Fancy Pony is Back in Action!

Life is simple.  It's just not easy.

It started with the ever-so-not-noticable not-exactly-a-limp in the left front.  I attributed it to the knock she appeared to have taken to the inside of her lower leg.  There was evidence (a wound), and she seemed to feel better and better as the wound healed or when the scab was soft...

Minor wound.  Probably kicked herself when she slipped in the mud in her paddock...

Then, she was off in the left hind!  Felt like in her hip.  We deliberated that perhaps she was 'sitting' more than she was really strong enough to handle while trying to hide the 'offness' in the left front...  Muscle soreness made sense and she was leaning into her massages.

Not rearing.  Levade to puddle jump...

And, then!!  She wasn't visually lame or off on any particular leg... She just wasn't herself.  Once in a gait, she would plod along, but she wouldn't come together.  She couldn't be light in the bridle.  She was fine if I tooled around like a western pleasure horse.  We even chased killdeer around the arena like a cutting horse!

Yes.  I'm *that* cool.

I finally started making a connection...
You see, I've been treating a little bit of 'girth itch'.  She seems to get it every spring in the wet season.  At least, she had it last year about this time...  I've been cleaning it, and treating it with scarlex.  The girth doesn't sit on it, thanks to the offset design, but it does sit close to it.  After beginning another ride and finding the Fancy Pony not herself A-G-A-I-N, I decided it was time to change stuff around.  I grabbed the fluffy girth.  It's straight.  Nothing special.  When I put it on, it went *right over* the girth itch.  But when I got on, she walked right out.  She settled into the gaits faster, and the transitions in and out became quieter.  It was instantaneous.  I had my Fancy Pony back!!

Magic!