12/4/17 X-rays

I had been looking forward to Wednesday afternoon since the vet visit on Monday morning hoping that x-rays would give us the answer to Jacks current issue.
I got up extra early Wednesday morning in order to get Jack in before starting work an hour early to enable me to finish in time for the vet visit at 3.15pm!  It was a bit of a rush but I made it!  As usual the vet wasn't on time so while I waited I set about mucking out, filling hay-nets and water buckets and then gave Jack a good brush. 
When the vet arrived we started by trotting Jack up again just to be sure there was no change from when he had seen him Monday, which there wasn't.  Next he asked if it would be ok to block out just the coffin joint and see if this made any difference before carrying out the x-rays.  I agreed and he set about blocking out the coffin joint, however Jack did NOT like this one bit and put up quite a fight breaking 3 needles and throwing me across the stable numerous times as I tried in vain to hold up the other leg in an attempt to assist and keep him still.  He was clearly not going to stand quietly and let the vet get a needle into the joint, even with a humane twitch, so we made the decision to abandon that idea and just do the x-rays.
Unfortunately by this point Jack was pretty agitated and would not even stand still for the x-rays so he had to be sedated to get them done.  Once he was safely in the land of nod we were able to get images of both front legs from the fetlock down and from front, side and back.  The vet took images of the good leg too for comparison.

X-ray image of the fetlock                                  Jack on the blocks

Once he had taken good images of all angles and both legs he had a thorough look at them and then showed me.  Sadly it was not the news I wanted to hear....there was absolutely nothing so see on any of them!!  All the bones and joints looked perfectly healthy, no chips, no fuzzy edges, no whitening, no dark areas just plain old healthy joints and bones.  Now I know this is good news in a way but I really, really, really wanted answers and sadly we didn't get any, not even a hint of what might be going on.  The vet was as dismayed as me and after discussing the options the only thing he could really advise me was to give Jack bute, rest him and see how he is in a weeks time.  This all sounds horribly similar to last time :0(
As Jack was still under sedation the vet wanted to try the coffin joint block again so he got another needle and once again tried to get the needle into the front of the joint.  Well that woke Jack up and having broken another needle and nearly flatten us both we decided to knock that idea on the head again.
He did say he would take the x-ray images back to the office and look through them with the head vet to see if he could identify anything he may have missed but having seen them myself they were so clear I can't imagine that he will find anything different.  Still you never know!

He still feels the issue is not soft tissue and checking the ligaments and tendons again said they all felt smooth and normal.

If in 2 weeks times there is no improvement he did say they could perform an ultra sound or maybe even an MRI to see if that reveals anything but he doesn't feel this is worth doing at the moment as the lameness and response to nerve blocks do not point to ligament or tendon damage.

Feeling very deflated I popped Jack back out and went home to have a good old sob to my other half.  My poor horse doesn't deserve this, he's been though enough and it's time his luck changed.

I have kindly been offered other horses to ride while Jack is out of action which is nice but it's not quite the same, I want my boy back, he was doing so well! 

I discussed my management of Jack with the vet to see if he thought there was anything I could have done differently but he assured me I'm doing everything right and I was just incredibly bad luck.

He still feels confident Jack can make a full recovery despite not being able to pin point the issue so I will put my faith in them and hope for the best over the coming 2 weeks.

Please everyone keep your fingers crossed for Jack!

