It's great to have him home and be able to see him everyday, the novelty of not having to go and look after him soon wore off and I've missed him loads!
Having been on holiday last week I went up to see him on Saturday and was so thrilled with the difference in him in the 2weeks that I'd not seen him, he looked so well. He has built up more muscle and has been really relaxed and happy there meaning he has been able to get the most out of his time there. His wounds have healed well, they are barely noticeable now and he has a gleam in his eye and a lovely smooth coat. He also had his first physio session while I was away and she found he was generally sore everywhere but no specific problems, as expected he was worse down his left side. Tamsyn the physio explained the general soreness is common for horses having undergone surgery and that she found nothing she was concerned about.
Tim has been fantastic and kept me up to date with his progress at every step, even when I was away. On Friday I took a call from him to arrange my visit Saturday, he wanted to show me Jack working himself but was taking his daughter eventing so wouldn't be back until late afternoon. As it turned out that fitted in well with my plans too so I arranged to be there at 4pm. He advised me that he had a slight concern about Jacks near hind and Tamsyn their Physio was booked to see him again at 7am Sat morning before they left for the event. There was no lameness and he was using the leg fine but Tim had noticed that Jack was holding the leg slightly awkwardly when picking that foot out. Their attention to detail is spot on and Tamsyn found Jack has a tight hamstring and was also a little tight all down the left side of his spine. She was able to treat it there and then and he responded immediately. Tim phoned me at 8am Saturday morning to let me know how it had gone and that all was fine. He really is so good!
When I arrived on Saturday afternoon Jack was looking bright and happy in his stable perfectly groomed and munching on some haylage! I took his rug off and had a look at all his wounds, if you didn't know they were there you would never suspect the way they had looked a few weeks ago, they have all healed and the hair almost all grown back with no visible scarring :)
Left pic is his foreleg at 2 weeks and right is now at 12 weeks post op!
This is the hind leg again left pic is at 2 week and right is now at 12 weeks
This is his chest
His Elbow
And finally his back
I'm so, so pleased with how well all the wounds have healed and I dont think there will be any noticeable scaring once all the hair is fully grown back.
So having had a bit of a chat with Tim we headed into the treadmill to see him working again.
He is so chilled out about it, I'm still surprised how well he has taken to it but Tim is so calm and consistent with his approach and its certainly worn off on Jack! He did his usual 30 minute work out but the level the water is at and the speed has been increased so he has to work a lot harder and use his hind end more to keep up. Its exciting to see how much his is now using his back and certainly appears to be without pain.
Here he is working:
As you can see ear pricked and happy :)
So his work done he had the usual warm shower and solarium session before being tucked back in to bed while I had a cuppa and more of a chat with Tim about what will happen when Jack came home on the Monday.
On to Monday and I finished work early so I could head straight over to collect him. Tim helped me hitch and reverse the trailer (I hate reversing but Tim was so good at explaining what to do in a way I've never been taught before and he made it seem so much easier!). Jack had been on the treadmill in the morning and then had a bath so he was gleaming and smart :)
Tim went over what to do with Jack when we got home and the plan is to pessoa and long rein in side reins alternate days using some pole work too until I can get his saddle checked. Once his saddle is sorted I can begin ridden work with him ideally hacking with lots of straight lines in a long and low outline slowly building in some schooling but taking things nice and slowly making sure not to push Jack too hard to soon.
He will also be returning to Bennetts every 2 weeks for top up sessions on the treadmill as well as having sessions as needed with Tamsyn the physio.
With the plan sorted and first return session booked we loaded up, which as usual took Jack a while, but with Tim's patience and a bucket of carrots we got him on in about 10minutes and we were on our way home :)
The journey back was uneventful and we arrived home without any stress! Jack unloaded sensibly and I put him into his stable while I sorted the trailer.
I took a couple of pics to show the fab condition he has come home in:
.JPG)
Then it was out to the field to see his mates and get some grass for a couple of hours.
I returned later in the evening to pop his grazing muzzle on as I am determined to not let him get fat! He will be coming in during the day, working in the afternoon, out for a couple of hours grazing and then having his muzzle on for the night, hopefully that will stop his girth expanding too much!
And now the fun begins first session on the pessoa should be fun :)
No comments:
Post a Comment