Not a comfortable mare..

…though a shiny one. We had been taking it steady away and were up to five miles again. But stupidly I took her off road a week ago and when we turned for home she flew back up the hill without being asked. I pulled her up fairly quickly and she continued home feeling ok. I wasn’t riding for three days then anyway but she began to have her tail sticking out slightly to one side (not normal in horse) and very sore to touch on her right hand side and rear. So vet came out today. She thinks the muscle wastage was originally from a trauma, it’s built back up slowly but the stress of galloping uphill has actually pulled other muscles that were compensating. She also reckoned she has start of arthritis in hocks and rear fetlocks. So she’s now on daily bute (horse painkiller) for the foreseeable, gets a week off and then gently bring her back into work. I won’t be going off road on hills for a while if at all. However, it’s all much more positive than I thought it would be as was beginning to think I’d never ride her again! The vet did say she actually looks real good for her age considering.
It’s Big F’s turn for hospital appointment tomorrow as he has very painful hips.