Yet more bad luck for Jack 10/4/17

Argh!  I am gutted to have to write this update but poor Jack is lame again :0(
It all started 10 days ago, following a gallop the night before (which went without issue) Jack came in a little bit unsound in his off fore (opposite leg to last time!).  He wasn't really lame and whilst it was concerning I wasn't too worried initially, there was no heat or swelling and no sign of injury.  Not wanting to jump to conclusions I decided I'd just give him a few days rest to see if there was any improvement, it was a Friday anyway and he had worked hard for the last few weeks so he had the weekend off.  He comes in during the day and is out at night anyway to keep him off too much of the spring grass that's coming through and stop him getting too porky!  As he seemed no better on the Monday I contacted my farrier, who was due to shoe him later that week, to see if he could fit us in any earlier.  He came on the Wednesday afternoon and removed the shoe with me watching on carefully, hoping to see an abscess was bubbling under the surface!  No such luck and the hoof looked perfectly healthy, Dave my farrier had a good look and found nothing and no reaction to hoof testers, he felt it was a joint.  So with anything simple like a hoof abscess ruled out (it never seems to be simple when it comes to Jack!) and no improvement in the lameness I rang the vets.  They were coming to the yard the following Monday 10th April for routine vaccinations anyway so I added Jack onto that visit.  I then set about clipping out his hairy legs to see if there was anything the feather was hiding.  I did notice a little swelling just above the fetlock so in addition to putting his magnetic back pad and hock boots on during the day I started cold hosing the leg and then bandaging while he was in.  Having booked the vet he then seemed to come sound on the Thursday and I gave him a little lunge in walk and trot in the ménage and on the concrete and he looked fine!  I didn't want to cancel the vet visit yet as when he injured his palmer annular ligament last autumn he had days were he looked sound and other days being lame so I decided I would ride him on the Friday but still get the vet to check him over on the Monday, even if he seems sound.  When I tried him on the Friday he felt fine in walk but still not sound in trot.  I also noticed that he seemed much more comfortable when he had been out over night, he was walking in from the field sound but in the afternoons when he has been stood in all day he is markedly worse.  The first few steps he takes when he comes out the stable are quite startling with him barely weight bearing and looks like he might have an abscess but within 3/4 steps he is walking almost normally. 
With the vet coming at 9am Monday morning I was at the farm at 6am to bring Jack in so that he would have been stood in for a few hours before they arrived and I could show the vet the lameness at its worse.
The Vet that came was the original vet that came out to Jack 3 years ago, diagnosed him with Kissing Spines and did the post op visits following his surgery so he knew jacks history pretty well and was very interested in how well his back has healed and what rehab I had done with him.
We discussed Jacks current issues and his recent Palmer annular ligament injury then the vet had a good look at the affected leg and hoof.  He then asked me to walk him out the stable and Jack demonstrated his dramatic lameness for the first couple of strides before walking it off and walking almost normally again.  The vet then watched me walk and trot him up in a straight line on hard ground and on a tight circle.  After this he suggested nerve blocks to narrow down the area affected.  He started at the bottom blocking out only the hoof to start with, this made no improvement so he went on to block from the fetlock down and this resulted in Jack trotted up sound.  Armed with this information plus the swelling of the fetlock and reaction to palpitation the vet feels the problem is in either the fetlock, pastern or coffin joint but x-rays would be needed to confirm this and identify the exact issue.  X-rays are booked in for 2 days time.  He is confident it is not another soft tissue injury.
Whilst I was pretty gutted the vet was very encouraging, he said Jack's back and near fore have both healed so well and I have rehabbed him fully from both successfully there is no reason to think at the moment that I cannot do the same again.  He commented how strong his back is now.  I asked him about the near fore and if he felt there were any remaining issues in that leg or if it was suffering from being put under additional strain now so soon after already having its own injury.  He advised that leg is fine now and showing no ill effects, if there was any issue in the near fore it would have shown up when he nerve blocked the off fore and it didn't so we can be confident that is fully healed and back to full, normal function.
I am now looking forward to Wednesday afternoon when we will get x-rays images taken and should know more about what we are dealing with and be able to formulate a plan to get Jack better.
Keeping everything crossed it's something that we can come back from fairly quickly.

