Two days ago, on Sunday afternoon, I thought Xena’s trot was a bit off. At the time, she dropped her head as she bore weight on her left front foot, which is not the normal rhythm of her trot. I once saw a lesson horse drop his head at the trot, and he turned out to be lame. So I immediately asked Xena to come to me, and I picked all four feet. Her feet weren’t sensitive to me handling them and she didn’t appear to be limping, so I thought perhaps she was just bothered by the arena soil clogging up her feet. We’ve only used the indoor arena a handful of times this summer.
Tonight was a different story.
She was noticeably lame as we walked into the barn from the paddock, so much so that Susan (our barn owner) commented on it. I picked her feet and she didn’t seem to be sensitive, as there was no flinching or pulling away. But when we did a test walk up and down the aisle, she had some difficulty turning to the left, and when going straight she extended her left front foot farther forward than her right foot with each stride. Susan examined her leg and it seemed fine; there was no heat or swelling, and we didn’t find any visible difference between the two front legs.
7:25 to 9:15 p.m. = 1 hour, 50 minutes
I decided against working her and instead did a bit of hand grazing and gave her a cool shower in the wash stall. As we walked back to the barn her limp was quite noticeable, but perhaps I was just imagining that it looked worse than an hour earlier.
Susan will check Xena closely tomorrow during morning and afternoon turn-in for grain, and I’ll be at the barn every evening until she shows improvement. We’ll wait and see what develops over the next day or two, because at the moment we can’t find anything specific that might be wrong. Susan is quite confident that we can rule out an abscess, because Xena’s condition has not had a rapid onset and she doesn’t appear to be in pain.
Xena’s dirt paddock has many small rocks, so I have my fingers crossed that it’s just a stone bruise, and that hopefully she’ll be better in a day or two.
Update: Lame — Day 3, Where does it hurt?.
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