Sunday, March 13, 2011

A fall on Lola...

Had a very eventful weekend, to include a lesson. But I'll skip to what happened this afternoon. I went to a friend's place to ride, in a very good arena. I've been riding Lola frequently, building up her conditioning. On Saturday, my instructor commented on what a good horse Lola is and how she appeared to be sound. But she did stumble a few times while being worked. Breathe was there and saw it happen. In fact, Lola stumbles all the time. She is a "stumbling horse". I've been concerned she has some source of lameness, but nothing has been obvious,to me or the vet or the farrier.

Today, I was riding her in the arena, and working on her right lead. She seems to be left lead dominant, so I wanted to build up her right. We were cantering, hit a slightly deeper sand area, she stumbled and went down on her head. I leaped off when it was apparent she was going down. I suffered a minor scrape, and Lola bounced back up quickly. She was dripping blood from her mouth from a tear in her lip. I checked her mouth well, but there did not appearto be any interior mouth damage. She alsomwas not limping in any discernable way.

Lola is a "stumbling horse". She stumbles at the walk just leaving the barn, she generally does better when warmed up, but the stumbles never leave her completely. She does not work off her back end, is heavy footed, and even heavy to lift her feet for picking. She is a lovely horse, nice buckskin color, 14.3 HH, 14 years old, loads well, doesn't rear or buck, and is probably for sale. I'm sure there is some reasonable explanation for why she stumbles, but I'm darned if I'll spend much money to figure it out. I'm sorry, but I can see 1-2k being spent to vet this problem, and she will just probably never be the athletic horse I want her to be. And all I can think about is what if itnhad been my daughter on her at the canter, with my knowledge that Lola stumbles often.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That's terrible! She looked so good. What does the farrier say? Spirit used to stumble till his hooves were fixed and the angles were corrected.

I agree, she's not a kids horse (for a few reasons). Does she stumble at the trot and walk?

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Sure hope you mention Lola's stumbling issues to her new buyer.

I bought a horse that, the owner failed to mention, had issues and now I've got to deal with it instead.

Trailrider said...

This post is old. Lola no longer stumbles. She is now ripped with muscle and in better condition. I think she just needed to build up. And I am honest about my horse. But the problem no longer exists.