Waiting for the Vet 10.4.17

Our latest ups and downs 27/3/17

It's been an up and down few weeks recently, I absolutely love him and most of the time he's no problem however at times Jack is the most querky horse I have ever come across in 30 years of dealing with horses!  He does not like being told what to do and you have to find another way to convince him to do what you want with him thinking it was all his idea in the first place.  Over the years I've had him I've learnt this the hard way but mostly now a days I know how to make him tick and avoid direct opposition from him.  His usual trick is planting his feet and if you try to make him go he will kick out and if really forced will rear to avoid do the thing you want, these days if he plants his feet at something when I'm riding I will just quickly spin him in a tight circle so he has to move his feet then send him on again and job done.  It's been a long time since I had a really bad day with him so I suppose as all good thing must come to an end we were overdue a bit of a stinker!

We had booked to go XC schooling with 2 friends one Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago and in preparation I spent an hour Saturday afternoon practicing loading him on the trailer as he has been a bit difficult about it again the last few times.  We have this pattern where I do some loading practice and he is then fine loading for about 5/6 journeys, he then starts to get a bit silly again and not want to load.  He doesn't do anything naughty he just plants at the bottom of the ramp and will load only when he is ready, unless you try to force him at which point he will fight you to the ends of the earth!  Well on the Saturday he did as expected and got to the bottom of the ramp and stopped dead refusing to move despite the offer of a bucket of feed, apples, carrots and a haynet!  I put some apple and carrots on the ramp to entice him and he got as far as putting his front feet on then stopped again!  After 15mins or so he decided it was ok and on he went, there was no stress, no rearing and he had his tea on the trailer then unloaded and loaded again several times before being turned back out having had no negative experience at all.  I stupidly expected him to then load the next day but no, he planted again.  The difference this time was we were on a schedule and needed to get going so after a few minutes the other girls decided to get lunge lines and try to coax him in, I should have said no, I knew full well it wouldn't work but I let them try and this resulted in stubborn rearing, kicking and lunging, he was being totally evil so after a few minutes I just told them to go without us before someone got hurt.  I was gutted as I knew we would have both loved it and have no idea when we might be able to go again, but there was no point in continuing like that, we needed time and didn't have it.  If we had carried on we would all have missed out.  I was really annoyed with Jack but also really angry with myself for getting in that position, I know forcing him is never going to work and just winds him up!!  Feeling upset and angry I put him away for a few minutes and let us both calm down.  Once the others had got on their way I asked one of the other liveries to hook my trailer up onto their car and carried on trying to load on our own, it took me a while as Jack was now in complete stubborn mule mode but eventually I got him loaded, too late to go but he was on the trailer at least!  I loaded him over and over again until he was trotting in with me.  After that I jumped him at home and he was brilliant, bloody animal, he would have had so much fun cross country!   When he allows you to channel his energies into working with you instead of against you he is really quite super!  So despite the day being very disappointing we did finish on a good note.

Since then I've decided Jack has got to tow the line a bit more, no more letting him get away with doing what he wants how he wants, even just a little bit or to make life easier, he has got to do things as and when I say and how I say.  He is not a generous horse and give him a millimeter and he will take a mile so I am being more disciplined with him and on his case and if he doesn't do things how I have asked, either ridden or handling, then he is corrected straight away and made to do it how I wanted.  It seems to have had the desired affect as he has gone really nicely since doing some beautiful work and hacking much better without so much spookiness, he's also loaded fine since!

I set up a jumping exercise last week making a double but adding a fence each side of the 2nd part so you could either jump straight or turn left or right after the first fence to jump the 2nd part.  I also made the middle 2nd fence a skinny triple brush, at 90cm it was a decent fence.  He warmed up nicely then jumped through and over the skinny perfectly first time, no hesitation or attempt to duck out!  I was really pleased with him and managed to capture his efforts on camera too, watching the video back he looks really smart and confident with his ears pricked as he locks onto the fence.  I never imagined jumping him would be some much fun and how much easier it would get after his back surgery, he really is a different horse and seems to now really enjoy jumping.

