Bo's Rehabilitation Continues

Bo has been making great progress considering he's only been here a little over a week.  He is much less body sore and is actually overstriding a bit in the walk when he's wearing his bells on his hind pasterns.  He also can step underneath himself with his right hind when turning in a small circle to the right, and the left hind is improving in that maneuver.  His carrot stretches are a little better each time, and he can reach between his front legs a little deeper with each day's repetition.  His demeanor is also changing.  He's gotten less grumpy about treats and eating (signs that his ulcers aren't bothering him as much), and is happy to come over to the fence to see anyone who stops by.  Naturally Highboy is jealous, and this morning when I poked my head out the door in my pajamas to peek at the herd I found Highboy had jumped the dividing fence between him and Bo and was terrorizing the neighborhood.  I put on some boots really quickly to complete my pajama ensemble, then I made Highboy go play in the arena for a bit while I ate breakfast and prepared for my day.  Bo was grateful, and it looked like Highboy hadn't been after him for too long.  Mostly Bo and I spend time walking in hand in the arena over various configurations of poles while he wears his bells, and here is an example diagram for the poles.

I like to take a week of each technique before I change it on him so that he has a change to build up strength and coordination with a particular activity before something new is added.  The "new" can be any number of PT tricks I keep in my theoretical toolbox, from therabands to kinesiotaping to changing the poles patterns/heights, etc.  After Dr. Landes has a change to reevaluate Bo on Friday I'll perhaps change his program a bit to incorporate some new stimuli.  I have to be very careful with the PT and rehab techniques because they can be too much for a horse and do more harm than good if improperly applied.  However they can be quite beneficial when used judiciously and with great attention to the details of a horse's responses.