[alto]

I completely missed this adventure until now - what a fabulous update

I haven't looked for the video yet

I hope you invite the 1st vet back out to see how well your horse has recovered (only do this in a positive educational spirit)

[tracy6983]

Thought I'd just add a little up date on how we are doing.......the schooling is going well, we are up to 50 mins a day this week. He is switched on and knows his job again (after the first time under saddle and him thinking he had retired!)
I decided to hack him out on Saturday to break up the monotony of the school, its been over 4 months since he was last off the yard. I high vized ourselves up (just incase he decided to go home without me! Lol) and off we went. It was a lovely crisp morning and he was a superstar. Don't get me wrong he was having a good look around and we had a couple of minor 'discussions' as to which way we were going but he was great. Although this injury has been an awful thing to happen and go through the 'silver lining' is definitely the time spent on the ground with him has given me loads more confidence on and around him. I've really got to know him and his personality and hopefully he has built some trust in me. We hacked out both days (virtually all in walk with some trot on the straight tracks) he was a little more on his toes yesterday, but I just sat quiet and confident and he was happy to go forward. He power walked his way round the route so we were definitely active! ) All I had going through my head was the first vets wording on his clinical history, 'unsafe and unstable advised never to ride again' and I thought well we're doing it sunshine so he can stick that in his pipe and smoke it!! It was so lovely to just be back out there with him and it did us both the world of good.

[olympicdreams04]

Interesting link to check out:
http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/aaep...0102000326.PDF

[JB]

That study is one of the very few I was able to find when I was doing research after my guy did this. It was very helpful

[tracy6983]

Had the physio out on Friday and the vet out today, both are over the moon with him, his movement is totally free and even in trot and tracking up perfect. We can now start to introduce canter work......HOWEVER this is when he said we may notice any issues or restrictive movement in the transitions to canter to start with. No more than one minute stints of canter to begin interspersed through an hours schooling. Very important not to tire him out. I've got to give him a call in 2 weeks and then we can see about upping it. I had our first go tonight, he did what I expected him to do. He was trying to run into his transitions (he used to pre injury and we were working on it) no stress, just brought him back to trot, steadied him up and asked again. Will just keep working on that but when we did get a good strike off he felt fine, certainly not 'off' so I was really chuffed. The vet noticed how much he has muscled up on that left side in the last month. Really really pleased with him. Just got to carry on doing what we are doing. Pole work and cavaletti's all good to get him lifting his feet. We are allowed to take him out for small trips on the wagon so we can take him to a few local dressage comps to do some intro tests. It's more to get him out and about again without any stresses

[tracy6983]

Thought I'd post a couple of small videos of his canter work.( Apologies for the darkness our indoor isn't very well lit and a horse with dark legs on a dark surface isn't the best however you can get a bit of an idea of how he is going.)
My friend who competed him in dressage pre injury is riding him, she hasn't been on him for a few weeks so it was good to get her feedback and how he was feeling to her.
This is his 3rd schooling session since being allowed to include canter work. He's not cantered with a rider in over 5 months so we're pretty pleased with how he is looking. He now just needs the time to build the overall strength in the leg and his general fitness.
He is going through what I call his 'Kevin and Perry' stage, stroppy teenager! Lol although he is 7 I think he is quite immature, he is also very opinionated! We had a lesson on Thursday and the instructor put some small cavaletti's out, we were to trot through them. He thought he'd like to canter (easier) because I said 'No' he threw in a small buck and chased the instructor across the school!! It's never a 'get off my back' buck it's a 'tantrum' not getting his own way! Keeps it interesting anyway!! We can hopefully carry on as we are doing. It's a shame we are into winter with the dark nights as it would be ideal to get a lot more hacking done but that for now is our weekend treat. I love this horse

http://youtu.be/N1Mr2Jz22xE

http://youtu.be/QPJyZRgry10

[tracy6983]

http://youtu.be/nlMKH6YrT6M

http://youtu.be/mmYaq1f0eyE

6 month point, nice bright arena! Pleased with where we are at. Just continuing the canter work to build his strength and balance. Been doing some small cavaletti's when I have a lesson and he's picking his feet up nicely. Trying to hack on a weekend as much as our lovely UK weather will allow and he had his first trip out in the wagon to the arena in the videos. Only 20 mins up the road and he travelled lovely.

[KentuckyTBs]

He looks good! Personally, I'd keep the smaller circles to a very minimum for a bit longer - he appears to be slightly uncomfortable still on the small circles so if it were me, I wouldn't push that issue by making him canter small circles. Overall though, he looks good!