His flat work has also come on again in recent weeks, he is working in a higher frame, staying more relaxed and supple and using his back end more and more.

We have recently moved back onto our summer grazing so have had to start bringing in during the day again to stop him getting too porky, I think this is helping too as it seems to give him more energy.  The new food I am feeding, Dengie Alfa-A lite and top spec lite balancer are suiting him and his weight has remained pretty much as it was coming out of Winter, he looks fit and healthy and his topline is looking stronger again now.

We have even managed to do a little bit of faster work this last week or so as the ground is drying out and he is fit and able. 

All in all despite him disgracing himself over loading we have had a pretty good few weeks with much more ups than downs.

Over the next few weeks we have dentist, physio and farrier booked in and are hoping to get to some of the local shows that we can hack to and do some online Dressage.

Thanks for reading :)
    

Jack's progress continues to impress! 20/2/17

These last couple of weeks have seen Jack going from strength to strength as he continues to improve and his fitness return to usual levels.  He is now almost in full work and going really well both on the flat and over fences.  I was really lucky this week to be able to hire a local venues large outdoor surface complete with a full set of show jumps.  A lovely friend of mine offered to take us up there in her trailer and take care of my little boy while I jumped Jack round. 
It has been 5 months since Jack last travelled and he was none to sure about getting on the trailer at first but after a bit of persuasion and he loaded up and travelled well.  He arrived looking happy and very chilled out.  I tacked him up and walked him round to the arena while Claire and Thomas went round putting the jumps to a suitable height.  He was on his best behaviour and warmed up nicely even with other horses being turned out and running about in adjacent fields.  I took my time warming him up thoroughly as we had the arena for a full hour and having not jumped a course in 5 months either I wanted to make sure he was well warmed up and ready.  We took things slowly and built up very gradually starting over a couple of very small cross poles and progressing to small uprights then a couple of spreads.  Once he had jumped everything we then jumped the full course before putting a couple of the jumps up a bit higher.  We finished on a great note with Jack clearing a decent 90cm upright with ease and giving me a great feel over a bit of a bigger fence.  He was such a super star and I was so so pleased with him.  We both gained a lot of confidence and I am really beginning to trust him to jump now which is a huge turn around from before his surgery, back then he refused everything and our confidence was so low, we had no trust in one another and I was convinced he just didn't like jumping!  It now seems to be the thing he likes most!

I have recently taken him off Dengie Healthy tummy as he was coming out of Winter looking rather to "well" and really needing to drop a bit of weight before the Spring grass comes through.   While the Healthy tummy is great for his ulcers it is a bit too conditioning for him really as it is designed for horses that drop weight due to ulcers which Jack doesn't.  I have been feeding it at lower than the recommended levels and adding a balancer to ensure he get all the vitamins and minerals he needs, a bit of speedybeet and Gastro-Kalm.  After a lot of research and discussions with nutritionists I have removed the healthy tummy completely from his diet and replaced this with Alfa A lite.  I am also considering changing the balancer to a low calorie one but I am going to hold off of that at the moment as I'm worried he wont have enough energy for his work.  The healthy tummy had a energy content of 11.5mj/kg whereas the Alfa A Lite is only 9mj/kg.  Its a balancing act trying to get the energy he needs without him gaining weight!  At the moment he is out 24/7 and worked 5-6 days a week.  The grass is not providing much energy and he is hungry whenever he comes in so I'm making the most of a bit of a break from all the mucking out and letting him have a few weeks just out in the field and only brought in to work.  Once the Spring grass starts to come through he will be back to being in a night to keep his weight down and might even have to be turned out in his grazing muzzle while the grass is good.

While we are working most days Jack is not quite fully fit yet, I am being careful not to put his ligament under too much strain still so we have not yet galloped plus the ground is just far too wet and deep on the bridle paths and in the fields to do any fast work.  I'm hoping over the next few weeks it will dry up a bit and we can do a bit more canter at least.

