Catching Up with Uno

We last left Uno's butt and bucking saga with the scheduled visit with our SuperVet (tm).  The Friday before last I loaded the kid up and set off.  SuperVet is about 2 hours north of us and we had the first appointment of the day.

So wet!! It poured the whole time.

Which of course cued up some EPIC thunderstorms with absolutely sheeting rain.  The was a section of road where I was tucked into a convoy of semi's going about 30 in a 75, and we all had our hazards on.  Lucky Uno is the best traveler in the world and did not even care.

Druggy pony stares at the flooding parking lot.

Once we got there and SuperVet had a chance to poke, prod, flex, and re-poke every inch of him, the diagnosis was an extremely irritated SI ligament attachment.  Basically because QH have such heavy and dense muscle their ligaments are thicker and stronger.  This increase in strength comes with a decrease of flexibility, and now that we are really asking him to change his natural shape into a more balanced way of going the addition stretch required behind was just too much too quick.

Pre-injection 

So we did several IM (not joint) injects around the SI ligament connects on both sides. I was instructed to keep up with the previcox for 2 - 3 days to just really kill any inflation and irritation.  We were then told to do 2 weeks of walk/ trot only.  We are also supposed to do lots of trot poles and hill work for the rest of his life.  The idea being that super strengthening the muscle will support the ligament and cause less irritation.  It is also a bad idea to give Uno total vacations.  My horses usually get 2 whole months off, one in the summer (usually August) and one month in winter (usually Jan/ Feb).  I can still give Uno breaks, but he should keep lunging and conditioning and just drop the arena rides. 

Sedation wears off quickly with this one.

In the week since we have taken on a pattern.  Day 1 lunge with side reins over raised trotting poles.  Day 2 hit the trails for 4+ miles of walking.  Day 3 lunge with side reins and trot poles again.  Day 4 Dressage ride.  Then Rest.  Day 1 lunge with side reins and poles.  Day 2 dressage ride. Rest.  Today he will get lunged again.

I am so lucky to have 5 miles right off the farm.

After his dressage rides he was a little tender right at that SI ligament again so I used my massager to work in some ligament and he was back to being completely non-reactive by dinner.  The plan is to take him out to CT in May and be ready to HT in June.  I am just glad to have my happy little buddy back and wanting to work again.

The evenings are SO pretty.