As you may know, we have been trying to figure out Padame's off/on lameness. In April 2024 she had an MRI. It came back inconclusive. I posted a lameness update in March 2025. As of this date, we are still trying to figure out how to best help Padame with her soreness. Lameness never seems to stop (r)evolving.
Thankfully, she was able to be shown by her trainer last season. However, Padame required hock injections. If this horrifies you, know leg shots are very common for show horses to be able to repetitively do what they do. Not a big fan of injections in horses, or humans for that matter. It is what it is and comes with the territory. I am not going further into the variety or pro's/con's. I think of them as similar to human's who receive knee/back etc shots. They are intended to help movement be more pain free. No different with active horses. Horse hocks eventually fuze, and these shots are no longer needed.
The problem is Padame's leg injections were not lasting. She presented sore in a short period of time. For whatever reason, she was not getting the normal length of expected relief from them. Which reveals her soreness is caused by something else.
Fast forward to the visit I mentioned at our trainers. Brad asked me to attend a meeting to discuss Padame's on/off lameness. Our meeting included a horse show friend from years ago. She is a retired small animal surgeon/vet who has been studying equine lameness under a mentor. Her home herd has multiple retired show horses. Some due to chronic lameness.
Her equine vet mentor is well-known for treating lameness on high end sport horses. I am sure many equine readers have heard of DeClue Equine. The difference with this vets treatment vs traditional equine vets is that she treats with a whole body approach. Traditional equine vets tend to treat lameness legs down. Patching the problem, not rehabilitating the cause.
Our friend enthusiastically shared what she is studying about equine lameness. The general message was that it often stems from weakness in areas other than the legs. Requiring a whole body treatment approach. She talked about the Iliopsoas (aka hip flexor) being a common weakness in chronic lame horses. Iliopsoas is a non-weight bearing muscle/tendon. Here is a brief article that explains the muscle/tendon.
For those of you interested in horse movement, below are video's of Padame twirling.
September 2025 (1.33 seconds)
1.17 seconds
Iliopsoas Injuries is a podcast link that was shared with us. With all due respect, I couldn't get past the excessive steak reference. I might fast forward and retry listening. Then again, I cannot keep up with the endless podcast rabbit hole!!
We, mostly Brad, had a lot to think about. Potential treatments mentioned included a muscle relaxer, Chiro and Body work and progressive light walk-n-trot in hand. Back imaging and a series of back injections were also discussed.
Decisions were made in Padame's best interest. Three of us were in agreement on not going the back injection route. Inserting needles between vertebrae sounds frightening. We don't know if Padame actually has Iliopsoas weakness. Chiro and Bodywork helped her improve and she eventually went back to being ridden lightly. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the soreness returned. We are once again back to square one (aka the unknown).
The next step for Brad's blondee will be hauling her to a specialty equine clinic that provides Thermal imaging. Hopefully it will help figure out what is making her sore.
Padame needs a new treatment plan. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results.
