Cliffy enjoying a summertime splish splash!

Today was day two of his lil rehab program. I'm mostly playing it by ear right now, letting walk over cavaletti. Yesterday they were on the ground, today I had them about a foot high so he really had to lift his feet and stretch over his back. I'm keeping the sessions at 10-15 minutes for the first two weeks, and next week I'm planning on introducing the equiband to help him really engage his core and lift his back.

Week two! Introduced the equiband system to Cliff. He wasn't super impressed at first, kicked out a few times, but then realized it wasn't going to bite him and settled down. We kept it short, just ten minutes wandering around getting used to it, but I noticed it helped him lift his back a lot, which is awesome. Tomorrow I'll put him on the lunge and make him actually powerwalk, five minutes in each direction, and have him at 15 minutes in it by the end of the week. Then next week, maybe start trotting! He's been really good so far.

Cliff was sore today from the equiband so I just put him in the roundpen with nothing on to let him loosen up. It was pretty interesting to watch him move out, knowing what I know now about his back, and watching how easy it was for him to go long and low and realizing that he should be able to work even longer shortly. His trot has already improved though. He's tracking up much easier now and there's a "swing" in his hind end that wasn't there before. Plus, he's not attacking the crossties when I brush him anymore, so I'm taking this as evidence that the injections are really working 🤞

Photo one, of him tracking right, you can see that though his neck is down and his back is lifted, his stride is pretty short.

Photo two, of him going left, his stride is slightly more open. I'm hoping in the coming weeks to be able to encourage an even truer stretch and get his forelegs out past his face and his hocks really engaged. Right now he's "correct" but not as open as I'd really want.

Shoved Clifford into the pessoa system today because he seemed sore after the equiband and he's never had that issue with the pessoa previously, though I was reluctant to try it because I don't really love the idea of connecting his mouth to his hind end. But it did the trick- his back was lifted and it held him straight. There was a fly bugging (ha) him the whole time so he wasn't super happy, but I don't think the pessoa upset him too much. We kept it light, six minutes each direction, and tomorrow I'll do the same and hopefully be up to 15 minutes by the end of the week!

I'm an inconsistent piece of trash so Cliff did polework today instead. Lots of hind end engagement there 😂

No kissing spine updates, just a chaos sequence because there was An Duck in the paddock

Cliffy has started bucking in the pessoa system, which is a very new behavior, so I roundpenned him today to let him stretch on his own terms. He's tracking up behind at the walk, but not so much at the trot, so I'm not sure if he's sore or what. He's getting robaxin for a few days and then we'll try again next week, since I'm away from the barn until Sunday. 🤷‍♀️

The duck paddock sequence is hilarious lol

I've never heard of this. What is supposed to be the function/goal using this?

It's a resistance band system! There's supposed to be a second strap that goes under the belly to encourage the abs to lift too, but I'm taking it slow.

Editing because I realized that wasn't a super explainy explanation (can you tell I'm sleep deprived?): so the horse can't really lift it's back without core and hind end engagement. All three of these things sorta work together. So the resistance bands (are actually supposed to be lower than they are in the photo, this was after he kicked out and they slipped up) encourage him to swing that hind end further beneath him, which will then in turn allow him to "lift" and stretch out his back. It's also good for strengthening as it's harder to do it in the bands, so he'll build that msucle and then have an easier time being correct out of them. It's like people at the gyms pulling on bungees to build muscle in their arms and legs.