Katherine Begley's blog: Bad start to 2010 - vibes needed for Belvedere...

Well back in October at Weston Park CCIJ* Belv's dressage completely fell apart. It was like there was something wrong with him. It had been going downhill for a few months and was just horrific at Weston. So we decided to start the winter off with some show jumping and hunting to keep him happy and take his mind off the dressage.

However, recently I have started doing some schooling, and in just a plain snaffle I cannot get any degree of flexion in the poll out of him. So we took him to Tor Brewer's (eventer based in Hartpury) for a lesson to see what she thought. She got on and found him exactly the same, she also said that his neck did not look like that of a 1* event horse. As she continued to walk him around more, she couldn't believe just how in submissive he was and came to the conclusion that there must be something wrong in his neck. So she recommended we get out Liz Launders and Chris Rea from Kearns and Rea Three counties equine hospital to have a look at him.

They came on Monday 4th January and to begin with we just talked about what the problem was, any incidents in the past few months etc. I then trotted him up and down the drive, turned him on tight circles and let the vets prod and poke him. They said that he had some very odd muscle on his neck, and that generally all over his body his muscle tone was very uneven. We then went and lunged him in the school in trot on both reins. And then I got on in my dressage saddle and nathe snaffle and attempted to school in. This was to allow them to see what he was like. Liz got me to do various different circles and things with my reins to see if anything changed his way of going. Finally to finish we put him in the Pelham, as per usual this gave us a nice flexed horse. However, what Chris & Liz noticed was that belvedere NEVER used himself behind, not once during the whole examination. They said that there was no change between lunging, riding with the snaffle and riding with the Pelham. Liz said that this was most surprising, as the Pelham should have set him back on his haunches more. They also said that he has a subtle lameness in his off fore and near hind. Neither of which they were hugely worried about, but just that it was something that we may need to look into if we find nothing else. They said that they think that there is something wrong with his neck and something else wrong in his back end. E.g. some arthritis in his hock, preventing him from using himself.

So instead of launching into hundreds of full body scans the first step is to put him on an intensive course of Bute. This is not as a treatment but as a diagnostic tool. The idea is that Tor rides him whilst he is on Bute and she talks to Liz about whether there is any improvement. Therefore if while he is on Bute he becomes more easy to flex, then it will show that there is something physically hurting him in his neck. Or, if the Bute makes his back end work better so that he uses himself more, it will confirm their suspicions that he has a physical problem in his back end/near side hock. Therefore allowing the vets to determine that there are problems in his neck/hind end and investigate further and take x-rays etc. If the Bute doesn’t help him at all, then it may indicate a neurological problem.

So vibes please, let’s hope we can get the problem sorted ASAP and come back better than ever for the 2010 season! For more news and information please visit www.katherinebegley.com