09/12/2026
On this episode of Pony Time: "Is my pony lame?" Laree the Miracle Pony came to us with bit of a limp on his right rear hock. Dr Daniel came out to check him out for us. She said that his muscles were weak, which was causing him to limp after a short ride. We exercised him and stretched out his joints like the doctor prescribed. Once we had him in better shape, we noticed that Laree's saddle would slide to the left when we rode him and that he would lope clockwise, but would not lope counter-clockwise. We found a significant scar on the back of Laree's left rear long pastern as can be seen in the picture below. Now let me clarify: I only have to go to school for 6 more years to be a vet, but what I learned from my own injuries is that sometimes you can hurt one leg and start to compensate with the other and you have a new or another injury to deal with because you used the good leg improperly to support the bad leg. I am pretty sure that is what happened with Laree. The injury to his left rear ended up hurting his right rear leg (hock area as can be seen in the video). So why was his saddle slipping to the left? I believe Laree started compensating with his shoulders to help carry the weight from his hind end. Laree's shoulders are very uneven. The uneven shoulders cause the saddle to slip. If you want to check your horse as we did Laree, sit on him ba****ck about six inches farther back than you normally do. Put one of your hands on each of his shoulders and have someone else lead lead him along. If your pony has uneven shoulders it will be very obvious. So now what? Well Laree is going to have to be exercised some more. He is going to have to be worked counter-clockwise to build those muscles. To help him, he has a new shim saddle pad that we are fine tuning and a shorter chinch so the saddle is pulled down a little more level with the new pad. If you look at the two pictures with the sweat marks you can see where there is a dry mark near his shoulder on one side and not the other. This shows where Laree is lacking muscle. So is my pony Lame: Yes: he is. The definition of lame is: "a horse with an abnormal walk, trot, or standing posture caused by pain, injury, or mechanical dysfunction in its limbs or body." Larees lameness comes from a mechanical dysfunction caused by an injury. Is he in pain? No: he is not in pain. Can he be ridden? Yes: he can be ridden. We will get tired faster then he should to start with? I know it. So we will work him, take care of him and love on him. This is his home. Stay tuned for more of Laree the Miracle Pony adventures and get out and get you some PONY TIME!!!
