So Smoke got his teeth fixed and everything is fine. His mouth is now beautiful inside and out. The next time I go to ride him, he bolts and I fall off. Alright then, so today I saddle him up, take him out on the lunge line and in less than a minute he is bolting, freaking out and bucking. I have never seen him buck with a saddle on his back without reason. The only time was when we put a rear cinch strap on him, and he got scared out of his mind. Yes he will buck when we lunge, but never with a saddle on. It could be because I usually lunge him without a saddle first, but I still don't think so. After a few minutes I stopped him and noticed that he was holding his left hind leg up, you know how they usually shift their weight, but his leg was shaking. I kept watching him and making him walk, each time he stopped he would favor that same leg and it would shake. When he walks, though, I don't notice a limp. I may just not have a good eye for it, but at the very least it isn't a hard limp.
I stopped the lunging session right there and walked him home. It took us about two minutes to walk home. Once there I tied him to remove his saddle, and he was no longer favoring that leg, and it wasn't shaking anymore. In fact he was leaning on it and resting his other leg. Do you have any idea what is going on? Will a horse with a sore rear leg buck and bolt? In a way it doesn't make sense, but I guess how else would they react if you were causing them pain... I have the vet coming out again, but he can't get here until Monday. He has to run a coggins on Lera, so he'll be here anyway. I want to know if this is something I should bring to his attention. He is an expensive, but good vet, and I'll need to be prepared.
