ROAD TRIP!!

June

We took a road trip to Birmingham to visit Dr. Murray. I had only heard amazing things about his practice and that he worked miracles on horses. At this point I did not care who he was or what he did, I just wanted my pony fixed. The past 7 months had been hard enough and for once I just wanted an answer.

As soon as we pulled into his facility parking lot I had a very calming feeling take over. The place was so stinkin' cute. I remember saying to myself "yeup, this is it. I can just tell..."

Bryce was unloaded and unwrapped and within 15 minutes he was on a longe line happily showing off his new attitude he had developed over the past two months. It did not take Dr. Murray longer than 5 minutes to explain [in a dumbed down easy way for me to understand] that his patella was snagging around the hock with the movement of his hind end. It was like I was slapped in the face- Well DUH! It was so obvious. Every time he would lift his outside hind leg off the ground at the trot or canter it looked as though the outside area by his hock was getting stuck and then popping as it released. He also clearly took a much shorter step with his outside leg- by atleast 4". It was so obvious there was an interference with the full use of his hind end.

All I could wonder was why the vet in Auburn had not caught this issue when she had been visiting him in the past month when the issue [once pointed out] seemed so obvious??

After the longe line came the flex test. I actually whispered to my trainer "what is he [Dr. Murray] doing?" She looked at me as if I was an idiot....it was the flex test but it was SO different than the "flex" that the vet in Auburn had given. Bryce barely took an off step but here, he could not even drop his right hind after Dr. M let go. He was in so much pain and I was in tears. To know my guy was in that much pain the past two months and I kept pushing him killed me....

We took Bryce inside to x-rays and to make a decision on the next step to take. His hocks- as clean and beautiful as they could be! Finally, good news! (The xray image wont show up but I will keep trying)

The decision came down to: hock injections in 3 places, anti-inflammatory for one month, and 3 days stall rest. I was warned that Bryce now learned if he acts up, I get off and he gets out of work so BEWARE! He would continue to act that way if I let him and that he was no longer in pain so not to let it fool me.

July 

I started with just walking around then slowly added the trot. Over the next month we worked hard on getting a strong trot with keeping the hind end very engaged.  Well, he sure put his new show name "Nobody's Fool" to the test! He tried everything he could to not make me work him. The first few steps of his trot were flinging, kicking, and bucking until he realized this time that I wasn't getting off!

I could never thank Dr. M as much as I would like. He sure did work a miracle. I've never seen a vet gather an answer so quickly and be so right. I would travel the two hours to Birmingham ANY DAY to have Dr. M look at my horse. 

So, anyone with in driving range to Dr. Murray's practice in Birmingham, Al...do it!!