On the Monday and Tuesday I lunged him again doing ground poles on the Monday and raised poles on the Tuesday and felt pretty confident Tamsyn would find an improvement from her last visit.
Wednesday morning Tamsyn arrived and we started by having a chat about how he was getting on, I told her about his little incident on the yard where he was spooked by something and had become trapped by his headcollar and panicked so I felt sure he would be sore in his neck/poll area. I also told her about him being slightly shorter with the near hind over poles. I showed her him picking that foot out to demonstrate how much better he was with that than the last time. We then took him out and walked and trotted him in straight lines, turned him on tight circles and backed him up all of which he did fine we did both notice that he was not crossing his off hind under himself as well on a circle as he was his near hind which was slightly odd as I expected it to be his near hind he'd struggle with.
Next Tamsyn gave him a check over and found that he was indeed tight and sore in his poll area, then she checked down is spine and he was fine. He was also not reacting in the SI area like he had the last time - she had barely been able to touch him last time without him trying to get away, kick or rear!
It was such a huge difference to his previous treatment, this time he just stood trying to groom anything within reach and then fell asleep :)
Tamsyn was really pleased with his progress and commented on how much muscle he has developed in his SI area since her last visit.
I am to continue doing all the stretches I am currently doing with him and she is booked for another visit in 6 weeks.
Following the treatment he had s couple of days off for everything to settle back down before doing 2 days of lunging then I could ride him again :)
So Thursday he got to chill in the field before having a gentle lunge in the pessoa on Friday and Saturday. He seemed a little stiff to start with but once loosened off worked well.
Then Sunday I got back on board for the first time in weeks!
I was on my own so I thought it would be best to stick to the school for the first ride in a few weeks just in case! When I got on Jack there was no reaction so I started by warming up in walk with some walk-halt-walk transitions and then some leg yields down the long side.
After about 20 minutes in walk I tried asking for trot but all that happened was some head throwing! With a bit of encouragement he did get going and for a few horrible moments he felt unlevel behind and very reluctant to go but once we got moving he did loosen off. After a few more transitions the trot really improved and I was able to pick the contact up and get him working. I felt a little disappointed that his ridden work still doesn't seem to be improving much despite him appearing to be much more comfortable. I am hoping it is all just memory pain affecting his confidence and not more issues somewhere else! I suppose only time will tell. I have also change his food and put him onto Top Spec lite balancer and ordered some spirulina to help build his top line.
I will continue to mostly hack and lunge this week and maybe school once a week just to measure if there is any improvement.
Finally I received a picture of Jack as a 3year old from his previous owner today - how much has he changed!
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