02/22/2025
Part Two: Several More Posts to Come.
Case Study: Archie 5yo Roan Gelding
Discipline: Cutter
Iliopsoas and CCSG (i.e. shoulder girdle) injuries are common though an undiagnosed and enigmatic problem veterinarians are unaware of and do not know what to do, nor where to go next, after ruling out and treating lower limb joints, SI pain, cervical facet pain, "kissing" spine (if there) and you are left with your horse still looking like Archie.
Archie's ENTIRE axial skeleton was affected. He was limb AND body lame, what I call BODY LAMENESS. Limb lameness can be simple to fix. Inject the joint, the horse feels better and moves better. The horse has a chip in the carpus or fetlock, easy-peasy take it out. Wa-lah problem solved back to work after some healing time. Archie was radiographed, flexed, blocked many times along with every single lower limb joint injected too many times to count, including the SI, still lame, behavioral and unable to do his job. Trainers and training could not "fix" him or make him better. Veterinarians flexing, blocking, radiographing, injecting could not "fix" him or make him better.
Body lameness is not that simple to treat nor to resolve with an injection. However, that is what everyone in the sport horse industry wants, A QUICK FIX, as is the case in most limb lameness problems. Injuries to the axial skeleton (body) do not resolve nor heal quickly because structurally it is ALL connected as people can relate to if they have neck or back pain. Do people not realize that horses, like people, have muscle spasms, strains, and injuries? It is not even on people's radar. How is this possible?
Archie did not wear tack, nor was ridden for 6 months! Yes, 6 entire months. It is amazing to me that when I tell clients/trainers that they cannot ride the horse for 3 weeks (possibly 6 weeks) after treatment, ONLY lunge the horse walk-trot, they almost have a melt down nor comprehend why. Now if I told them that their horse had a suspensory injury and the horse needed 6 months of stall rest they would be perfectly fine with that diagnosis. What the Heck!!! Where is the disconnect here in logic, facts and science?
The disconnect comes from the fact that the veterinary profession is not aware or understand the structural biomechanics of how a horse works or the blatant fact that these injuries are occurring in their patients. Veterinarians may recognize that the horse is "girthy", walks funky after tacking up, hops into transitions, has carpal wobble, toe drags, throws neck to outside of circle, interferes behind, is out behind or cannot canter but are stuck not knowing what to do next or how to approach the problem. These problems cannot be flexed or blocked out though it is easier to find this tiny little hole or irregularity on ultrasound or a tiny little spur on the radiograph that even after treatment and time off for rehabilitation the horse is still the same or initially better then goes back to being lame or feeling the same way as before.
Horse like Archie that are completely "broken" and behavioral will not nor cannot be fixed by the institutionalized approach of Veterinarians practicing sports medicine today. Do not forget that he was owned by another Veterinarian and treated by many other Veterinarians of that institution. That institution failed him as it has many horses daily.
To fix horses like Archie, they will all get worse before they get better. I tell my clients that they will literally "fall apart". It is so ugly and one questions, including me questioning myself daily as I lunged him, WILL THIS HORSE EVER GET BETTER! With treatment of the axial skeleton and as muscles relax, they are weak and things become unstable. Tension is the enemy, however that tension protects things in the body that are injured and that the body does not want to move. Once movement starts occurring again it is painful along with the muscle being weak because they have not worked properly for months or years due to injury.
The videos of Archie are in order of months from August, September, November, December. October all the videos were the same, horrible and no need to show one. He was being treated the entire time. As you can see he was rushing and quick in August and September and absolutely could not stretch down. In October and November he finally slowed down (a good thing) and finally able to start stretching down but very inconsistent and extremely uncoordinated doing it. Finally in December he was able to stretch down more consistently though still not able to hold the stretch, still up and down awkwardly. Take notice of how his body changed through the months and how it finally began to move (back and pelvis). I left the audio on the videos so that you can hear my own disheartenment.
If you are a Veterinarian reading this and would like to learn more about these types of injuries occurring in your patient population? Go to Eventbrite.com: Iliopsoas Injuries & Shivers-Stringhalt Treatment in Performance Horses. My next seminar is March 21-22, 2025 here in Ocala, Florida.
Thank you PulseVet. Without your machine, no matter what I inject axial skeleton wise as a Veterinarian, Archie would not have had a chance of making it back to being a cutting horse in 2025.
Please share these posts so that more horses can be helped. Always putting The Horse First. Listen to my podcast, The Horse First, to learn more.
