a bit longer.

Above: slow motion video five days post-coffin joint injections. You can see slow motion to the left here.

More backstory

I should mention that both my vet and chiropracter identified coffin joints, hocks, and stifles as areas of concern last spring. We radiographed hooves, pasterns, and hocks. Nothing problematic. At that time, we injected hocks and coffin joints. Fantazia has been on Adequan since April 2021.

In short, this is really nothing new. I realized the first time I got on her, late June 2020, that she had seen hard use. When I met Fantazia as a five-year-old, she was as smooth as glass at the trot and canter. This was no longer the case years later. Late July, when I started riding again after Fantazia’s muscle spasm at the Wild West Pioneer Ride, I noticed stiffness and swelling in her hocks. That was the first ride–in the arena–after several weeks rest. I decided then I wanted to breed her rather than persist with our Tevis goal.

Yes, I still am going to do Tevis. But I am not going to break Fantazia to do it. There will be other horses!

Where we are now

I’ve known since last summer that Tevis wasn’t in the books for Fantazia. She will be bred next month. My mother is letting me use frozen semen from her Morgan stallion, Carlyle Command. I am going to make a Morab! However, even if all goes according to plan, it will be many years before the baby will be ready for endurance. At the moment I am trying to find a horse to lease.

Read about Jazz, the gelding I found to lease, on his first endurance ride, here: Second place and Best Condition: Jazz’s first 50

Jump to videos taken March 19th

Fantazia trotted sound this morning (March 18). Below you can see photos I took a few days ago (and below them, videos). The worst thing about this is that she was so very fit. Once she loses condition (and it’s already happening), it will be impossible to get her where she is now.

Update: Turns out eight months of pasture rest don’t mean much loss of fitness! Read about Fantazia’s return to work: Bringing a horse back into work after a break.

March 19 progress (?)