06/02/2026
Story time! Nine years ago, Tango showed at Sport Horse Nationals as a five-year-old – in his very first riding class he tripped in the canter and almost went down to his knees, somehow recovered beautifully and finished the ride and was perfectly fine. The next morning we jogged him out and he was sound, but when I got on to test ride a new saddle he was very slightly off. He had a few days before he showed again so I had a couple Bemer treatments done and poulticed for the night. The next morning I came into the barn to find him standing on three legs, extending his left front like he was going to die! Show vet, trip to NC State, and $800 later we discovered a very small nick at the back of his fetlock, but all tendons and joints appeared OK, so he was treated for acute cellulitis. Keep bandaged, stall rest a couple weeks, recheck by our vet. He recovered beautifully and we went on with our lives and forgot about it. 
Back in November Tango came in one morning with a thickness around his left tendon. It wasn’t hot, and it palpated a little sore, but he’s so touchy that he palpates a little sore on both front legs. Rested him for a couple weeks with no change, but he was 100% sound so put him back into work. Despite getting back into consistent lessons, our rides started to go downhill until finally during the holidays I just completely took him out of work and decided he needed to see the veterinary chiropractor. Because he was 100% sound, he just wasn’t doing right. Dr. Nicole Cunningham found his SI joint to be out of whack, most likely from a fall he had taken in the pasture in mid December. But he was also all stuck upfront from years of him holding me up and me holding him up and just compensating for my injured hip. So we completely went back to the beginning and started him on a very slow rehab program. The tendon was still thick, but didn’t seem to be bothering him so I figured I would just ask my vet during spring vaccines. Dr. Nicole Swinehart definitely agreed that we should have it scanned, but that was the same day my mom had her accident and so Tango got put on the back burner. 
Yesterday I was finally able to coordinate with Dr. Swinehart to scan the tendon and do a full lameness eval – and turns out I was not imagining things! Apparently years ago when he tripped at Nationals, he managed to slightly injure the deep flexor tendon right where the cut was on his fetlock. There’s a small amount of scar tissue that has not bothered him for the past few years, but he has since re-injured the tendon right in that same area. Most likely messing around in the pasture being stupid 🤦🏽♀️. On the plus side, the rehab we were doing for his muscles and joints was pretty much what we would have followed for the tendon, so he has been slowly healing over the past few months. We will keep on that program for the next 45 days, with one exception – no riding on uneven ground. Which unfortunately means no trail riding at Lynches River or anywhere on the farm that has an incline or deep sand/mud.
Tango has never been able to have a “normal” injury (he is, afterall, the only horse I’ve ever known to develop ankle warts 😆).