His jabs are due next week and I'm going to get the vet to check the ligament and give him a once over to make sure we are on the right track.  He feels fine and is working really well but it would be nice and give me peace of mind for him to have the all clear from a vet now he is back in work.  There is still a fair lump on the back of his ligament so I would like them to have another look at that too, while its not appearing to bother him I would rather know that all is well.

I've also got a lesson booked for the weekend with a lady who taught us at the camp we attended last year, we really enjoyed our jumping lesson with her and her teaching style really suited us.  We have not had any lessons since last summer so I'm keen to see if she sees any improvement in Jack.

Poor Jack has also been having a few rug issues lately!  I'm going to have to get the needle and thread out and do some repairs.  Annoyingly the rug on the right is brand new, I purchased it last year in the sales and tried it on for size then put it away for winter but have not needed to use it until recent weeks as he wasn't clipped until recently and its not been cold enough.  As you can see the neck cover is not doing a good job of covering his neck!  I have contacted the manufacturer but they will not do anything due to the time lapsed since I brought it so I will have to make some modifications myself to stop it falling forward.  They have promised to look into the design in future but that doesn't help me and poor Jack.

Jack's making fantastic progress 7/2/17

I am incredibly pleased with Jack's progress since his Palmer Annular Ligament injury last year, he has come back into work with a much more "can do" attitude and is really working with me.  I think the enforced break has mentally done him a lot of good.  Despite not being back to his previous level of fitness he is actually working much better than before.  I am continually amazed at how much better this horse gets, it's taken a long time to regain his trust and confidence but when I can channel his energy into working with me he can produce some fantastic work and we are managing to get this more and more.  Schooling this last couple of weeks has been incredible and Jack has produced some of his best ever work which has had me grinning from ear to ear.  I've also introduced a little bit of jumping for variety and so far this has gone really well, I started with a very basic grid with ground poles 1 stride either side of a cross pole which he did really well, lots of energy and found it very easy so I quickly popped the jump in the middle up to a small upright which again he flew with ease.  This week I put 4 cross poles up, a 2 strided double then another fence each side of one part of the double so having jumped the first fence I could either go straight on for 2 strides or turn left or right so Jack was kept guessing which way we would be jumping.  Again the session went really well and while I kept the jumps nice and small it was a really good session and with both enjoyed ourselves.
I put a lot more effort into planning our rides these days, I never get on without a plan and I record each ride so I don't end up with lots of repetition.  Yesterday my plan was to work on the trot - canter - trot transitions as I felt this was an area which needed a bit of work, especially the left trot to canter transition is not quite as sharp as I know we can get it.  Having warmed up I started with the easier right canter then worked on the left and soon had it much sharper and cleaner before returning to finish on the easier right transition again.  Having achieved what I wanted and because Jack was feeling so good I decided to have a little go at some medium trot to finish, this is something that has taken a lot of work in the past but as soon as I put him on the line and pushed him on he gave me the most wonder elevated lengthened strides, he was really covering the ground without rushing and felt fantastic, he also came back to me nicely without going heavy in my hand or dropping onto his forehand.  His trot in general has improved hugely in the last 2 weeks and has much more impulsion and elevation.  Dropping on his forehand has always been our biggest issue and Jack is very clever at going crooked and avoiding using his back end correctly which makes it impossible to get him to engage the hind quarters and lighten the forehand although he keeps a nice light contact in your hand.  He falls on the left shoulder a lot and tends to ignore my left leg.  We have had a real break through in recent weeks and I think this is down to the fact I have been focusing a lot on stretches and ground work before I mount.  In addition to the usual carrot stretches I do before every ride I have also been turning Jack both ways on a tight circle and backing him up a few strides, I have also been getting him to flex towards me and move his body away.  Now when I ride he is much more responsive at bending through his body when I put my leg on especially to the left, this has had the effect of lifting his left shoulder and freeing his whole body up enabling him to work correctly pushing more from behind, lightening his front end and being much straighter too.
This has been getting better and better in the last few weeks and the difference feels fantastic!
I am so pleased with him, I am even planning on entering some Dressage Anywhere tests during February if I can get someone to help me mark out the ménage and film me!
Jack should be fully fit in the next couple of weeks and with the nights drawing out we should be able to hack more often so things should continue to improve as he gets stronger WOOHOO!!!!! 
      

