Treatment and 1st Week of Therapy!

...continued from the first post below

Treatment

Therapy includes exercise! LOTS of it so that he is fit with those neck muscles. Neck horses tend to thrive in work, but he will mostly benefit from correct work. The vet suggested that he lunge in vienna reins (I use draw reins until I get vienna reins), and ride on light contact. I can't ask for too much collection right now, but all of this low level dressage that he knows will no doubt benefit him to build correct muscles and top line. To begin - ONLY walk and canter. Trot is too jarring on the neck. We increased his anti-inflammatory pill (previcox) for the first couple weeks to help him begin. Her exam also showed some ulcer sensitivities so I started him on Neigh Lox and he gets 5 Tums before work (or trailering) unless he just ate to get the Neigh Lox. Yummy yummy! He likes the fruity Tums!

First Week

The first week so far has seemed to be a success! We lunge in long draw reins that allow him to stretch forward/down/out at a nice forward walk and then canter. I rode him yesterday (Thursday) for the first time at a canter since June 2nd and he was wonderful! I am pretty sure I was grinning ear to ear. He leaped right into the canter from the walk while staying round and on my light contact. Before, like this entire last year, I was having trouble even getting him into the canter (stupid fast trot, ugh) and he would brace his head upwards in the transition. This time, he felt amazing. I have been riding him western because I wasn't sure how these walk-canter transitions would go and I still feel that my western seat in my comfy barrel saddle can still ride circles around my english seat! I will probably go more english as soon as we're doing more than just a couple rounds of canter.

I gave him an easier day today because apparently Shorty spent the better part of his morning chasing around the barn donkey that wonders the property. I hear he was pretty crazy, so we did our walking and couple rounds of canter (both directions) on the lunge and then we just walked under saddle today. 

I am anxious and excited about how he is going to respond to this. We try to skip trot but he always trots before coming down to walk. I can't help but notice his trot looks better and not as short. It surely is NOT lazy! I hope for it to only improve from here. I will definitely have the vet/chiro out again in 2-3 weeks. I hope he gets a good report!

This is from the second day of lunging (no riding yet)