After a long career as a winning racehorse and a champion show horse, Brady is sadly retiring from his show career.
Since he was turned into a show horse in 2000, Brady has struggled intermittently with various back maladies. Several vets evaluated him, he was bone scanned and he received injections in his back and hocks to help relieve his discomfort. We tried chiropractic and muscle relaxers. All of these therapies had some intermittent success, but Brady always seemed to have tenseness in his back. However, when there were jumps in the arena, he always stepped up to the challenge. Jumping maybe even helped with his back pain.
However, in early 2010, it became apparent that his back was acting up again, as he would be very good to ride one day and then the next be rearing and not wanting to go at all. He even started to bite when being walked; he had never done that before. Pain medications didn’t help. Our vet suggested that we do a muscle biopsy for a condition that can create muscle spasms much like tying up and he tested positive for a mild case of PSSM (polysaccharide muscle myopathy), which is consistent with the symptoms he has had for years.
The treatment for this condition is to remove as much starch and sugar from his diet as possible and to replace those calories with vegetable fats plus high doses of Vitamin E. Additionally, a regular exercise program is necessary to help the muscles process whatever carbohydrates are in them. These therapies were tried and seemed to be working at first, but then it appeared that Brady was uncomfortable and not able to do the required exercise to keep him comfortable. After conferring with the vet, the decision was made to retire him to the pastures at EHF.
It was very hard to make this decision as he is fairly young for a retiree and still runs around like a lunatic when he feels like it. It’s impossible to know, but it sure seems that on some level he misses working. We’ll keep looking at him when he plays in the pasture to see if he’s moving better; there’s always the possibility of another comeback for “The Buns” as sometimes Dr. Green works wonders.