01/10/2024
Part 6: After several rides indoors. On Oct 10 in the outdoor arena I noticed that Skip was having trouble lifting his hind legs over trot poles. Thinking the poles must’ve been a bit much, we went on with our ride. While at a lope, going up the center line, Skips back legs went out from under him. We recovered without further incident but, I knew right then something was wrong with Skip. He was thoroughly looked over and found no signs of injury or trauma (as continued to be the theme) he was given a few days off with pain meds and iced his back legs just in case.
During his time off Skip developed another symptom, dragging his back toes. We took videos and consulted with the vet. The pain meds seemed to have no affect. This was a positive as we knew he wasn’t in pain but were perplexed all the same. After certain things like viruses, neurological symptoms, hocks, and stifles were ruled out we decided to give it some time. Despite what had now developed to partial bilateral paralysis in the hind end Skip still seemed to be his normal happy self. So we continued carefully monitoring him.