The only thing which was in doubt today when I rode Ace was whether I was going to be able to dismount safely under my own steam, or whether he was going to deck me. I tried to ride him, but he was rearing and bucking as soon as I moved him into trot. I stayed on by hanging onto the handle I normally attach the jacket to. When he stopped I let him stand still until he was ready to move but as soon as he walked off he went off again, and again I held onto the handle to stay on. I decided to walk him off the arena and out to the road and go for a hack, but he would not even do that, and I knew I would have to get off if I could only get him to stand still so that I could. Thankfully I had not put the jacket on and so I did not need to unclip it, and I quickly jumped off while he went away bucking all round the arena by himself.
I put him onto the lunge so that he couldn't connect bucking and rearing with getting out of working, and he was looking back at his flanks the whole time. When I got up he had again been kicking at his belly and this really does seem to be a gut issue.
He is now in the barn full time and off the grass completely. If that does not calm down his stomach and allow him to be ridden, then we will cancel the back operation until such time as we can work out what the devil is making him so colicky when he is ridden. Without a saddle on he shows no sign of colic at all. And there doesn't appear to be any return of the tension that used to be so easy to feel in his back. He passed the most enormous pile of half digested grass I've ever seen a horse do, and I can only think, and hope, that he is simply overloading his gut overnight and giving himself a bellyache like a hungry boy let loose in an orchard.
Radar is out in the field at the moment and will come in to keep him company overnight, at about 8 o'clock. So for the next few days I am on winter routine in the middle of summer and can only hope that it produces the result we need. Because if it doesn't, then I am out of solutions and the next most likely answer is a serious gut problem like lymphoma.
If it is the answer, then Ace will have to wear a muzzle overnight, or stay off the grass completely until autumn.
What a bad day :-(
C
Glad you're still in one piece! Fingers crossed removing the grass is the solution. He really is a complex fella. He's lucky to have an owner diligent enough to realise his behaviour is pain response and have the facilities to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteJ's spending the summer in his outdoor mud pen too!
I am very lucky to have a barn he can live in and not have to be confined to a stable. So many horses are oversensitive to grass like ours :-(
ReplyDeleteC
Wowser! Scary situation, but when I consider how bad Tucker could be when he was suffering from the ulcers, I can totally sympathize. Here's hoping that keeping him off the grass is the answer.
ReplyDeleteBy the by, my theory would be that after being relatively pain free for so long, feeling pain again might well cause an overreaction. Now an "attack" is much more dramatic to him because it's not going from being a little uncomfortable to what he perceives as dreadful discomfort.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you both. Glad you got off safely.
I go with your theory Jean, he is more reactive to discomfort than he has ever been.
ReplyDeleteC