Feeling thankful 23/1/17

It's all to easy to focus on the negatives isn't it?  To think about all the bad luck you have had and feel very sorry for yourself.  With social media you see all your friends and people you follow having success with their horses and doing things you want to do, it's easy to feel jealous or that life just isn't fair!  I'm as guilty as anyone of feeling sorry for myself when things have not been going well with Jack but you know what it's time to stop because I am blessed.  I have a lovely little horse who might come with a bit of baggage and have his issues but he is a lovely character,  he isn't the most talented but he tries his hardest for me, we have reached an understanding, I know how to get the best out of him and while he isn't going to win any gold medals he's mine and I love him!  People have told me I should get rid of Jack before he has any more health issues, that they wouldn't bother with him anymore and cut their losses before anything else goes wrong, but the thought has never crossed my mind.  For several reasons I don't think it would be the right thing to do for him or me.  I actually think his health issues are a reason to keep him, I understand what is needed to keep him happy and am prepared to manage these conditions.  I know what is normal for him and know when something is wrong.  I would never be able to trust that someone else would do the best by him no matter what and can't bare the though of him being passed from home to home as a problem horse.  He is mine, he is my responsibility and I will do right by him because he deserves it, he didn't ask to have kissing spines, arthritis, ulcers or strain his ligament.  Yes it's bad luck but that's all it is.  I have stopped beating myself up about him having all these issues, they are not my fault, there is nothing I could have done differently to prevent them but I have done my very best to treat them and manage them to make him as happy and comfortable as possible.
It's taken a little while but he is looking better and better as his work increases and his weight drops!
Although obviously I would rather my horse had not had all these problems is has meant I have learnt so much about the process of rehabilitation, injury management, different types of therapy, nutrition, diet, supplements and more.  I have also made lots of friends through support groups and blogging about our experiences so there are always positives to be found in any situation!

On to this week and we are progressing well, we have been able to have our first canter after 2 weeks of building up the amount of trot work.  I took him out for a nice hack last the weekend and at the end of the bridle path is an open bit of grassed land which you can have a canter on so I picked up trot and as he felt keen allowed him to pop up into canter.  It felt fantastic, a real step forward!  He was a little too keen and I had to keep him from going too fast too soon but it was great to have him feeling so well and wanting to take me.  We also got a lovely hack in with a friend with lost of lovely forward trot work and a play up and down some slopes to get him moving and using his back end!
It's always hard to hack out Monday to Thursday in Winter as I don't get finished at work in time to get out in the day light but this week I was able to get round the block for 20mins which is real progress and wont be long till the light is good enough to hack after work, while I still went in the school after our little hack as well to make sure he got enough exercise it was nice as a change.  I had a fab schooling session this week and a lunge over poles too, I even got to pop a little jump this week! Exciting!  More hacking was done this weekend with some really pleasing trot work especially.  We are building up with a few little canters thrown in where we can and I'm particularly pleased with Jack's attitude which is keen and enthusiastic in his work, something that has been lacking a bit in the past but had improved considerably before his ligament injury.  It's pleasing that this has not been affected by the injury and time off and that he has not reverted to being lazy!
I've given in and clipped him again too, while we were doing walk and trot work it wasn't needed but now we are increasing the work load and cantering Jack is sweating up a bit and it will only get worse so it had to be done.  I did think I might get away with not clipping as I really don't like it but I either needed to hold off on increasing his workload or clip!
I've gone for a version of combination of a trace and blanket clip, it keeps his back and quarters warm but all the main sweaty areas are now nicely clipped and non sweaty.  I don't like taking the hair off his back and quarters as I don't want them to get cold and stiff and him not work so well.

