Introducing Bolero

We had a new horse arrive this week, his name is Bo and he is a 10 year old Hanoverian gelding.  Prior to moving in with his current owner he had spent most of his life in a lesson program in ill fitting tack, and has the body soreness to show for it.  He came to Bit of Honey for a little rehabilitation, so get his overall pain under control and hopefully get him moving more comfortably.  Here are his intake photos.

As you can see there is some amount of sway-back, odd muscling through his haunches and neck, and uncomfortable posture.  He is a really really good sport and doesn't complain, just seems grumpy all the time.  Fortunately I know that "grumpy" usually means "I hurt", and making faces and acting somewhat threatening is the horse's only way to tell us that he's uncomfortable.

When Dr. Landes from Equine Medical Services came out this week to do Bo's initial assessment, he noticed many of the same things I saw.  Very body sore, hypersensitive and painful to touch, very limited flexibility in lateral flexion as well as difficulty lifting his back.  Because of the significant muscle soreness and odd hypertrophy Bo is showing some neurological deficits as well, he doesn't know exactly where his hind legs are in space, has a very stiff gait, and is uncoordinated when walking over poles.  His teeth have been over-floated with a power tool, which likely affects his neurological symptoms because the horse gains quite a bit of balance information from how their teeth meet.  Bo also has pain in his jaw joint where his jaw meets his skull.

Bo tested positive for ulcers, so we got a prescription for omeprazole prepared for him to get his guts working better and with less pain.  I'd been warned of incredible difficulty getting medications into Bo, that he despised having a syringe put into his mouth and fought valiantly to prevent drugs from entering his system orally.   However, when the medications arrived this week and I began dosing Bo, the only objection I got was for him to lift his head up and say politely, "Kim, I really would rather you not put that stuff in my mouth."  When I insisted, he tossed his head once or twice, then calmly lowered his face so that I could deposit the drugs on the back of his tongue via the large syringe.  Then I patted him and told him what a good fellow he was, removed the halter, and he followed me around the paddock like a quiet puppy.  So much for crazy difficult to medicate. 

After the initial exam and assessment we did some chiropractic adjustment, but it was extremely minimal because of Bo's pain levels.  Dr. Landes then did acupuncture, with interesting results. Because Bo was so sensitive around his jaw, the laser was indicated to address inflammation and pain because he wasn't going to tolerate a needle in that area yet. When we went to remove the needles it was curious to see how warped they had become as the inflamed muscles and connective tissue wound itself around the needles, some of them all the way up to the hub.  One needle in his lower back on his right side came out with a 90 degree angle bent into it.  Bo actually wouldn't let the vet remove the needle in the corresponding area on his left side, and we were preparing to sedate him so we could get it out.  However, Bo is a good sort, and he allowed me to remove it before we had to sedate him.  It looked like a corkscrew bent at sharp angles from the muscle fibers contracting and spasming around it.  Bless Bo's heart for letting me remove it.


We were somewhat apprehensive that all this might make Bo sore and even go off of his feed after the treatment.  However, he responded much better than was expected!  I've been hand walking him over poles while he wears proprioceptive dangles (cat collars with bells on them) on his pasterns.  The bells tell him where his feet are in space because he can hear them jingling, causing the swing phase of his stride to improve.  He is able to walk correctly over poles without hitting them when wearing his bells as well.

Bo has been doing some stretching to limber up and release different muscle groups.  I have him do a lateral stretch in each direction by holding a cookie near his flank on first one side, then the other.  He curls his head, neck, back, and hip around to reach the treat.  We repeat it on the other side, then I ask him to reach for a cookie I hold between his front legs.  The first couple days he really struggled with these tasks, but I'm amazed at the improvement we're already seeing.  Just today he stretched his head all the way beneath his barrel, with his forehead almost on the ground, heaving a giant grunt as he retrieved his cookie.

We did a recheck today with Dr. Landes, who was as pleased as I am that Bo is showing improvement already.  It's so satisfying to have a rehab horse respond in such a positive manner.  Highboy keeps after Bo, trying to get the lip wrestling going over the fence, but Bo is so far not participating.  Maybe he's too mature for that, or maybe he just realizes if he engages Highboy in such WWF horse wrestling it will never end.