King is Still Lame

Another quick farrier day last night. King was due for another trim. Just before the last shoeing King came up a bit off. I figured that he needed new shoes. The farrier came out, put new shoes and tried pads on him. He was still lame afterwards.

King has been on and off lame for the past month. I've given him a month or two off of riding and still nothing. He is always monkeying around with Chaos so I'm sure he's aggrevated whatever it is that he hurt.

I had the farrier come out last night and pull his shoes/pads and give him a trim. I trotted King around and he was still off. I wanted the shoes off before we head out on our vacation. I'd rather he didn't rip off a shoe while we were gone. And he was due for a trim since he was getting long again.

I'm afraid I need to make an appointment with the vet and get a few x-rays and see if the vet can find out what's wrong. The farrier says isn't nothing to do with the feet. So I guess we'll look at his shoulder and see if the vet can find anything out. I'm not sure when we'll go but I'm going to see if I can't get him in next week right after we get back from vacation. He's been lame now for the past two months. I need to know if what's wrong with King is going to leave him permanently lame or if he'll ever be rideable again. I'm also thinking of leaving him at mom and dad's for a month to see if no monkey business will help.

If it's a temporary lameness than I won't look so hard for a horse. But if he's permantently lame than I need to find a different horse for dad. Chaos needs a few more rides/experience before I feel conformatble. I know dad wants to ride Rain but after the last ride, I am putting Rain up for the rest of the year. That leaves me Maverick who is not ready for riding with a group yet. Ok, so it's more me not being ready than him.

But I need to find a horse that works and I'm struggling to find one. Everyone is culling their horses now. So what do I do? Take on yet another horse that is unrideable and free or dirt cheap and needs to be rescued from certain death or find one that is rideable and spend big bucks on him? I'm regretting not purchasing a horse I saw this past spring. He would have been a good fit but I didn't think I had the money at the time.

I guess I'm just a bit frustrated. Here I have 12 horses but only four of them are currentely rideable at this moment. Rain is one of the four but that's questionable right now. He still seems pretty out of it. So that leaves me:

Chaos - who is doing fantastic but needs more experience
Maveric - who I think is doing better than I give him credit but I've never ridden him outside his small drylot
Sam - who is totally out of shape for any ride

Maybe while I'm on vacation I'll find the next horse of my dreams. :-)