Well, I’ve briefly updated Bear’s blog, but Lola’s post is a bit more complicated. While Bear had a summer sitting in pasture, Lola’s summer was a little more like a long hard day full of emotional turmoil and dinosaur fights (my favorite quote from Meet the Robinsons). :) Basically I had the best bad news ever.
Lola’s nervous choppy trot seemed to be turning into explosive canter departs on the lunge line, and a general inability to work productively due to what seemed to be nervous, anxious, and overall negative energy. Mix into this some of the most productive and impressive rides I’d ever gotten out of her. Total craps shoot every day. I mean she gave me the best relaxed and on the bit trot I had ever gotten from her while enormous tractors were mowing down the 5 foot weeds all around the edge of the arena. Seriously, what horse behaves that well! Then other days she was like a bottled up rocket. I was pulling my hair out trying to sort out what I thought was a training issue. And then the life-changing event took place.
One evening, about 5 minutes into lunging she bucked when asked to pick up the canter, and then just wanted to stop. She seemed dead set on not behaving, she was nervous and dripping in sweat. I didn’t have a clue what was happening. I tested her out at walk trot and canter thinking anything under the sun. Maybe she hurt herself. Maybe she’s being super naughty. Maybe she’s just plain gone crazy. She looked stiff and slow. She looked like each step was getting smaller until she was jogging like a western pleasure horse. So with the trot-canter test failed, I thought maybe I could walk her out of this. Nope. Still dripping sweat, still stiff, and also shaking uncontrollably. So after maybe 10 minutes of desperately trying to figure it out, I was slammed in the face with the reality that something was seriously wrong. She was still sweating and shaking, and once she stopped, she was stuck there, couldn't move. Anyway, one complete and total emotional breakdown, and one emergency vet visit later, I got the best bad news ever. Sounds like she has PSSM, and simply put, she can’t metabolism feed high in starches. Feeds like the corn, oats, and barley grain, and the oat hay I was feeding her over the summer. Or the feeds with high sugar content like all the spring grass she was eating while in pasture up until May. Basically, since I’ve had her, I’ve been feeding her stuff that would trigger symptoms. These symptoms can include muscle tightness, a stiff choppy stride, reluctance to canter, a nervous or uptight demeanor due to just plain being uncomfortable, and most severely, PSSM horses will tie up, which is what happened that night. So good news from the bad news, once diet is managed something like more than 75% of horse have no more symptoms, a noticeable change in gait, and no more episodes of tying up! That one night sucked, I’m not going to lie, but I count myself lucky to have figured out she needed a diet change.
So long story short, I have a whole new horse. Well, not exactly, I have my good version of Lola. I had glimpses of her all along. My trainer had commented back in May that she seemed to need a 45 minute warm up before she could really work and use her body, like she just couldn’t do it early in the ride. The first time she saw her after the summer she commented on how different she moved, and that her muscles even looked less tight and contracted. Amazing difference! Canter departs are no longer a source of anxiety for her. She’s got better quality gaits. She’s relaxed and happy to work. She’s the good Lola all the time now. Also have heard in the prognosis for diet change that it can take four to six months for the changes to be complete. After that, if the diet is working, its just plain working. So I don't think she'll have another tie-up episode, and she's moving loads better.
So that’s the major update. Lot’s more good stuff to follow!
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