Today was miserable! I desperately needed to sleep in and I don't think it would have mattered had I gotten up at 5 am. The humidity is so bad today. This morning was like being in a fish bowl! And then it just got hotter and not much less humid. So... we didn't ride today. At all. I didn't do much today. Well, I loaded and unloaded 23 bales of hay and washed the horse trailer and two blankets. But I did do some work with Dan. Because... priorities. The girls got the day off.
I took Dan up to the arena and we did some more lunging. I put the bell boot on his right front this time. And I put the reins in the top ring which I liked better. He's so smart! He did awesome and I was better at it too, so we actually had a decent connection too. (To the sidepull, but still). He was mostly in pillar 1 or at least not bracing during our session today. And I didn't have to crank on his neck today. Maybe once... I even got him to go "out" in the circle and square himself up and bend around an imaginary inside leg and use his outside shoulder effectively. I didn't have any poles out so we just lunged. He looked better in the beginning and got fatigued which showed the lameness more obviously. And it's definitely worse tracking right. But... maybe a bit better in the beginning. I did ask for a short canter... like not even a full circle each way. The left side was decent but he fell out of it pretty quickly. The right side was still a struggle and he had to fight to stay in it and couldn't hold it for long at all. But good try buddy! Good try!
So then I did some electro and he was very reactive! I don't know if it's because the K tape was still there or the flies were out... or what. But we managed to get two needles in with electricity and a almost the whole 15 minutes. I also tried to get him to turn his head right and left and do the "nerve glide" while we did it but that only happened a little bit. Then I rinsed him off and at that point just pulled the K tape off as it was peeling off anyways.
As far as I can tell so far.. it does still appear to be atrophy of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus. It's impressive how long Dan's scapula is! And he is still striding short and not coming past the point of his chest/forward in any gait. (Except for when he paws at the lake.. then the reach is impressive, so... is he recruiting other muscles when he's standing still? Is it a weight bearing thing vs non-weight bearing... or is it a legit true lameness in the foot or something, ie a weight bearing lameness?) But from what I can tell, that fits with the short stride... and so far.. the best treatment is pillar work and electro and pneumo and all the things I'm doing... chinese herbs, PT, and acupuncture. The only one I'm not sure about is shockwave. Should I actually shockwave the atrophied muscles? Should I shockwave the point of the shoulder to help calm (or maybe anger) the supraspinatus nerve? Or should I stick to shockwaving the lower cervicals and surgical site which is in theory, where he injured the nerve (or more likely a branch of the supraspinatus)? I don't know the answer to this. I did ask Dr. Kate... and I guess if I don't hear back by Friday, I'll just do it and see what happens. Well... actually, I won't see what happens because I'm leaving Friday afternoon, but... I guess I can do it and... hopefully have Allison tell me what happens?!
Good pony though!
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