So today Miss Ruffi had a visit from our favorite vet, Dr. Renner with Rainland Farm. A lot of information was good. Some was what we expected and we had a little bit of unforeseen news. However, overall the appointment was exactly what we had planned for.
For the good: her kissing spines have not degenerated. This is great because KS can be degenerative and get worse with riding as time goes on. Also, her right stifle has no cause for concern. The reason we had that radiographed was because when Ruffi was about 10 months old she fell on some ice and had bone fragments in her trochlear ridge. When they re-xrayed at 2 years old, the vet noted a cyst on her condyle but didn’t think it was anything to worry about. She was sound for a whole season of race training and it has never seemed to bother her; however, we would not have been doing our due diligence if we didn’t have it looked at.
The expected news: Ruffi has thin soles and needs shoes and pads. We figured this would be the case since that has been Dr. Renner’s recommendation in the past. The reason she is currently barefoot is because she came home to us barefoot and hadn’t felt the need yet to put her shoes back on.
The unexpected: Ruffi has a fracture in her right coffin bone. This is what is causing her lameness. For this, Dr. Renner is recommending 6 weeks of stall rest. Walking only. No turnout with other horses. He also wants a bar shoe on that foot to help support it during healing.
While some of this was not the best news, nothing is dire. We will move forward with rehab for Ruffi and move some of our training budget to Bacardi to help him and me get back into shape. We are very much looking forward to supporting Ruffi through this rehab time and seeing how she comes out the other side.
Happy Riding and Rehabbing,
A+R