[tollertwins]

Lameness vet exam Monday - in the meantime I am just kinda bummed.

A note - this mare is REALLY stoic...

This mare is one who had a melanotic lymph node removed from the neck/shoulder junction on the left a year ago. She has always been seriously crooked/stiff under saddle - like dropping her right side. I figured it was from the melanoma and that she needed PT type work.

Moved to another state - and she started acting up badly under saddle. Spooking, scooting, neck wringing, escalated to biting feet, bucking, and threatening to rear. She was basically unrideable. Also - she got really spooky on the ground and is normally pretty placid.

Whatever it is - it started when going down hills - and was a little while to where the issue was on the flat as well.

Had a bunch of vet work done - and we definitely found ulcers. Treated for the ulcers - she is back to her sweet self on the ground.

Did 2 weeks of ground driving and she was good. Then threw my husbands saddle on her during a saddle fitting - and PRESTO! Steering off the seat and forward - YEA! Lets stop quickly before she gets the idea she's 'working'.

Started riding her in my saddle and it was 'major crooked/stiff' to start, and degraded really quickly to foot biting. This was 3 rides of maybe 20 mins each. OK - maybe she hates the saddle! NP!

Put the husbands saddle (and the husband!) back on and she would only follow me on the ground. If he tried to steer on his own she would throw a fit again.

We decided to just restart her since she'd been off for 3 months while we were trying to figure out what happened...and now she appears way more broken than attitudinous. I think that the attitude initially was self protection.

1. Looks 'wierd' on LH. It circles during canter (small circles, but noticable), and she swings really wide on both hinds in trot. It also has a 'hitch' at the apex of the stride in walk.

2. Has been on-and-off off on the RF (head bobbing).

3. Had accupuncturist out - needles for the LH almost made her leg knuckle over. She LIKED needles for the RF. She tried to eject needles to either side of the wither and freaked at one at the top of the wither.

After that treatment - she stopped neck wringing running uphill in the paddock. She still wrings it and looks 'strange' in the back trotting downhill. (I thot that that neck wringing was just her talkin' trash to my gelding!).

Now on the lunge she will stretch some going to the right, not so much to the left.

We also noticed that she holds the pelvis on the left side higher than on the right side at a walk (she's part walker - doing trot-outs is really hit and miss!).

And here is the most bizarre thing. I have vienna side reins. We put them on her yesterday to see what happened. The were adjusted evenly on both sides, and would have just kept her from being as crooked to the right. It was like her hind end fell apart when she started moving.

She tucked her butt and started trying to do something like a run-walk (you know, swing the whole leg on both sides), but it just looked BIZARRE and seriously uncomfortable! She usually trots on the line...

We are going to video tomorrow in case we can't replicate it for the vet...Given her history of early melanoma (she just turned 8) I'm just freaking out...

I don't know if this sounds neuro or just mechanical. Thot I'd post here in case anybody had any ideas....

[Simkie]

I think it sounds neuro, but I go to neuro faster than others, perhaps, because we've gone down that path. Are you somewhere that EPM is a possibility?

Given that she's already had melanomas, I would think that a brain tumor or tumor compressing the spinal cord somewhere should also be on the list of potentials

Certainly time for a full workup, perhaps even at a large clinic with the big imaging equipment.

[tollertwins]

I was kinda afraid you'd say that....

Trainer didn't think neuro - but she has only seen pretty advanced stuff. She was maybe thinking that the neck stiffness was due to the hind end...But once we hooked the side reins up all she could do was shake her head and say 'I've never seen that before'.

Lameness specialist (actually a locomoter specialist?) coming has digital x-ray and a good ultrasound to start.

One of the vets had said that w/ melanoma so young it was a concern going forward, and that he had seen one w/ neuro symptoms end up w/ melanoma showing on a spinal tap.

And whatever it is, my gut sez it's getting worse. She was really weedy looking when I got her. Whether that is because she just finished filling out and that caused some pressure that wasn't there before, I don't know.

The behavior under saddle is just NOT my horse! She is the sweetest horse I've ever met! The trainer initially thot that she was being mareish..and now after working w/ her for 3 weeks she's like 'she WANTS to be good - she just CANT for some reason!'.