soundness

Last week Tonka’s veterinarian, Monika, and her vet tech in training, Sara, came out to do some work on him. Tonka was due for maintenance to keep his body functioning well: shockwave over his back, and hock injections. Because Tonka recently has shown signs of that intermittent left-front lameness returning, […]

Training Horses for Veterinary Visits

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Tonka had four days off last week, and when I got back on him he was gimpy. He mostly worked out of it, but if you looked closely you’d see a small head bob when he tracked left at the trot. This intermittent lameness is so frustrating! It’s difficult to […]

Not Quite Sound

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Tonka has a history of having issues with the canter. When I got him, he had no stamina for it. Once around the ring and he’d peter out. As we progressed in our dressage Tonka was able to do a first level test without breaking stride, but the judges always […]

Hill Work as Physical Therapy

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I have a client who is new to horses. She started riding lessons in her 50s, was immediately enthralled, and only a few months after first sitting in a saddle she purchased a horse. She found a horse (let’s call him Bo) who looked to be safe to be around, […]

Flip the Perspective

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Tonka sometimes feels off. The veterinarian has had a look, and then another. The slight gimpyness isn’t enough to come up with a clear diagnosis, or even to be exactly sure where the unsoundness is coming from. This isn’t a new problem. It keeps rearing its head. Or should I […]

Sound to Ride

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Last week Tonka was feeling wonderful. He was going sound and letting me know that he felt good. I blogged about it. Jinx! I had that fun jumping lesson, and then two great rides over the weekend. Tonka was forward, balanced, doing enthusiastic canter work, and was supple across his […]

Calm Hoof Soaking

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What with the coffin joint injections and a change in shoeing, Tonka has been sound. However, I felt that there was something not quite right. We had the occasional buck and resistance at the canter transitions. To me it felt like he got stuck and couldn’t step into it.   Tonka’s […]

Feeling (Too) Good

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Back in August, Tonka went lame in the left front. Monika, Tonka’s veterinarian, deduced that it was coming from the coffin joint. Radiographs didn’t show anything dramatic, but she thought that there was a slight tip to the angle of the coffin bone that might be the cause of Tonka’s […]

Coffin Joint Progress

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Back in August Tonka went lame on his left front. Monika, our veterinarian, took a look and determined that the likely culprit was a sore coffin joint. (Read about that here.) We decided to try injecting it with a cocktail of drugs. It worked! Tonka moved happily once again. (This […]

Shoes for Coffin Joints

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