[tracy6983]

He looks good! Personally, I'd keep the smaller circles to a very minimum for a bit longer - he appears to be slightly uncomfortable still on the small circles so if it were me, I wouldn't push that issue by making him canter small circles. Overall though, he looks good!

Thanks Yeah I do to be fair, my friend who is riding him in the video (that is her new yard) tries to ride him once a week if possible so she will always push a bit more to see and feel his progress. I am afraid my flatwork skills aren't quite as good (I know
my own weaknesses!) I sometimes struggle just to hold him together and keep him going!
Thanks to all who have been following and supporting our little journey Wishing you all the best in 2013! Will keep you updated as we move on

[tracy6983]

Well I am writing this from my bed at the moment! And I am happy to share as I am ok and I can laugh about it now!
On Monday night while schooling Flynn in our indoor he decided to throw in a massive vertical rodeo style buck that fired me straight off! It was quite impressive apparently and I left quite a dent in the arena floor!!! A visit to A&E and I have extensive soft tissue damage, damage to my coxis and concussion!!
Now I would like to say this isn't his normal behaviour, in all fairness he is never and has never been the most relaxed in our indoor it is small and dark. However we are in the winter season and we have to exercise as best we can.
After being in on our own for about 5 mins a further 5 people came in with their horses to school so it became a little bit chaotic to say the least. Not everyone has very good spacial awearness!!
It was freezing so they were all a 'little' fresh
We have no turnout at the moment either which isn't ideal but you manage the best you can.
Anyway silver lining.... while I have a horse that now feels he is so fit/well and confident to use that leg (although not demonstrate that to me in the way that he did!!) lol I am now out of action for however long it takes to fix! If I could lift my own leg I would be inclined to go and kick him on his to remind him it's supposed to be dodgy!!!
Fortunately my partner does a lot of groundwork with him and will loose school and hack him. I also have a couple of good friends who will happily carry on with his schooling and exercise (maybe when it's a little less busy at least until they can get out again!)
I am itching to get back on board but will have to be sensible.....not good at this doing nothing malarkey!
We have started very small jumping under instruction, and by small I mean he could happily trot or just canter over them, however he likes to jump and has sparked since we have let him have a go. He feels extremely sound and focused, I am as always very cautious of taking everything slowly no matter how he feels.
In 3 weeks he is going to be doing a novice dressage to music test at Aintree international Arena! I will not be riding him (prelim I can just about remember!) lol this will be his first outing and test since the injury. And my friend has kept it quite simple to give him a good chance so i don't expect him to score high. We are treating it as a day out, a bit of fun, let him reacclimatise to being out and to get some feedback from the judges to help us go forward. Will be interesting to compare to tests he did last year.
I will let you know how they get on!
Still can't emphasise enough how much I love this horse, attitude or not!! X

[tracy6983]

Short little video of him jumping. Now nearly 8 months post injury. Still working on his overall fitness and getting him working more from behind. This is the first time he has looked at any XC jumps since his accident. Very happy with his progress

http://youtu.be/A8slsgglzc8

[blairasb]

this really gives me hope. Dealing with this injury with my new horse right now. Right now the vet has us on 100% stall rest and I've been watching with baited breath for 2 weeks for some sign of improvement. Today, he started to show a *smidgen* more coordination of the bend of his stifle/hock/fetlock. Today he hiked up a back leg to threaten the horse in the next stall, and managed to bend his hock AND bend the fetlock some too. I was so excited, it wasn't even funny!

[JB]

Yay!!! I remember the first time I saw that sort of coordinated movement too - I was SO excited!!

I still highly recommend quiet turnout as soon as possible

[tracy6983]

this really gives me hope. Dealing with this injury with my new horse right now. Right now the vet has us on 100% stall rest and I've been watching with baited breath for 2 weeks for some sign of improvement. Today, he started to show a *smidgen* more coordination of the bend of his stifle/hock/fetlock. Today he hiked up a back leg to threaten the horse in the next stall, and managed to bend his hock AND bend the fetlock some too. I was so excited, it wasn't even funny!

Really pleased you have found this thread. I have kept posting our little journey for the very reason that if someone like you found yourself in the same unfortunate position this would give you hope that with some good help, time, patience and TLC your horse has every chance of coming good Flynn had Physio once a week which the specialist vet recommended this helped even healing of the scar tissue, I was fortunate this was covered on my insurance. Just keep the faith, use the box rest time to really get to know your new horse (I'd only had Flynn 2 months when it happened to me) there's some marvellous people such as JB on here who have been very supportive especially when you have your wobbly moments. If there's anything you want to ask please feel free to good luck x

[baxtersmom]

Thanks for keeping this updated