Any thoughts/advice on DD's pony and possible future sale/life? (LONG)

[Deliaskis]

So this is thinking way out in the future, so not going to take any immediate action, I'm just mulling likely scenarios for future of DD's much loved pony. You were all very helpful and I really valued your advice in the past so am interested in thoughts on this at the moment mild and non-urgent quandary....

We got her a year ago as an almost 6 yr old 13hh and she has been AMAZING. Much loved, such fun, fabulous personality, and has brought on DD's riding so much. They have been out having fun showjumping and cross country and really just messing about together, trail riding, etc.

DD will grow out of her in maximum 2 yrs 🙁.

One thing that has popped up, although not in a big way, is that she was very much unschooled and unbalanced when we got her (which we knew), and we didn't have her vetted (a decision I don't regret, as she cost us not very much at all and she has been the best decision ever). The lack of balance is only apparent in the canter, and she jumps from one leg to the other a lot. She prefers the left leg and if forced onto the right leg on the bend, switches back as soon as she can.

DD's jumping coach has mentioned, based on quite a testing pole exercise that they were doing, she thinks there might be something very minor in her right hind, that makes some things slightly difficult for her. She said 'I would be honest if I thought it was causing any pain, but I absolutely don't, she copes with it in the best way, it just means she has a preference for one leg over the other'. We are working on building up her hindquarters and working into an outline (new to her and to DD) to see if it rectifies it, but there might just be a tiny niggle under there somewhere that isn't muscle.

So....I guess my thoughts are...do I get a vet to look at her anyway, potentially open a can of worms and spend ages and a fortune on diagnostics and potentially end up with no answers, for a question I don't even know if we need to ask?

I suppose what I am thinking is that at some point we will need to pass her on to a new home. Ideally this would be in the riding club or pony club etc. Because of everything she has done already competition wise, she is theoretically already worth more than we would have expected, and will be older and less daft by the time we pass her on, so will be a good second pony/PC/all rounder. However, I assume this is the kind of thing that sale vetting will pick up, and so will it affect the kind of home she might go to. I assume there is a threshold above which you have to get vetting anyway for insurance?

We just want to do the right thing for her, now and in the future, so I guess I'm wondering....how much of a worry would this kind of thing be for a family looking for a PC type? Mostly in practice it means she can't progress in dressage, but of course in the future it might end up causing pain and be a bigger problem. She will still only be maximum 9 when we are looking for a new home for her, so assuming status quo maintains, she will have so much to give. She really is so fun and willing and such a personality.

Ugh...I don't even know what I'm asking....do you think we should be trying to identify and resolve a potential problem (that might not even exist) now, and have all those investigations on her record, or do we just wait and see? Proactivity isn't always a good thing in these cases? I don't know!

I suppose possible scenarios are:

• do nothing, assume we might be limited in options for a new home for her due to likely issue with vetting
• line up a non-riding home for her (pedigree means her old owners/breeder would have her back for breeding), although she thrives on having a job to do
• investigate possible issue now, but possibly end up no wiser
• investigate and fix any issue, and open up more potential homes to her when we are ready for her to move on

To be clear, if this was my horse and there was no growing child to think about, we would just keep her and have fun and love her and look after her forever, but kids grow, and the pony is young, and so I know one of the above scenarios is going to happen. I just don't know whether to pre-empt it or not.

As you can probably see....over-thinking is something I excel at, and of course nobody can know if there is a problem until we look for it....so I guess my question is, would you look for it?

Also don’t beat yourself up about the vetting, it wouldn’t necessarily have come up and a clear vet doesn’t guarantee no issues…..

As someone who is literally looking for this exact pony for my daughter at the moment - I'm afraid it would put me off and would certainly show up on a vetting. To be able to get insurance now for a pony worth over 5k (which I'm assuming yours would be) it needs to pass a 5 stage vetting.

Is the pony insured? If yes I'd probably look into the issue, if not then I'd declare the issue to buyers and consider that the pony will not be worth what you hoped.

A good all rounder is worth excellent money, but an all rounder needs to be able to perform a correct basic prelim test, which obviously involves canter on both reins

In the first case I’d try a good chiro vet (dual trained) like Tom Beech and see what he thinks - if he thinks there’s an underlying issue he’ll send you back to your usual vet for investigations; but if it’s just a minor weakness he can give you targeted exercises to do with your lovely pony to help build her up.

We have a Masterson method practitioner come out to ours. One has an old injury the other is arthritic we have found that our chosen practice has really helped them both.

I'd get it looked in to. Little niggles like this over time can have knock on effects to other parts of the body due to over compensation.

Basically what @Devotedcatslave said. I also don’t necessarily agree with the instructor’s assessment she’s definitely not in pain. She’s clearly compensating for something and by nature horses are generally quite stoic so her full discomfort/pain might not be obvious. Alternatively it may just be she’s green and unbalanced, but if she were mine I’d want to know what I was dealing with so I keep ensure she was kept comfortable and that I was inadvertently making her worse.

How are you getting on OP? How’s the pony doing?

i appreciate this thread is a few weeks old now but just to add my two pence worth…

Our dressage pony never took an obviously lame step, but started, on occasion, offering the wrong leg on the left rein in canter. Not always, but enough over the space of two/three weeks, maybe half a dozen times, for it to concern me.

In that time he’d been out competing and winning at BD quest in the Prelim and Novice section (except the test where he offered the wrong leg!). He seemed happy in his work and cheerful in all respects. He absolutely did not look lame to the casual observer or even multiple dressage judges.

However, we sent him for a full lameness work up.They found he was bilaterally 1/10 lame behind. Because it was both legs and very mild it makes it very difficult to see. It was discovered via nerve blocks. They found arthritis in both hocks. He was given arthramid and was back out competing right as rain within 3 months. He’s had one top up since as a preventative measure but it’s not given him any bother or affected the activities he can do.

So, based on personal experience, I would absolutely investigate. And I wouldn’t bother with having a yard visit. I’d want to send to the nearest equine hospital for the work up. The on-site machines are more sensitive than the mobile ones, plus they have more time to investigate than a regular 30 min call out slot. Things like nerve blocking a whole leg can take a lot of time as they have to wait for the anaesthesia in each section of the leg to wear off before starting another.

Equally, if your local vet does find something the equine hospital will repeat the scan/X-ray etc anyway, as they usually seem to only want to work from diagnostic images they’ve taken themselves, so it’s not only quicker but cheaper in the long run to go direct.