Things always seem to happen all at once, right? Last week, Chance was off for the first time in about a year. It doesn’t seem to be anything serious, we are thinking just a mild tendon strain. I am still riding him lightly, and he gets Surpass and a standing wrap afterwards. He felt much better yesterday and today, just not quite 100%. He was never “head-bobbing” lame, but just a little off on a tight right circle. If he is not back to normal after this week, he will probably get some shock-wave therapy. He strained his suspensory in his other leg a few years ago; shock-wave therapy really helped.

Besides the injury, he colicked for the first time since I have had him last week. That too was mild, thank goodness. He went to the vet, and they did not find any impactions or sand in his belly. It was likely just due to the drastic weather change we had last week. They also could not find anything wrong with his leg.

Besides that, he has lost a bit too much weight this winter – and it seems some muscle mass as well. The vet did some blood work on him a couple of weeks ago, along with flexion tests. He was perfectly sound for all of the flexions; however, the vet thought his hind end was a little weak so he wanted to test him for EPM and Cushing’s. He came up negative for EPM, luckily. He was “elevated” for Cushing’s, but not enough to be of concern. Everything was pretty normal otherwise, so we are going to just keep an eye on him and see if he improves this spring. Chance always seems to lose a little weight in the winter, this year just seems a bit worse. He is not skin and bones or anything, he is just a little thinner than my trainer and I like our hunters! He is at a healthy weight, just not his usual.

I am not sure if any of these problems are related. They do not seem to be. As I have written before, he has had lameness issues in the past but none in about year. His recent soreness came up very suddenly, and has been improving so I really do think he just did something to himself in the pasture. As for the colic and weight loss, I am hoping they are just thanks to wintertime.