Catch-Up Post on Lady

I just had to go looking through my recent posts to find the last one I did about Lady.
Ooops.

Well, here is the update that you all have been so anxiously avoiding, lol. :)

I did very very little with Lady following the endurance ride. She pretty much became a wild pony... all three of my equines did. So when I finally got out there consistently again, starting last week, I was quite irritated with myself and discouraged to see that my poor little Arabian had lost too much weight and had absolutely ZERO topline remaining. Ouch.

Since Comanche was now out of quarantine, I immediately turned the girls out with him, thinking of course that nothing was better for two slightly underweight mares than some grass and herd-time.

Yeah, my mistake. I didn't really put much thought into the transition period between the overgrazed pasture they were on and the much greener and nicer pasture they were going into.

So when I pulled Lady out on Monday morning to start some conditioning again, I was more than a little upset to see that she was sore on her front feet, grouchy about moving, and overall pretty irritated with me.  At first I wasn't sure what exactly was going on, so I put her back out with the others when we were done working, but when I pulled her out Tuesday morning to to grain her and she was still ouchy and short strided, I figured out what was going on.

Me putting my sensitive little horse out on green pasture triggered a mild laminitic episode. My mistake caused my horse to hurt (lots of guilt going on over here).

Tuesday she spent all day in the small paddock and came out feeling better. I turned her out around 8pm and she spent the night on pasture again. Wednesday morning she was back to being lame, so she got to spend the day cooped up again. I waited until 11pm to turn her out that night, and brought her back in by 8:30 the next morning. This time, she came out almost sound. Yay! :)  So I decided to continue with that, turned her out at 11pm last night and brought her back in at 9 this morning.

Today, she was sound at the walk, dead lame at the trot, and wouldn't turn very tightly for me.

Super awkward picture, but showing the condition she is in right now.

I discussed the situation with my vet yesterday, and my hoof professional as well as my other very knowledgeable sources, and for right now we're going to treat her as an Insulin Resistant patient. As long as she's sound, I'll be walking her and hopefully building up condition again so that we can go riding. Until the grass is done growing/seeding, she'll be on hay almost exclusively.

Anyone who has ever dealt with laminitis, IR or EMS, or even Cushing's knows the kind of stuff I'm dealing with and the decisions that have to be made.
I'll keep the updates coming, at the same time that I do my best to keep up training Comanche. :)