Road to the Tevis Cup # 38: Identifying Fantazia’s mysterious injury

On March 27th, the third day of the Cuyama Oaks xpride (and our second), Fantazia came up lame. Or, as Dr. Nicholson put it, she had a “slight hitch in her giddy-up.” I describe the ride thoroughly in my post about the benefits of using a heart rate monitor. It’s true that she really wasn’t that lame when we came in, she just looked a bit sore, and there was no way I’d have gone back out for the second loop. By the time I loaded her in the trailer not two hours later, however, she was definitely lame. Since then I have spent a lot of time and money identifying Fantazia’s mysterious injury… Correction: trying to identify her mysterious injury.

Mysterious injury?

It wasn’t entirely mysterious.

Location was fairly clear

It was clearly a hind end lameness, and clearly on the right side. She was clearly sore all over, especially under the saddle. Sometimes it would look like she favored the left hind, when there was no obvious lameness. But when she was clearly lame, it was the right. It was also, in my opinion as rider and viewer, from on top. It felt like an SI (sacroiliac joint) issue, but that is really really difficult to tell.

Often upper-body soreness is secondary to lower leg issues. Fantazia could have sore hocks (typical) or stifles or something else entirely. And given that it was acute–a new injury, caused, I was almost certain, from cantering sideways up a hill (my post about heart rate monitors explains in detail)–it was less likely to be secondary. But you never know.

It was an acute injury.

Or injuries. Fantazia had never been sore under the saddle before that ride. She was sore after the first day… after someone on the AERC Facebook page suggested saddle fit, I consulted with a Reactor Panel representative–Dana Gasner. She confirmed that the saddle did not fit properly. However, this wouldn’t cause one side to be worse than the other, so I knew it was more than saddle fit.

(See my post about finding the right saddle… which I may not yet have done!)

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The soreness under the saddle was there after the first day, but the lameness wasn’t. Thanks to my heart rate monitor readout, I knew that she was in pain after cantering sideways up a very steep slope, putting a lot of load on that right hind. I am 99% certain that was when the injury happened.

Fantazia had never been lame. When I first brought her home, she felt just a bit crooked; she preferred one lead, and was reluctant to bend to the left. Her right neck and shoulder were less flexible. I stretched her every day, and worked on flexibility. The crookedness went away completely, although her right side has never been as loose as the left.

But it came and went.

The day after I drove home from Cuyama, she was still slightly lame in the morning. By the next morning (Monday), she trotted completely sound. She was sound on asphalt and in deep sand, in big and small circles and going straight. On Tuesday, I ponied her: one mile walk, 2 miles mile trot, 1.5 mile walk. We trotted up a steep hill. No lameness (my boyfriend videoed it). I discarded the idea of taking her to a Sports Medicine specialist in Santa Ynez, and scheduled her an appointment with my local vet, just for bloodwork and general check up.

On Wednesday, I ponied her again. After 1.5 miles of trotting, I turned her to the left (usually I turn to the right), and when we picked up the trot again, she was lame. On Thursday, I ponied her at the trot for 3 miles, and she was not lame. On Friday we went to the vet.

At the vet.

My local vet, Dr. Doug Anez at Pacific Crest Equine, is also a lameness expert. I didn’t know I’d need that, so he was out when we got there for our appointment, but he graciously agreed to fit Fantazia in between his other appointments, once he got back to the clinic.

We spent a good two hours trying to figure it out. Once I told him the story (without including my opinions of where the injury was), I let Dr. Anez observe and form his own opinions without my input. He used computerized gait analysis (helps identify issues), joint flexion, trotting on hard surfaces and soft… Yes we found things, minor things. If you look hard enough you always will, with an older horse that has gone many miles. But she never showed the lameness I had taken her in for.

Diagnosis: saddle fit, muscle soreness, SI joint. Some slight issues we dealt with. I am lucky enough to have the farrier that Dr. Anez worked with for years, so they spoke and shared xrays of her feet. My farrier reshod her the next week. And yes, she moves better downhill now. Good things happened, but the problem was not solved.

Of course, I knew this, at heart. But when Dr. Anez said he thought she was good to go 65 miles at Twenty Mule Team the next weekend, I believed him because that’s what I wanted to hear. He of course was basing his advice on the horse he had in front of him.

The 20 Mule Team ride

Final week pre-ride

I rode Fantazia twice at home between the Cuyama Oaks ride and 20 Mule team. On Wednesday before 20MT, I got on to assess saddle fit and then rode at a walk up and down the driveway, about one mile. On Thursday I rode in our outdoor arena, which has deep footing. After warming up at a walk (see my favorite warm-up exercise here), we trotted one mile in each direction and cantered half a mile in each direction. She felt great and moved very well.

