We are now just over 4 months into his recovery and its fair to say it's been a roller coaster of a journey so far - the 6 weeks full box rest went largely uneventfully and both Jack and I coped far better with it than I expected, his hydrotherapy rehab was very successful as was lunging/long reining. With everything appearing to go so well hitting problems under saddle was unexpected but unfortunately Jack found ridden work in the ménage difficult and it appeared very little had changed in this respect from before his surgery.
Following on from his physiotherapy just over a week ago which found him in pain behind the saddle the plan for the last week has been to work him long and low at a slow pace in straight lines to try to keep everything relaxed and stretch out the muscles which he was struggling with. Unfortunately the horrible weather rather spoilt the plans as Jack isn't the best in windy weather especially on his own so he ended up have a few days off until the weather settled back down as I didn't fancy having a argument unnecessarily. I have discovered on this journey rehabilitating a horse is definitely a marathon not a sprint and it will take as long as it takes so a few days off while frustrating is not the end of the world! We managed to get some company for our first venture out since the weekend and although Jack was a little fresh he behaved and we had a relaxed and enjoyable walk down the canal towpath and back through the village. The next day we were alone so I decided to keep things as simple as possible and take the same route we had done the night before, as we set out Jack was very relaxed and I thought we would have a nice ride although the wind had picked up a bit again. As we got to the bridle path down the canal I popped Jack into trot on the grass to see how he was feeling, he showed no resistance to going up a gear and as we trotted along I was thinking just how lovely he was feeling, he was forward and making a nice long and low shape, stretching over his back and pushing evenly behind when all of a sudden from nowhere he stopped dead and refused to move. If I pushed him on he reversed and several times tried to spin and go home. If I gave him a stronger kick he would rear. This went on for 15minutes and we were getting closer and closer to being back at the road! I was starting to think we might be there all night when as quickly as he stopped he started again and once he was going in the right direction it was like nothing had ever happened, he completed the rest of the 30 minute hack without putting a hoof out of line! Looking back I realise that at the weekend I only went halfway down the bridle path before turning round and going home (something that I've never done before but my mum was walking with me and struggling to keep up so we turned round instead of going the usual route.) I think this may have been why he hit the brakes this time as it was at the same point we had turned back the last time he had gone that way on his own. Anyway we got through it in the end and neither of us were hurt.
The next day was Saturday and I had hoped to take him back down the same route again to reinforce the fact he can't just stop and have a strop whenever he thinks it time to go home. Unfortunately the weather had picked up again and it was extremely windy all day, we didn't have a hacking buddy so in the end I decided it was not worth taking him out in those conditions as it just makes him jumpy and spooky, I don't feel the need to risk taking him out in conditions that are more likely to lead to us having problems. As I had use of a car with a towbar and I had been asked to move my trailer I thought it would be a good chance to do a bit of loading practice instead. Since the only time Jack has been in the trailer in the last 18months is to go to the vets he has become rather negative about it and although he doesn't do anything wrong he takes ages to decide he is going to load. So I hitched up the trailer pulled it out on to some flat ground opened both ramps and the jockey door to let in lots of light and got a bucket of food and the pressure halter out. It took Jack about 10 minutes of being planted at the bottom of the ramp before he loaded the first time, he had a few mouthfuls of food then I unloaded him and tried to load again, this time he went on in about half the time so again he had a bit of food and was unloaded again. The 3rd time he only planted for about a minute and after that he loaded about 10 times with no hesitation at all - hurrah! He even loaded without the lure of a bucket of food so good progress made :)
Sunday was a lovely day so I waiting until the cooler evening weather to ride, grateful there was no wind we tackled a hack on our own. I did the reverse route going through the village first and then back alone the canal path, I prefer this way as the return along the canal path is slightly uphill so gives a better workout, I also thought the spot we had trouble in would be on the way home so shouldn't be an issue, I was right he hacked beautifully all the way round and we have a lovely trot along the last part of the canal path.
Jack is still having bute but I have now cut this down to 1/2 a sachet a day and I continue to do his carrot stretches and pelvis stretches before each ride to help him be as relaxed and supple as possible.
Now our week of straight lines is done I can start to bring in some lunging and schooling to see if any improvement has been made.
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