Road to the Tevis Cup # 40: Update on Fantazia’s soundness

My last post about Fantazia was all about identifying her mysterious injury. She had come up slightly lame in the right hind at the Cuyama Oaks xpride, apparently recovered, and then been pulled at 19 miles at 20 Mule Team. By the time I got her to the vet two days later, her lameness was undetectable. At the time of that last post about her well-being (the one before this one is about ponying), my next step was to take her to a sports medicine chiropractor. In this post, I will give an update on Fantazia’s soundness and current training regime.

Jump to:

Trip to the chiropractor
Dealing with saddle fit
The Ortho-Flex Express Light saddle
A test of her current soundness

Trip to the chiropractor

My boyfriend helped get Fantazia an appointment with a sports medicine specialist who happened to be an old friend of his. It took a while, because Jeff was working on the East Coast. He fit us in on a Saturday, when he was home in Santa Ynez for a weekend.

Jeff watched Fantazia move, did flexion tests, ran his hands all over her. He found everything my vet had (including the coffin joint issue, despite the fact that we had injected it), and a few more things (an old muscle injury to the right buttock–semitendinosus–; some muscle soreness in different places). But, nothing serious. He said she looked and moved great, if a bit unbalanced. She was still sore along her topline and in back, especially on the right.

He worked on her until she was flexi-horse. I don’t know the pressure points chiropractors use to do this, but a horse can be made to bend to an incredible degree. At least, it can if it is pain-free. When Jeff started, Fantazia couldn’t bend her neck to the right well (she’s always been stiffer on that side), and she couldn’t flex her topline much either way. I should have taken pictures of the curve of her spine/body when he was done!

My instructions?

Two days of rest, 2-4 more days of light work, then back to our regular training. He suggested I ask my vet to look at her stifle and hip (ultrasound) if she had more problems. And he seconded my vet (and many others) on starting her on Adequan.

So what was the problem?

Well, it’s still a bit of a mystery, because we never pinpointed the problem. Saddle fit was definitely an issue everyone agreed on. Both vet and chiropractor thought the most likely explanation, given the history, was simply a pulled muscle or just slightly more pain from topline on one side. Yes, other things could have gone wrong… ligament attachment at top, stifle (though no evidence no matter how much they prodded and flexed), hip. Fantazia also has minor problems, coffin joints being the only one detectable in actual “lameness” (and that only after flexing, and almost undetectable). Adequan will help. Conditioning will help (the stronger she is, the less stress on joints, etc). Good saddle fit will help.

Dealing with saddle fit

The Reactor Panel saddle

The primary suspect for the cause of her lameness was saddle fit. Fantazia’s topline was very sore, and upon inspection, I could tell it did not fit. Partially this was due to Fantazia’s weight loss, but I suspect it was never a perfect fit. I worked with Dana Gasner of Reactor Panel to try to fix it. Dana took one look at my pictures and told me to remove shims and move the discs. I did this, and the fit was better, but I wasn’t satisfied that I could get the back discs far enough forward to stay safely in her weight-bearing zone without being too much underneath my own weight.

I love the Reactor Panel saddle for me. (See my post about it.) It is very very comfortable to ride in. But it has never been absolutely perfect for Fantazia. It moves a tiny bit back and quite a bit forward, especially when riding on steep hills. I thought it wasn’t a problem, because she had never complained or been sore. But evidently it was. After she came up lame again at 20 Mule Team, I decided to try other options.

Note that I am not 100% convinced the RP couldn’t be made to fit, with an expert fitter. If the new saddle I’ve got on trial doesn’t work out, I might try to get someone from Reactor Panel to fit it to her. But I think the new saddle might work.

The Ortho-Flex Express Light saddle

In an amazing and lucky coincidence, some new friends were showing us their tack room and they mentioned they had a saddle they wanted to sell. I had noticed that their saddles were endurance saddles (they trail ride), so I said I was looking for a saddle and asked to see it. It was an original Ortho-flex saddle, the Express Lite model (though I didn’t know this until I asked on the AERC Facebook page). It looked like the right size. I took it home to try it on Fantazia.

More amazing luck, it seemed to fit perfectly when I set it on her. Even more importantly, when I rode in it for the first time, it did not budge backward or forward, even though I rode up and down very steep hills. (See our terrain in my post about riding the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.) I didn’t even have to tighten the girth that much.

The Ortho-flex wasn’t perfect though. I found it really uncomfortable to trot in, and I was worried about the points of the saddle and panels rubbing her loin. I asked about this potential problem on the AERC Facebook page, and got a lot of feedback. (See the post and discussion here.) Some people love the saddle, some hate it. Some had had problems with the panels rubbing, some had not. Of those who had rubbing, some had managed to solve it with different pads.

Read my recent post about this saddle, after nearly two years.

Below: the Ortho-flex saddle doesn’t budge, no matter how steep the hills we ride.

I got a lot of good advice, and decided to give the saddle a chance. Shortening the stirrups helps with my comfort. I may also change to English leathers, or even experiment with my Zaldi saddle’s fendered leathers. It’s very comfortable at the walk and canter/lope, fortunately. But it will never be as comfortable to trot in as the Reactor Panel. On the plus side, it’s the perfect color for Fantazia!

A test of her current soundness

Last Saturday we rode 19.20 miles with a total of 4,350 feet elevation gain. It wasn’t fast–4 hours 38 minutes moving time (almost five hours total). But it was challenging. To give you an idea, the 19 miles we did at 20 Mule team was (according to my Garmin) had a total elevation gain of 1,654. Of course, we went fast! (Two hours 10 minutes moving time.)

If Fantazia were going to get sore, either as a sequela of her prior injury or due to the new saddle, she would have done so Saturday. She was not at all sore after the ride or the next morning. I gave her five days off, and then rode her to pony Beroni. We walked a mile, trotted 5 miles (at around 8.5 mph), and walked a mile. Fantazia was sound and energetic.

An added bonus

I can’t give an update on Fantazia’s soundness and overall health without mentioning that she’s regained all the weight she lost due to refusing to eat at rides. Partly it’s probably due to having a training break, but mainly it’s due to her coming in heat. She did not really start eating well again (she’d been leaving her Purina Ultium Gastric care ever since 20 Mule Team) until she came in season.

This was An Event, because Fantazia had not come in heat that I could tell since I got her last June. This despite living next to two mares who have been cycling normally (generally mares pastured with or near each other will end up all cycling around the same time).

When she came in heat, Fantazia started eating. A lot. She wanted twice as much hay. She gobbled down everything I gave her. And when I rode her, she spent the entire time trying to grab grass.

Of course, the crazy appetite faded in a week, but she is still eating better than before, and she’s gained a lot of weight.

What about our overall plan?

I plan to do 50 miles at the Wild West Pioneer ride in mid-June. We may do the LD the next day, or I may take my gelding Beroni to do it. If we complete the ride, I will have the 300 miles needed to enter Tevis. If I believe Fantazia can do it, I will enter at that point (if there are still spots). Just have to wait and see. The important thing is that she continues to stay sound and eager to go down the trail.