Bo's Physical Therapy

I had a friend who took photos of my work with the horses yesterday.  She took some excellent shots, and here is an update on Bo and his PT.

Bo eagerly waits by the gate for his turn to come out and play.  He has a long history of poorly fitting saddles, and he's accustomed to them being painful, even when placed gently on his back.  Because of that, he used to look grumpy and angry all the time because he was painful, and he was trying to tell the humans around him that what they were doing to him hurt.  He pretty firmly associated saddles with pain, so he would toss his head and bite the air when he was being tacked up.  His current owner has been wonderful and done everything in her power to make him comfortable, including buying a saddle for him which fit 2 months ago.  Now that he's had quite a bit of rehab the shape of his back has changed dramatically and that lovely new saddle doesn't fit anymore.  So we'll have Jen from Happy Horse Tack Shop come out and find him something else from her vast collection that will work better.  In the meantime I need to work on tacking and equipment with him to help him learn that it no longer hurts when he is tacked up so that he can stop making faces and being angry and nervous when getting dressed to ride.  I began with my fairly benign bareback pad with a big western pad underneath, cinched loosely.  You can see in these photos that he is concerned about what moving will feel like while he wears this.  Indeed he started out with quite a stilted gait, anticipating pain if he were to move more naturally as he now does without tack.  However, after some coaxing on my part and reassuring him that it won't hurt (and if it does all he needs to do is tell me and I'll change it) he was willing to give it a try.  Once he realized that the bareback pad wouldn't hurt him, he began to really move.  Ears up, reaching with his hind legs well underneath himself, he even lifted his back and almost stepped into his front hoof prints with his hind feet.

Leg circles, taking his hoof in gentle circles, 8 times clockwise, 8 times counterclockwise

After we were done with the small amount of lungeline work I took him back to the hitch rail for his carrot stretches (left, right, and reaching down between his front legs).  I rubbed down his hamstrings with liniment and did his leg circles (to increase range of motion for abduction) and hamstring stretches on both hind legs.  He really enjoys his massage, he will actually sway and lean into my hands for just the right pressure.

Then gently easing his hoof forwards, and he will place his foot gently on the ground when he is able

 Bo is realizing that I will never hurt him, and nothing I do is written in stone.  If something doesn't agree with him or is uncomfortable, all he has to do is tell me and I'll change it.  The goal is to get him comfortable and pain-free, and we are very nearly there.  We have resolved most of his issues, his hamstrings and the pain-related behaviors are the only things left now.