 

I also managed to get this lovely snap of the horses just after I had turned out yesterday morning, it was a beautiful crisp, frosty morning with the sun just coming up, something caught the horses eye and they were all stood fixated on something in the distance!

 

A positive start to the New year 1/1/17

Happy New Year!!

It's been a while since my last blog, I got rather bogged down with Christmas preparations, computer issues and work!
I also didn't have a whole lot to write about as Jack continued to be intermittently lame from mid
Oct.  We had a frustrating few weeks and 2 vet visits had failed to identify the problem therefore it was impossible to formulate an effective plan to get him better.  After rest and pain relief failed to have any effect I eventually managed to get the senior vet out to him on 7th December.  I have not seen Matthew in a few years so I filled him in on what we have been doing, Jack's kissing spine surgery, rehab and recovery etc and went over the latest issues we have been having.  He was so down to earth and easy to deal with and having looked at Jack trotting up and inspecting the lame leg he quickly identified a swelling just above the fetlock.  When he clipped the leg I was horrified at the size of the swelling at the back of his tendons and felt awful, worried and extremely silly to have missed it although he assured me it probably had not been that bad before as one of his vets had also missed it twice! 
I didn't feel so bad after that, we also think that as Jack had been messing about in the field the day before and galloping around he probably made it much worse so it was easy for Matthew to find. 

Next Matthew performed a scan on the Palmer Annular ligament which runs down the back of the leg and found damage. It was a huge relief to finally have a diagnosis and be able to effectively treat him rather than guessing and hoping!  Matthew assured me that of all the things he could have done this was the least serious, easiest to treat and highest chance of a full recovery.  He gave Jack a sedative then a steroid injection into the damaged area of ligament and was hopeful this would provide the pain relief and anti inflammatory response needed to start healing.  Jack was to have a couple of weeks off and then Matthew would return to assess how well he was doing and if work could begin.  Ideally we would have box rested him for at least the first week but knowing how badly Jack copes with it we agreed that he could have some turn out each day to keep him from going nuts when he went out and doing himself any more damage!  We had to be careful as Jack is carrying a few extra pounds due to not being in work for so long and the steroids could cause a laminitis risk so turn out was kept to a minimum, enough to keep him sane but not enough to cause any additional problems!  The 2 weeks passed and Jack seemed sound and the swelling reduced so Matthew returned to reassess the injury and I was confident of good news.  After seeing him trotted up and performing flexion tests Matthew was happy with his response to the injection and agreed the best thing now was for Jack to get back into work. 

Since this all began he has become quite stiff behind and is not using his back end as well as we would like but we are hoping this is just because of the lack of work recently and that getting him back to fill fitness will see this ease off without needing further intervention.  For now Jack is having a bute a day in the mornings to make him comfortable and able to work properly and is then being worked in the afternoon.  We started with 10 days of walking beginning at just 15mins and building up by 5 mins a day to an hour then introducing a small amount of trot.  We had our first trot on New Years day and he felt brilliant, what a great start to the new year :)
We will continue to build him up slowly and carefully over the coming weeks and hopefully have him back to full fitness and normal work in another 8-10 weeks.  Just doing walk work has been pretty tedious and cold so I'm glad we can now start to introduce some trot too to break up the monotony and get some blood moving to warm me up a bit.  I also find it quite hard work to get Jack working well in just walk, especially in the ménage.  When he is in full work I usually give him a good walk, trot and canter on a long rein to get him moving before asking him to pick up the bridle and work into the contact so not being able to do this has meant having to use a lot of leg!  I'm starting to introduce ground poles too now which does help get his back end moving a bit.  I cant wait to have the lighter evenings so I can get out the ménage more as he works much better out in the open.