Lame

Welp, Mort was lame last night. I noticed that he had the tiniest amount of stocking up in his legs when I was grooming. It was so slight that someone who didn't look at his legs every day wouldn't have noticed. I wasn't overly worried. He's still adjusting to being inside during the day and it was barely there. We walked on a loose rein and he felt a touch slow, but I figured it was just because we were walking next to another horse as the barn owner and I chatted. Eventually we moved off into a loose rein trot and there was a head bob. He didn't feel super lame but since he was on a loose rein, it was noticeable. It was definitely the type of lameness that I could have hidden if I had picked him up. Obviously I didn't pick him up to do that though. Instead I double checked with the barn owner that she was seeing it too and she was. So I went back to walk. I figured that we'd do a lot more walking and I'd supple him up a bit to see if that helped. After a good deal of walking, I tried trotting again. It was definitely better and basically not there at all tracking right, but it was still there tracking left. So I did a little more walking and called it quits. I paid even more attention to his legs when I was grooming again. The stockiness was gone and I couldn't feel any heat. I'm only about 60% worried at this point. He had gone out with his friend for the first time all weekend (because his friend was away at a show) the night before, so they might have played hard. He might have had some soreness from working harder the day before. I certainly don't think I pushed him too hard and he felt great through that whole ride, but you never know. It might also be time to look into injections for those front fetlocks. It might also be a career-ending suspensory injury because of those front fetlocks. I'm 75% sure it's one of the first two because he got better with more work AND he played with his friend a bit after our ride last night in turnout. He doesn't hurt too badly. I'm 20% thinking that it's just time for injections. There were one or two instances this winter where I maybe thought I might have felt an off step so I've been paying extra attention. I'm 5% thinking that he's broken forever because I wouldn't be a horse owner if a part of my brain didn't go to worst-case scenario. He'll get today off and I'll see how he's feeling Wednesday. If everything is back to normal, we'll have a few easy rides and get back on track. If he's still lame, well, then we'll have to dig further.