March 2018

March in a nutshell was a roller coaster of emotions. One minute Athena would be fine, the next minute she would be slightly “off”, back to normal, then full blown lame, then the next day normal. It was beyond frustrating and I didn’t know what to do. We had the vet come out several times and of course she would always be sound. So I started taking video when she was off and riding to try to see what in the world could be causing it.

Riding didn’t seem to aggravate it, because sometimes she would be lame coming out of the stall or pasture. Sometimes she was completely sound throughout the entire ride, sometimes she was immediately lame, sometimes it was 30 minutes into our ride. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and I felt so hopeless. I would take things day by day, week by week and hope to figure out what in the world was going on.

We were 90 days out from Pinto Worlds and needed to find an answer, and quick. My normal vet came out and did a full lameness eval on her. He determined the angles were off in her feet and that she needed xrays and most likely corrective shoeing. He referred us to Dr. Meeker at Davie County Large Animal Hospital to expedite the process since he had the xrays, farriers, and everything needed in one place.

The staff at Dr. Meeker’s was great. I was so scared and stressed out and they took their time, listened to all my concerns, answered questions, and handled Athena with such care. We got good news and we got bad news.

It turns out Athena has some abnormalities in her navicular cavity. It isn’t navicular disease, and we should be able to manage everything. We took xrays and worked on Athena’s angles. She got corrective shoeing and some Osphos. I will be able to continue to show her on the flat.

The bad news is that I will not be able to make her a hunter, which is what I always envisioned for us. I had just started her over some small cross rails and was so excited to finally have a great hunter.

Unfortunately the vets think that this damage occurred from the neglect Athena endured before I rescued her. Her feet were in bad shape and that probably caused this damage. She will always need corrective shoeing to get more heel stability. Two years after I rescued Athena and she is STILL recovering from the hell hole we pulled her out of.

Luckily the shoes and injections did the trick. We would travel 2-3 hours one way to get her reshod every 4 weeks. She had another round of coffin joint injections. It was very expensive but having Athena sound again and healthy made all the difference in the world.

We were even lucky enough to go trail riding towards the end of march. We went to the Moss Foundation with friends. It was Athena’s third trail ride and she did great! She had a lot of energy, but finally after four hours she finally mellowed out. We even got to gallop for a small stretch and it was so fun. I was surprised how fast she was!

Thanks for being so supportive and reading about Athena and I! Be sure to follow us on social media for more frequent updates!