The next day we loaded up and drove to Ridgecrest. She was very worked up at the trailer, so after vetting in (all As, although A- on upper quadrants for gut… typical, she’s always a bit quiet on top) we went for a ride. About four miles: one mile walk, ~3 miles trot, then back to camp to cool down in hand. She moved well, and had no pain upon palpating her topline.

The first 19 miles of the 20MT 65.

I mounted up around 6:30 and walked Fantazia until the start. She really needs this, because she is so keyed up when I get on that she wants to explode. After half an hour, she relaxes. We also had a controlled start, and by luck Fantazia and I were in the front, right behind the ATV. She walked calmly, and when we were released, we stayed in the front.

Again, we were lucky. I let Fantazia trot at 8.5 mph, and for the first 5 miles or so, no one passed us. That is our dream ride–Fantazia wants to lead, and I want to go between 8 and 9 mph.

Because she’d had a chance to settle, Fantazia took other horses passing, when they did, fairly well. Yes, I had to check her constantly, but she was good. I let her cruise up to around 9.5 mph to keep from fighting with her. I only forced her to slow down when we encountered rocks.

Unfortunately, after about 14 miles, there were rocks. I insisted Fantazia walk (sometimes it was a jig) over the bigger ones. Just after 15 miles, her back feet slipped and scrabbled over some particularly large round stones (about 3-4 inches in diameter). She took a few off steps, but seemed ok.

As we went on, however, I could feel her unevenness in my lower back (always a tell). It was slight, but I made her slow down to under 8 mph. This occasioned some resistance. I still didn’t think she was lame, because I thought she was cantering behind (she does this when she wants to go)… Her heart rate was normal (around 100. It had been steady between 110 and 140 the entire morning, higher when going faster and uphill, but always normal). She was pulling and eager.

Vet check 1

Still, I wasn’t really surprised when the vet asked me if “this was normal” for her after her trot out (As for impulsion and attitude…). I hadn’t been looking behind me, and I couldn’t hear it. But I could sure see it when we repeated the trot out. Nope, not normal. A definitely pull. You can see her lameness in the video below.

Thank goodness I took that video. She became progressively less lame as the day wore on. By the time I headed home hours later, you had to be looking for it. (We completed the 19 miles in two hours and 8 minutes, but then had to wait for a trailer to get back to camp… Then I waited for my bag that I’d sent to Vet Check 2; finally gave up on that so I could get home in time for my nephew’s birthday celebration!)

Back home

By the next day, Fantazia was no longer noticeably lame. But she had a hard knot on top of the right hip. Muscle spasming to protect from pain, one presumes. I took some pictures. On Monday I called my vet, but he couldn’t see her till Tuesday.

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Back at the vet

Fantazia was, amazingly, noticeably lame when I took her out of the trailer. (Later I thought it might be because I backed her down the ramp.) Dr. Anez could also see it, so it wasn’t me being hyper-sensitive. He couldn’t see the lump though… I thought I could (so maybe I was being hyper-sensitive). He did see it in the pictures. Thank goodness I had taken them, and the video above.

Unfortunately, by the time they put the gait analysis equipment on her, Fantazia was trotting perfectly. (Which means it would do no good to block her to identify the cause of the pain.)

Most likely injuries, given her history: high suspensory ligament injury (all the power parts seems fine, but you cannot palpate the upper attachment) or pulled muscle.

Possible actions:

• Ride her until she gets lame, block her, ride her, see how it feels.
  • Problem? Will set any healing back. Might not work.
• Bone scan. $2000.
  • Problem? Can’t afford it, realistically.
• Give her a break, start building up slowly in a few weeks, see what happens.

What I am going to do next (told Dr. Anez): take her to a Sports Medicine chiropractor. See what he says. Go from there, which will probably look a lot like giving her a break and building back up. We will see.

And if anyone reading this has a suggestion (or two or three) please do share!!!

What about Tevis?

If the issue is not complicated (ie if I can start conditioning again in 5-6 weeks), Fantazia will be plenty fit to do Tevis. But I still do not have my 300 rider miles that I need to enter. I have 250. I would really appreciate a catch-ride, and would pay expenses. As soon as I hear the chiropractor’s verdict (if it’s not terrible) I will do my best to find one!

To compound my difficulties, the Montana de Oso ride has been cancelled. I’m trying to find someone to share a spot at the Wild West xpride. It’s closer to Tevis than I wanted, but Fantazia would need another ride… just not 200 miles in four days! Fifty miles, one day, would be enough. I thought about doing all four days, alternating riding Fantazia with riding my gelding, Beroni. He will definitely be ready for an LD by then. But that would be very expensive!

Below: Beroni has a lot to learn about the trail still!

It’s been a very difficult week, what with one thing and another. I absolutely don’t mind waiting a year to do Tevis. In fact, many times over the past eight months, I’ve thought that inevitable because of COVID and fires. But life has been getting very complicated lately, so making long term plans seems risky.