I arrived in the afternoon and he had just come in from his turnout and was a bit muddy so I gave him a groom and lots of cuddles and a few mints. Seeing him with his rug off I was impressed with the continued improvement to his muscle development, his hind quarters are rounder and firmer, there is less of a dip behind his wither and he neck is looking thicker and stronger. This is all after just 12 daily sessions on the aqua treadmill. Tim came to talk over what they have been up to with him and how he has been getting on, there have been no issues and the area he had some heat in his foreleg has now gone. Tim felt he would now benefit from a physio session as he is working harder on the treadmill, so he will be having that in the next day or 2. I had always found Jack a bit more difficult to the left and Tim too had noticed he was stiffer to the left so the hope is a physio session will be able to loosen that up and allow him to work more evenly on each rein. I was happy to use their regular physio as I was quite unhappy that my usual physio and EBW had both missed jacks back pain and had lost all confidence in them so i was wanting to use a different physio anyway although if I had wanted to use someone else I could have. It turns out their physio covers my area too so we can continue to use her when Jack returns home which I think the consistency will be better for his treatment.
After our chat we then took him out of his box and down to the treadmill where he walk straight in and began warming up, after a 4 min warm up the water was added to fetlock level and then increased gradually throughout the half hour session. Once it reached knee level I could really tell how hard Jack was having to work, he started to struggle and drop back but with a bit of encouragement from Tim he was soon marching through and really working from behind and over his back after a few minutes of this harder work Tim let some water out to make it easier for him. He said every day Jack is able to do a bit longer and they will continue to build it up everyday.
It is clearly having the right effect as Jack is putting muscle on in all the right places.
Having cooled down he was taken for a wash down in the wash box with a hot horse shower and dried under the solarium while we had a talk over a cuppa before putting him some hoof balm on and putting him away in his lovely clean stable with a fresh net of haylage. He then had the pulse/magnetic therapy rug on for a bit to help his muscles recover from his workout. He seems to enjoy it and stands snoozing while it works on relaxing his muscles. I did have a look at buying something similar for when he comes home but the cost is rather out of my price range at the moment! I've had to pay out rather a lot to his vet bills as the cost went above my claim limit and also had to pay up front for his stay at Bennett's, although at some point I will get most of it back from my insurance company. Perhaps when the insurance co pay up I shall look at this again.
A little surprisingly they have had to up jacks feed a bit as with the harder work he had dropped a little weight. At home he is usually out 24/7 so lives pretty much off the grass and being a good doer all I give him is a bit of hifi lite and speedibeet when he is worked. I usually struggle to keep his weight down because we are very lucky to have very good grazing. In the summer I have to muzzle him and bring him in during the day but as he was on 6weeks of box rest and he is only going out for a couple of hours a day at bennetts and working hard on the treadmill he is actually losing weight for the first time!
Next weekend I will not be visiting him as I'm off up to my parents in Scotland for a weeks break, I thought I would make the most of him being so well cared for to have a little holiday and see my family who I don't get to see very often with them so far away. He is in great hands and being very pampered although having to work hard too!
I'm really looking forward to getting him home when I return and cracking on with the next stage of his rehab - ridden work!!!! Eek!!!! He will need his saddle checking before that can begin so it maybe he has to do a few days of lunging in the pessoa first before that happens.
This was jack after 6weeks box rest and 2weeks paddock rest
This is now
It's not that easy to see the improvemt as my photography skills leave a bit to be desired but I think you get the idea! He back end is rounder, less dip behind the wither and more top line neck muscle to be seen. I'm thrilled!
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