10/23/2025
Ember and I have taken some time off… a whole year off from endurance riding, and she has just been hanging out in the pasture other than a couple trail rides (literally two I think all year). But yesterday we went on the first ride in months! She isnt exactly well groomed and looks a bit disheveled 😂 but i gave her a good check over and she was good to go. This is my friend Nancy (to those who don’t know… my name is ALSO Nancy🤪). We had a great ride on her property!
I got some bad news last spring about the lump in Ember’s neck. All this time I’ve had her (since Sept 2020) I’ve thought that lump was an old scar tissue muscle knot. She did live in the wild for 9 yrs prior to gather. Body workers, chiropractors… all tossed their speculations in the hat and Ember has been worked on accordingly to help free up that stiffness in her neck. With prescribed specific stretches I was able to achieve a better level of mobility in her neck so it all seemed to align she had this horrible muscle knot!
August 2024 I was riding her in the round pen, and we were loping and she FELL! Whole hind end went out and she went down onto her side! My leg was banged up but I was able to scramble out from under her once she rocked onto her sternum. She looked embarrassed. I felt bad because I thought she must have tripped. So I let her trot a bit without me on her, she was completely sound… so I asked for a lope and she got about 3 strides and down she went again! In the same place! The round pen is not used often and had some clover growing over the loose sand and all I could figure was the wetness of the clover made her slip? But it definitely rattled me!
We were set to go on the Redwood Endurance ride in Otis CA in just a week after that. I was worried I missed something so I was able to get her an appt with a chiropractor before we headed south. He noted she had an odd ‘base narrow’ stance in the hind and said she was possibly not as free in her pelvis as a ‘normal’ horse would be. But at that point he couldn’t find anything sore or off and said forward motion on my ride would be fine as long as she didn’t have any other issues.
Off we went and it was a WONDERFUL RIDE (see the post from last year).
Fast forward to this spring… a veterinarian chiropractor (we had seen her for veterinary care once years ago prior to her obtaining her chiropractic license so she had not assessed any soundness questions on Ember) was coming to do a satellite clinic and I got Ember in. What she immediately identified under that thick mane was NOT a soft tissue scar mass… but instead a boney calcification of her cervical vertebrae (c5/c6)!!!!! 😩😭 My heart sank! 💔
Instead of a good throrough adjustment, Ember ended up getting a neuro exam. And she failed. She has poor proprioception in her right hind. Likely due to pinching of the spine which strangely she said the further forward the injury the farther back on the body the neurological deficit can show up. She basically doesn’t know where that leg is in time and space.
Traveling forward at a pace of a walk/trot, she manages very well. But traveling at a lope on a bend, she can’t always get that leg where it needs to be in timing, hence the fall(s).
BUT, along with future further diagnostics, we have a plan!!!!! She has some mild arthritis starting in one knee, and I had questioned the use of Pentosan. Vet’s eyes lit up! “Oh that’s a GREAT idea! That would actually probably help a lot with her neck as well! We’ve seen good results with Adequan and Pentosan in these types of injuries!” So we will start a Pentosan regiment along with a more aggressive approach to our physical therapy (LOOOOOTS of carrot stretches, hill work in hand, pressure point work to stretch the back, etc). Hopefully we can get to a good place by spring and dive back in to endurance riding!
I’ve invested in a nice smaller trailer which will make it more feasible for me to travel more! Lugging the heavy steel framed three horse around with just one horse in it didn’t make sense! Ember will load into anything so I’ve invested in a completely custom little two horse straight load with a nice little walk in front tack/dressing room. Aside from being smaller/lighter, it was rarely ever used and stored in a climate controlled shop its whole life! What a find!
